Jewish and Japanese American groups among growing multiracial effort calling for reparations for Black Americans
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Black leaders in the civil rights movement were among the effort’s biggest supporters, she says. Masaoka said winning reparations gave the Japanese American community strength, a chance to stand up and a sense of responsibility. Now she wants the Black community to have the same.
“I think we always felt very connected to other communities of color and saw similarities of our own situations,” Masaoka, the co-chair of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, told CNN. “We can fight for it and if we do link together and build solidarity, we can change this country and we can all heal,” she said.
Reparations efforts are also being seen across states, cities, municipalities and historical institutions, as they have begun to explore new ways to address past transgressions.
These ongoing conversations at various levels have been spearheaded by Black people supporting the quest for reparations, but other communities are now joining in support.
Rep. Lee, who reintroduced H.R. 40 last year, told CNN the fact that other communities have received reparations on a federal government level shows Congress they can do the same for Black people.
Early last year, the bill was advanced by the House Judiciary Committee in a 25-17 vote and now faces a full House vote. Rep. Lee is hopeful and says that over 200 of her colleagues are ready to vote to pass the bill. But she is also aware the bill faces pushback in the Senate vote and urges her colleagues to understand that enslaved Black people created the economic engine from which the nation was built.
Support for reparations from people outside the Black community is a sign that Jewish and Japanese American communities are on the side of justice, Kamm Howard says.
Howard, who is the National Male Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, says if the federal government made attempts to address the harm inflicted on other communities, it’s only right that lawmakers figure out a way to grant reparations to Black Americans.
“There’s been no attempt by the American government to specifically address the harms and continued harms inflicted upon us,” Howard told CNN.
A Jewish moral call
Yolanda Savage-Narva is the director of racial equity, diversity and inclusion at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the part of the Union for Reform Judaism that focuses on advocacy and social justice work.
“Our organization really understood that the call for the study of reparations was a Jewish moral call,” she told CNN. “There is an imperative around making sure that every party of our humanity is seen as equitable human beings and the call for reparations was a move for the reformed Jewish community to really put a stake in the ground.”
Savage-Narva said she believes this adds to the support and shows the US that acknowledging and paying reparations is an important step in the healing process.
“The German government really did what they needed to do with truth and reconciliation, and have made a commitment to, as much as possible, making an effort to repair the harm that was done,” she said. “Because the Jewish community has had its own historic trauma, they can make that connection and understand how important the process of reparations is.”
Why Japanese Americans received reparations
The Japanese American community was one of the first communities to receive redress from the US government and has been supporting the movement for reparations for decades.
Japanese Americans who interned in concentration camps in the US during World War II from 1942 until about 1946 received reparations as part of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. More than four decades after their imprisonment, the law gave each surviving former internee $20,000.
“One of the reasons we understand the importance of reparations is looking at Japanese American redress and reparations,” Kato-Kiriyama told CNN. “It did take the support of all kinds of people to come together, and we couldn’t have done it on our own.”
David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, said supporting the movement to pass H.R. 40 is the right thing to do and will lead to further comprehension and response to the “current injustices ingrained in the system.”
Inoue told CNN he believes Congress is in a very different place since Japanese Americans received reparations.
“The more of us who speak out, the harder it will be to ignore us and our country’s responsibility to address and respond to this historic injustice,” Inoue said.
“We do need federal reparations”
“All of these efforts, no matter where they are happening, are important and good to keep pushing forward,” Kato-Kiriyama told CNN. “It also reminds us that we don’t have to wait for one huge federal bill, although we do need federal reparations.”
Nationally, the movement for reparations is expected to take some time.
Experts say that if the bill advances past the House, it faces opposition from some Democrats and most Republicans — and it’s unlikely to have enough votes for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
“We’re knocking on the door of H.R. 40 being enacted either by legislation or more likely by executive order,” he said. “That is a major moment in American history.”
Howard said the bill would look at these continuous injuries, among others, to define the degree of harm the Black community has suffered and continues to suffer.
“There is a rise today of racism against African Americans and the push has to be: why has American not been able to find a pathway to ease the tensions of race?” Rep. Lee told CNN. “Every time we move on something brings us back to the issues of race. This bill offers an opportunity to bring people together by understanding.”
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