Reparations offer white Americans relief from maintaining delusion and denial

Evidence

What can white Americans and other allies get from supporting the fight for reparations for black Americans? They can get a clear conscience. Choosing to support a commission that will lead to meaningful reparations means no longer having to engage in willful ignorance of our history or self-delusion and denial about the unearned benefits that white Americans have received. It means no longer expending energy victim blaming, which takes a lot of psychological energy to sustain. It means white Americans and other allies will have earned absolution by working to destroy a system that unfairly benefited them and that devastated the black community and hindered their economic achievement and ultimate advancement. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 583

Categorization

• SHARE: The psychological-angle point—that sustaining willful ignorance and victim-blaming is itself exhausting—is worth sharing with someone interested in the psychological costs of racism.