+
upworthy
Prosperity

Evanston, IL becomes the first city to pay reparations for its anti-Black housing policies

Evanston, IL becomes the first city to pay reparations for its anti-Black housing policies

Centuries of history and decades of scholarly research have left no doubt that the legacy of slavery, post-slavery economics, Jim Crow laws, redlining, discriminatory lending, and other anti-Black policies have made it unfairly difficult for Black Americans to accumulate wealth. In 2016, the net worth of a typical white family was $171,000, while that of a Black family was $17,150—a staggering disparity that illustrates the impact of generational wealth.

Put plainly, money makes money, and racist policies have directly kept money out of the hands of Black Americans for generations. (Not to mention the wealth that was literally taken from Black people's labor and placed in the pockets of white enslavers for generations.) That's the impetus behind the idea of reparations—that the damage done by actively denying people economic opportunity due to the color of their skin be repaired financially.

Whenever the topic of reparations comes up, there are naturally questions about who, how, how much, and why. As Trevor Noah pointed out, that's mainly a conversation for Black Americans to have with the U.S. government. But one municipality has come up with a form of reparations for local residents that answers those questions directly.


Evanston, Illinois has become the first city in the nation to pay reparations to some of its Black residents for its historical discriminatory housing policies. In a vote of 8 to 1, the city council voted to approve distributing the first $400,000 to qualified residents, giving individual households up to $25,000 to be used for home repairs or down payments on property.

To qualify, a resident must have lived in Evanston or been a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, and must have been impacted by housing discrimination due to city ordinances, policies or practices. The city banned housing discrimination in 1969, but a 77-page historical report, "Evanston Policies and Practices Directly Affecting the African American Community, 1900 - 1960 (and Present)" details the segregationist practices in housing, employment, education and policing before that.

"While the policies, practices, and patterns may have evolved over the course of these generations, their impact was cumulative and permanent," the report authors wrote. "They were the means by which legacies were limited and denied."

The $400,000 being allocated now to 16 families is just the beginning, as the Chicago suburb has plans to distribute $10 million over the next 10 years. Funding for the program is coming from donations and from a 3% tax on recreational marijuana, which became legal in Illinois in 2020.

However, not everyone is thrilled with this form of reparation, even among Evanston's Black residents.

The one council member who voted against the program, Alderwoman Cicely Fleming, told Fox 32 Chicago that she fully supports reparations but feels this housing plan isn't what reparations should be. Rather than putting money in people's pockets and letting them choose how to use it, these grants will go straight to the banks and lenders and contractors. So while she appreciates that it's a first step in the right direction, she feels that telling Black residents they have to spend reparations money a certain way isn't in the spirit of what reparations is meant to do.

Others are concerned that the precedent set by Evanston could impact broader reparations programs, and even impede progress on implementation at the federal level. If local anti-discriminatory housing programs are considered formal reparations, what does that mean for the big picture of less restrictive monetary reparations nationwide? Some also point out that this program will likely subject Black people to credit checks and government loans, which ironically may limit their ability to utilize the program that's supposed to help the economically disadvantaged.

While Evanston is the first city to formally implement this kind of reparations program, many other municipalities including Amherst, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina; and Iowa City, Iowa are making similar considerations. In addition, the state of California passed a bill creating a task force to explore what reparations could look like at the state level, and President Biden has expressed support for creating a federal commission to study reparations for Black Americans across the nation. Individual institutions, such as religious denominations and universities, have also taken steps to recompense Black Americans for the impact of their racist histories.

Reparations is a simple concept that is certainly complex to implement, but a formal move toward repairing our nation's historic racist damage is long overdue. We can't undo what's already been done, but we can at least try to make the present and future more equitable by addressing and redressing the lingering effects of the past. Whether Evanston's program is the best way to go about it is unclear, but it's at the very least a step in the right direction.

The gaze of the approving Boomer.

Over the past few years, Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) have been getting a lot of grief from the generations that came after them, Gen X (1965 to 1980), Millenials (1981 to 1996), and now, Gen Z (1997 to 2012). Their grievances include environmental destruction, wealth hoarding, political polarization, and being judgemental when they don’t understand how hard it is for younger people to make it in America these days.

Every Baby Boomer is different, so it's wrong to paint them all with a broad brush. But it’s undeniable that each generation shares common values, and some are bound to come into conflict.

However, life in 2023 isn’t without its annoyances. Many that came about after the technological revolution put a phone in everyone’s hands and brought a whole new host of problems. Add the younger generations' hands-on approach to child rearing and penchant for outrage, and a lot of moden life has become insufferanble.

Keep ReadingShow less

Klein Kwagga understood the assignment at his sister's concert.

Some kids are too shy to ever want to get on a stage, some will spend most of a performance staring awkwardly at their shoes, and some kids love the opportunity to show off what they've practiced in front of an audience.

And then there are the kids were simply born for the spotlight. You know them when you see them.

When Dirkco Jansen van Nieuwenhuizen hopped on stage with all of the other brothers and sisters of the dance students at René’s Art of Dance in South Africa, no one expected a viral sensation. According to Capetown Etc, it was the school's year-end concert, and siblings were invited to come up and dance to Bernice West’s Lyfie—a popular song in Afrikaans. And Dirkco, who goes by Klein Kwagga, took the assignment and ran with it.

Keep ReadingShow less

Prepare to get Thatcherized.

It seems that Adele is going viral once again.

Perhaps you’ve seen the image in question previously (it seems to make the rounds every couple of years). But in case you missed it—it’s Adele’s face. Normal, just upside down.

Only it’s not normal. In fact, when you turn Adele’s face right side up, what you notice is that her eyes and mouth were actually right-side up THE ENTIRE TIME, even though the entire head was upside down. So when you turn the head right side up, the eyes and mouth are now UPSIDE-DOWN—and you can’t unsee it. Do you feel like you're Alice in Wonderland yet?

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

People share the most practical ways to support new parents

There's a lot of preparation that goes into having a child well before they're even born. First there are the physical changes your body makes to clear up some space for a tiny human roughly the size of a watermelon. Then there's preparing the nursery, buying lots of extremely small clothes, diapers and an expected understanding that while sleep may be your friend, you won't be getting any of it for about a year.

Lots of people give plenty of advice to help you cope in the early days but after the baby arrives, the focus shifts to solely the baby. It's obviously not a deliberate shift. Babies are just more shiny and new that the parents. But not everyone forgets about the parents once baby makes their grand entrance–some go out of their way to make sure the parents feel supported.

Upworthy asked its audience, "what was the best non-baby related gift you received as a new parent," and the answers were a masterclass on how to care for new parents.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

A mom seeks doctor's help for postpartum depression and instead gets a visit from the cops

Too many women lose out on much needed support because of unwarranted stigma.

Canva

Postpartum depression is very common, and treatable.

Jessica Porten recently visited her doctor four months after giving birth to her daughter, Kira. She wasn't feeling quite like herself.

She had been dealing with overwhelming sadness and fits of anger, which she knew was likely stemming from a case of postpartum depression.

In a Facebook post, Porten recounts the story of that appointment.

Keep ReadingShow less
Identity

Formerly enslaved man's response to his 'master' wanting him back is a literary masterpiece

"I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters."

A photo of Jordan Anderson.

In 1825, at the approximate age of 8, Jordan Anderson (sometimes spelled "Jordon") was sold into slavery and would live as a servant of the Anderson family for 39 years. In 1864, the Union Army camped out on the Anderson plantation and he and his wife, Amanda, were liberated. The couple eventually made it safely to Dayton, Ohio, where, in July 1865, Jordan received a letter from his former owner, Colonel P.H. Anderson. The letter kindly asked Jordan to return to work on the plantation because it had fallen into disarray during the war.

On Aug. 7, 1865, Jordan dictated his response through his new boss, Valentine Winters, and it was published in the Cincinnati Commercial. The letter, entitled "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master," was not only hilarious, but it showed compassion, defiance, and dignity. That year, the letter would be republished in theNew York Daily Tribune and Lydia Marie Child's "The Freedman's Book."

The letter mentions a "Miss Mary" (Col. Anderson's Wife), "Martha" (Col. Anderson's daughter), Henry (most likely Col. Anderson's son), and George Carter (a local carpenter).

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Keep ReadingShow less