A second North Carolina county has just passed a new resolution to provide reparations for black residents.
Yesterday, Buncombe County officials passed RESOLUTION NO. 20-08-03, which focuses on county efforts to prioritize and eliminate racial equity, including education gaps as well as disparities in the health care and justice systems.
The county now joins Asheville in passing a similar reparations resolution.
Last month, the Asheville City Council voted unanimously 7-0 to pass the “RESOLUTION SUPPORTING COMMUNITY REPARATIONS FOR BLACK ASHEVILLE“, which apologizes for the city’s historic role in slavery and discrimination and orders the establishment of a process and commission for “repairing the damage caused by public and private systemic Racism”.
According to the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, ‘reparations’ are “a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions and families”.
In an interview with Ashville Today, Racial Justice Coalition of Ashville’s Community Liaison Rob Thomas (who led the push for the new resolution) noted;
“Black people are deeply impoverished and over policed here, and the lack of economic mobility can be traced back to this city’s negligence and intentional disposal of black wealth. It seems that the most responsible move at this point is to reallocate a lot of the $30 million dollars and directly re-invest it into black neighborhoods. We do not want programs, we aren’t looking for white saviorism; we want land, property, businesses. We want economic mobility and a way to produce generational wealth.”
What do you think about the new reparations measures?