God’s Plan for Reparations

Renée Antrosio – September 27, 2022 2 Comments

We acknowledge that slavery and on-going institutionalized racism have kept African Americans from justly benefiting from their contributions to the US economy, resulting in an unjust Black-White gap in opportunity, income, wealth, land/home ownership, employment, and more. 

I am sitting with this first sentence of the NCF Reparations Statement, a work in progress. Considering its obvious truth as the tip of the iceberg; so much history and ongoing injustice lie beneath the surface. The horrors of American chattel slavery were innumerable- kidnapping, dreadful suffering and death on slave ships, auction blocks and chains, rape and breeding, beatings and murder and dogs and slave patrols and more- legal and protected by the Constitution. And somehow the fact that America grew rich on slave labor- as a nation, not just particular individuals- has been conveniently unacknowledged. 

The United States was not always a great economic power. We were once a fledgling nation. What changed the balance, tipped the scales in our favor?

… by 1860, slave labor produced over two billion pounds of cotton annually. American cotton made up two-thirds of the global supply, and production continued to increase. (Slavery and King Cotton)

A cotton ball seems to weigh nothing. I can’t imagine how much cotton-picking would amount to 2 billion pounds. The impact on the world economy was vast- not just a few white Southerners who benefited from the labor of generations of enslaved people. New York City, as one example in Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, was deeply invested in the economics of slavery. We are learning about more and more systems that advantaged white Americans while barring African Americans from equal participation. 

As white Americans have benefited from this system of structural racism, we believe reparations to make amends are rightfully due to descendants of African Americans who were enslaved.

God is the original architect of reparations, though there are many modern examples as well. From the calling of Moses by the burning bush, God planned for the distribution of ill-gotten Egyptian wealth to the newly freed slaves. 

“I’ll make it so that when you leave Egypt, the Egyptians will be kind to you and you won’t go away empty-handed. Every woman will ask her neighbor along with the immigrant in her household for their silver and their gold jewelry as well as their clothing. Then you will put it on your sons and daughters, and you will rob the Egyptians.”  Ex. 3:21-22 (CEB)

I wonder about the compound interest that has accrued over generations for the reparations that have not yet been paid for slave labor that built America’s wealth. Unlike the Egyptians, American Christians have no fear of the God who hates injustice. 

The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more disaster on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go from here. In fact, when he lets you go, he’ll eagerly chase you out of here. Tell every man to ask his neighbor and every woman to ask her neighbor for all their silver and gold jewelry.” The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the Hebrew people. Exodus 11:1-3a (CEB)

This is the second time God tells Moses about the plan for reparations- every man, every neighbor, every woman. Silver and gold, jewelry and clothing. But there is a word that stands out that I’ve never noticed before. See if you can spot it the third time.

The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the land because they thought, We’ll all be dead. So the people picked up their bread dough before the yeast made it rise, with their bread pans wrapped in their robes on their shoulders. The Israelites did as Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for their silver and gold jewelry as well as their clothing. The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the people so that they let them have whatever they asked for. And so they robbed the Egyptians. Ex. 12:33-36 (CEB)

Older, literal translations say the Lord “gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.” All three times. Or in this version, the Lord made sure the Egyptians were kind. I ponder what this might mean, and the stark contrast to American treatment of freed slaves. Do we dare to imagine how different our country could be if we allow God’s plan of reparations to guide us?

The steps of reparations include education to face the injustice, acknowledgement to confess complicity in the harm, accountability to make amends, and action to redistribute resources at all levels—individual, local, and national—and to change policies that continue the injustice. 

We hope to understand the injury to the degree that it breaks our heart, pierces our soul, and moves our hands to redress the harm and change the systems that produce injustice—to truly “heal the wound.”

May God- who heard the cries of grief and understood, who called Moses by the burning bush, and ensured the kindness of the Egyptians so that the Israelites would not leave empty-handed-  guide us into the freedom of repair.  -Renée