Muse Dodd

During a Senate hearing to discuss bill H.R.40 (Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act) writer and MacArthur fellow Ta-Nahesi Coates stated, “It’s impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery.” Even today we see the very real impacts of chattel slavery in the US, and there is no institution, university, or corporation operating in the US that has not benefited directly or indirectly from the enslavement and subjugation of Black people in America. 

“Reparations Realized” looks at ways in which the state can begin to be held accountable to the atrocities started during the Transatlantic Slave trade in addition to monetary payments. Using photography, sound, video, installation, and public programming, “Reparations Realized” invites artists to dream up what reparations should be and how this country has fallen short on its debt. Reparations is a very complex and nuanced conversation and this exhibition is only touching the surface. However, it is important that these conversations are held in public, in private, and everywhere, to be honest.

Education has long been seen as a way to improve one’s socio-economic status and uplift a community. But what happens when the institutions that are supposed to help are the ones perpetuating the harm? Student movements have always been at the forefront of social change; most recently Harvard law students have called for University Administration to disclose its endowment and for divestment from the prison-industrial complex while also calling for the reinvestment of funds into marginalized communities through the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign. Many non-Black Americans do not feel a direct responsibility to pay reparations, but some students have taken Reparations into their own hands at least that’s the case for Georgetown University.  When students learned of the 272 enslaved Africans sold to slavers in Louisiana to help support the failing University now known as the GU272, university students decided to each pay 27.20 per student per semester as a symbolic payment for the 272 people who were displaced and sold by Georgetown University. Ada Pinkston’s work Afterlives After Currency is a mixed media multi-channel video installation that focuses on the stories of the descendants of the GU272. Mixing news clips with intermittent sounds of waves, we are reminded of how enslaved Africans were brought to this country. The steady beat of heartbeats punctuates the piece reminding us of the humanity of the enslaved was denied for so many years. By interviewing the descendants she is also uplifting the stories of those lost and forgotten.

The Maryland Institute Black Archives (MIBA)  by Deyane Moses is a collection of documentation, imagery, and artifacts created in response to the lack of physical evidence at the college by including the perspective of the Black students denied entrance to the university and the current students who are faced with discrimination and harassment and have their needs ignored by administration. The importance of record keeping is paramount, especially in a country that constantly erases the history and contributions of African Americans.

Like a U.S. college student who takes out a massive amount of loans for college with no plans on paying it back, America is compounding debt with no plans on ever repaying it. One has to look at the cumulative toll of slavery has on current generations. Lionel Frazier White III  if I had a pinny (for every time) calculates the debt that White America owes Black folks including the total as a part of the national debt ceiling. The cost of Slavery and impacts of social injustice has yet to be calculated, and we have to have a hearing on whether we need a committee to investigate that.

Denae Howard’s animation Capitalism_Lynched_You is a reminder that a lot of the issues faced by Black Americans are rooted in capitalism. Appropriating the NAACP A Man was Lynched Yesterday flag with refreshed text making capitalism the subject, Howard confronts the ways that economic inequality is a tool of capitalism to keep minorities oppressed.  

D.C. has the largest unemployment rate for African Americans at 12.4% (2018 U.S. Census). What kind of future does that hold for our youth? The work of Dee Dwyer—D.C. native, photographer, and educator—takes an intimate look at our youth and the conditions that they are subjected to such as heavy police presence, and an underfunded education system by capturing portraits in Southeast DC. 

Gentrification in D.C. is occurring at the highest intensity anywhere in the U.S. with 20,000 African American residents displaced from low-income neighborhoods from 2000 to 2013 (Washington Post).  Gentrification is violence, and it is important that we talk to our neighbors about its local and global impact. Hadaiyah Yaya Bey’s installation What we lost to New New York focuses on gentrification in Brooklyn holding space for loss of cultural identity and community.

African Americans have constantly been forced to maintain and keep familial ties while in flux, this resilience speaks to a will to survive and fight. For many years African Americans in this country have fought for Reparations, our cries silenced by calls for patience. But time has been used as a tool to quiet our discomfort and still our movement towards progress. We must first take the knife out and heal within our communities and also as a collective. 

It is apparent that not all citizens in this country are afforded the same rights and access to the American Dream. It is our job to not only speak on these issues but also to continue to push for justice in all areas. “Reparations Realized” prioritizes dreaming and envisioning the future that Black people deserve. We can better manifest and actualize reparations for ours and future generations when we dream together. 

If you have joined us at this exhibition, I encourage you to reflect on your role and responsibility in the fight for reparations. This fight is far from over, but thankfully it is gaining traction again. We cannot allow injustice to stand and must also remedy the harm we perpetuate inter-personally and institutionally. 

Monique Muse Dodd

August 2019