Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation

by Marcus Anthony Hunter

A timely groundbreaking book in the vein of Derrick Bell's  Faces at the Bottom of the Well , one of the country's foremost voices on reparations, offers a radical and vital new framework going beyond the current debate over this controversial issue. For over a century, the idea of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Black Americans has divided the United States. However, while the iconic phrase "40 acres and a mule" encapsulates the general notion of reparations, history has proven that the damages of enslavement on the African American community far exceed what a plot of land or a check could repair.   While reparations are being widely debated once again, current petitions to redress the lasting and collateral consequences of slavery have not moved past economic solutions, even though we know that monetary redress alone is not enough. Not only would many wounds be left unhealed, but relying solely on economics would continue a legacy of neglect for African Americans. In this thoughtful and sure-to-be controversial book, Marcus Anthony Hunter argues that a radical shift in our outlook is necessary; we need more comprehensive solutions such as those currently sought by today's educators, historians, activists, organizers, Afrofuturists, and socially conscious citizens.  In  Radical Reparations , this conversation shifter, social justice pioneer, change agent, and inventor of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, which redefined the global conversation on racism and social justice, offers a unifying and unconventional framework for achieving holistic and comprehensive healing of African American communities. Hunter reimagines reparations through a profound new lens as he defines seven types of political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, social, and spiritual, using analysis of historical documents, comparative international cases, and speculative parables.  Profound and revolutionary, trenchant and timely,  Radical Reparations  provides a compellingly and provocatively reframing of reparations' past, present, and future, offering a unifying way forward for us all.   

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Race

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2024

Reviews

[Karna Bosman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Radical Reparations, Marcus Anthony Hunter discusses reparations in seven areas: political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, social, and spiritual. Among other things, reparations must involve ensuring representation, seeking restorative justice, repairing the social fabric, reclaiming cultural heritage, and expanding opportunities. Hunter emphasizes that we cannot reduce the idea of reparations to a simple monetary calculation.

I was drawn to this book because of a respect for Dr. Hunter's work. Formerly a high school English teacher, Hunter realized his knowledge gap about the Black experience and began pursuing his self-education. He has a wealth of knowledge from which we can benefit. The book has a beautiful cover and a compelling narrative, but it differs from what I expected. I found it to be disjointed. It includes several lengthy parables that are hard to tie into the discussion. It would have been more helpful to deal with specific reasons for reparations directly.

Despite my disappointment with this book, it is worth your time, even if you choose to skim through the middle part and concentrate on the last chapter. I greatly respect Dr. Hunter's work and look forward to following his future projects.

Thank you, Amistad and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m rating it 5 stars as a parable for reparations. This book is bold, written by an academic, it is primarily three parables. The vision for what this book should be is bright and beautiful.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

One star off only because I needed to watch an interview after to fulllly understand the parables bc I don’t have a PH.D in this stuff :) But wow, I loved Jubilee and the twist at the end, then the new Jerusalem hits home bc of current times and then lastly the saga of Cape Town - beautifully written, compelling and really reminds me of the intersectionality issue of reparations.

[Karna Bosman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Radical Reparations, Marcus Anthony Hunter discusses reparations in seven areas: political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, social, and spiritual. Among other things, reparations must involve ensuring representation, seeking restorative justice, repairing the social fabric, reclaiming cultural heritage, and expanding opportunities. Hunter emphasizes that we cannot reduce the idea of reparations to a simple monetary calculation.

I was drawn to this book because of a respect for Dr. Hunter's work. Formerly a high school English teacher, Hunter realized his knowledge gap about the Black experience and began pursuing his self-education. He has a wealth of knowledge from which we can benefit. The book has a beautiful cover and a compelling narrative, but it differs from what I expected. I found it to be disjointed. It includes several lengthy parables that are hard to tie into the discussion. It would have been more helpful to deal with specific reasons for reparations directly.

Despite my disappointment with this book, it is worth your time, even if you choose to skim through the middle part and concentrate on the last chapter. I greatly respect Dr. Hunter's work and look forward to following his future projects.

Thank you, Amistad and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. #RadicalReparations #NetGalley

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The question of reparations for slavery has been a hot-button issue for years, with increasing calls for reparations in the past few years. But what ARE reparations? And what would true reparations look like? Hunter explores this topic in his new book, and he shows that because slavery was a global enterprise, it created an enormous loss of humanity and still affects the human condition today in multiple ways. Therefore, he explains, different kinds of reparations -- to repair the wounds created by the legacy of slavery -- are necessary: political, intellectual, legal, economic, social, spatial, and spiritual. Reparations aren't simply about money, they demand restorative justice, repair to the social contract, representation, the recovery of traditions, and the broadening of opportunity, as well as much more. As Hunter states, you cannot put a price on a human soul, and so seeing reparations simply as giving money will not change the systemic racism that undergirds our institutions still today.

The book, though, feels like two books within one. While the first chapter explains reparations, the next three are lengthy "parables" that features three particular stories of Black people and communities that offer examples of how reparations might look and of what still stands in the way of those reparations being lasting and meaningful. After that, the author returns to the discussion of reparations and expresses hope for the future, but it doesn't fully blend the three parables back into the discussion, which made the book feel a little disjointed. Still, it's a good introduction to the topic of reparations for those who genuinely want to understand what can be done. 3 stars.

Thank you, Amistad and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

[jo]

this book starts off really promisingly: marcus anthony hunter begins with the story of a boy who is stolen from africa as a part of the transatlantic slave trade. hunter shares this story to demonstrate how slavery stole not only the large freedoms of enslaved peoples, but also the small freedoms, such as the freedom to smile. hunter uses this as a launch pad to lay out a vision of radical reparations based on his framework of P.I.L.E.S: political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, spiritual, and social reparations.

unfortunately, i feel like the rest of the book fails to live up to the promise of the first chapter. the next three chapters are lengthy parables meant to highlight the potential and pitfalls of reparations that are not radical. i found the characters to be underdeveloped, the dialogue to be contrived, and the points to be heavy-handed. there were multiple points in which the characters would be giving a speech where their dialogue made up multiple paragraphs across several pages, essentially just serving as mouthpieces for hunter's ideas. i'm not really sure why the choice to rely so heavily and almost solely on these parables was made. i get what hunter was trying to accomplish, but i don't feel that it was completely successful. i think that if these three chapters had followed the structure of the first (a short and illustrative parable, followed by hunter's own reflections and expansion) would have made for a more compelling argument. i walked away from the first and the third parable with an understanding of what hunter was trying to say about reparations, but i'm going to be honest and say that i didn't get the second parable, and i don't really care to think harder about it at this point. and that's the issue with using fiction in this case: you run the risk of it being so heavyhanded as to be obvious and trite, or you run the risk of losing your readers completely.

the last chapter returns to hunter's own voice as he shares more about his own life and his journey towards working on reparations. i thought this chapter was really cool, and i wish there was more to it. he explores the legacy of buddy borden and w.e.b. dubois, and i think that using real case studies like he does here to share more about how each form of reparations in his radical framework could have been really effective.

basically, i'm here for the idea and the framework, but i feel let down by the execution.

[Becky Linderholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

It not at all what I expected and at first I wasn't sure, but I got sucked in and really liked it. I think I need to read it again and process it with others in a book club!

[Clarreese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the concept of using parables to paint pictures of reparations being more than an economic pursuit. The author’s writing style was especially rich to me! Def took my time with this.

[Dr. Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A creative experience that helped me rethink this important topic.