Reparations can win conservative support when framed as general-interest, not special-interest legislation

Evidence

In his opinion, it had to be framed as “something conservative Republicans could buy into as consistent with their values and principles.” Thus, Ujifusa argued, “the thing not to do was to define our bill as a piece of traditional civil rights, ethnic, special-interest legislation. Instead, we defined it as a piece of general-interest legislation consistent with the most conservative, even original-intent reading of the Constitution.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 222

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: a case study in reframing reparations from ethnic grievance to conservative constitutional principle — the ‘leave us alone’ framing as a bridge to right-of-center voters.
• XREF: Connects to the gift/rights framing debates in the reader’s reparations work and to Willie Brown’s strategy in Parable-era California politics.