Black American harms are uniquely total and systemic, warranting collective remedy

Evidence

While other groups have been compensated for similar harms, no other group has experienced all the harms that black people have. This is the story of the persecution and oppression of an entire race of people. No one was allowed to escape from their blackness. It is also a story of how discrimination against black people became systemic, targeted all black Americans, and became entrenched in how we build wealth in this country. The quest for the American Dream therefore has never taken place on a level playing field, but rather on one where the dream of financial and economic security was elusive for most black Americans. This is a collective problem that requires a collective solution to dismantle those unjust systems. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 468

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the key distinguishing premise — precedent exists for compensating other groups, but the totality of harm to black Americans is unique — crucial to Brown’s ‘accounting, not charity’ framing.