Restitution as opportunity instead of guilt trip

The cover of a recent issue of The Atlentic (to which we subscribe but -- like the New Yorker, The NYT, WaPo, the N&O and even the Triangle Business Journal, I rarely find time to read) jumped out at me as I passed it on the island in the kitchen this morning. It had something to do with the schools to which the American government shipped Native American kids in the late 1800s-early 1900s and the trauma that has imposed. Not our finest moment.

So much of the current discourse around reparations and restitution for historical (and current) policies that disadvantage basically anyone but white people focuses on guilt and obligation. Based on the results thus far, this rhetorical strategy has not been terribly fruitful.

We might want to shift our mind- and mouth-set away from guilt and obligation and towards opportunity. Based on our society's level of wealth -- and there's no doubt that a generous portion of our society lives way up at the high end of Maslow's hierarchy of needs --we have an historic opportunity to cultivate a whole lot of human potential lower down the wealth spectrum that is being squandered and squelched by the way things are, which derives from the way things have been up till now.

Fact is, human history is a long tale of struggle and conquest, domination and slaughter. Just read the Old Testament. The Chosen People kill everyone standing between them and the Promised Land. It ain't pretty. Our history of repentance for our sins is mixed. The post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation commission did some great work but certainly didn't solve all of South Africa's deeper problems. Post-Holocaust repentance in Germany and Europe more broadly has been more successful, but it wasn't really aimed at addressing economic grievances and imbalances, and in many ways has created moribund societies that aren't very good at innovation or even art, which used to be their thang.

The rising and broadening consciousness of America's historical errors offers us an opportunity to do better and to help ourselves realize a broader swath of our human potential. We can only benefit by doing so. But we need to learn how to lead on this question, not push people from behind.