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The term 鈥渞eparationist鈥� currently lacks an official dictionary definition, but as the global gains momentum, this may soon change, offering remedies for the enduring harms of slavery and anti-Black discrimination but also allowing individuals to identify themselves with this centuries-old movement.
Can reparationist be a distinct identity, akin to feminist or abolitionist, a label worn with pride by progressive individuals showcasing their belief in reparative compensation for Black people? It turns out that, although the reparationist identity has not entered mainstream consciousness, people active in the movement have been calling themselves reparationists for years.
For Jumoke Ifetayo, the path to becoming a reparationist started at an early age. Influenced by his mother, Ifetayo began wearing traditional African clothes to school in Atlanta to reclaim a sense of his cultural heritage. 鈥淢y mother started to wear traditional African clothing in the 鈥�70s, and when I graduated from 7th grade, we had an honors ceremony, and my high school counselor asked me to wear a suit, and I said, 鈥榶es ma鈥檃m鈥� and showed [up in] a four-piece African suit,鈥� Ifetayo says. Since then, he has continued to don traditional African clothing and served as a member of the (N鈥機OBRA), one of the oldest national organizations dedicated to securing reparations for Black people in the United States.聽
In research about traits of pluralists, the (PCC), a philanthropic intermediary working to transform the narrative landscape in the U.S., conducted research about traits of pluralists that suggests that people who identified as pluralists shared a set of core life events. A , in the context of political and social theory, is someone who believes that power should be distributed across a diverse group of people. According to Bridgit Antoinette Evans, the organization鈥檚 CEO, this research helped PCC see that 鈥渁 pluralist identity formation may have a journey that starts early in life.鈥� Evans points out that, as people move through these core life events, behavior or identity sets itself.
The path to becoming a reparationist may also similarly be sparked by a meaningful event that leads people down a path toward working to repair and liberate Black Americans in response to the harms of the transatlantic slave trade and its stain on society.
The centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre wasn鈥檛 the first moment Dreisen Heath identified as a reparationist. Still, for Heath, who led reparations policy efforts at for the past five years, that anniversary was her spark, and crystallized for her the enormity of the reparations movement.
鈥淲orking for an organization like Human Rights Watch where international law is the organization鈥檚 mandate and the right to reparations is clearly outlined, it was a no-brainer to build Human Rights Watch鈥檚 U.S. domestic reparations research and advocacy program,鈥� Heath says. Still, she worries that, as more states start to consider reparations policies and as the movement continues to enter mainstream policy conversations, there will be both promises and pitfalls to the popularization of what it means to be a 鈥渞eparationist.鈥�
Identity has long played a role in activist strategies and has become more prominent in modern-day racial and social justice spaces. Social identity theory was first developed in the 1970s by two psychologists named Henri Tajfel and John Turner, seeking to explore how individuals categorize themselves into social groups. Their theory posited that people derive part of their identity from their membership in social groups (such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc.) and that this categorization influences social perception and behavior.
A key to understanding the sway of social identities, University of California, Los Angeles political science professor Lynn Vavreck, is 鈥渢he ability to distinguish members of one group from another through a shortcut based on something like team colors, languages or accents, race or geography.鈥� Today, when someone says they are an abolitionist, a Marxist, or a liberal, it is generally understood what they stand for.
The Combahee River Collective, a group of Black and queer feminist scholars and activists, first coined the term 鈥渋dentity politics鈥� in 1977. The term captured the importance of addressing the unique forms of oppression faced by individuals based on their various identities, such as race, gender, or class. The group called for a political alignment recognizing the experiences and histories of marginalized groups while emphasizing the interconnected nature of oppressive systems.
Scholar and civil rights activist Kimberl茅 Crenshaw , coining the term 鈥渋ntersectional,鈥� which she articulated as a framework recognizing that individuals have multiple social identities that intersect in complex ways and that there is a need to consider the overlapping marginalized identities of different groups.
The landscape of social movements continually evolves, giving rise to various social movement identities. These identities, often fluid and shaped by active participation, can include modern-day abolitionists, for example, who advocate for an overhaul of the criminal legal system, or feminists who challenge patriarchy and champion gender justice. While these labels help understand an individual or organization鈥檚 particular role in the social justice ecosystem, they can also feel overly rigid. These movements and identities are multifaceted, and it is through the interconnection of these identities that some activists believe societal transformation can happen.
Vanessa Thomas, the program manager at the , identifies as a 鈥淏lack feminist鈥� because 鈥渋t is specifically about bringing everything from the margins to the center and not the superficial, self-care, girl-boss T-shirts, smash-that-glass-ceiling type of feminism, but very much about bringing in everyone.鈥� For Thomas, this sets her apart from the type of feminism that some white women may embody; it means that being a Black feminist is 鈥渘ot simply a part of my 9-5,鈥� but that it plays a role in how she shows up in her relationships, conversations, and politics.
This infusion of Black feminism into Thomas鈥� daily life to the point where it shapes her worldview is what Pop Culture Collaborative calls a 鈥渋mmersion in a narrative ocean,鈥� a coordinated ecosystem of 鈥渄esired behaviors, new mental models, narrative archetypes, and specific story experiences that together will work to shift how people think, feel, and behave in the world.鈥� PCC recently updated its theory of narrative change to be more oriented toward social identity, stating that 鈥渢he North Star of narrative systems work is to cultivate social identity.鈥�
This updated theory of change is one of the clearest and most specific articulations on how to build power across a mass of people, and as PCC articulates it, 鈥渃reate[s] the conditions for millions of people to experiment with, and ultimately, behave in accordance with new social identities.鈥�
Getting deeper than just 鈥渟hifting the narrative,鈥� a term that has become increasingly popular in left-of-center philanthropic spaces, was important for PCC鈥檚 Evans. 鈥淔rom a strategic standpoint, it鈥檚 hard to quantify what shifting the narrative means, and it tends to draw people toward communications as a strategy by which to get to that end goal,鈥� Evans notes. Aisha Shillingford, who is the artistic director for Intelligent Mischief, a creative studio focused on shifting culture, in a Stanford Social Innovation Review piece that 鈥渂uilding the power to shape narratives is only one component of building cultural power.鈥�
There is a growing field being cultivated in large part by organizations such as PCC, , and that is connecting the dots between cultural and policy change. 鈥淲e started moving deeper into this concept of narrative oceans and narrative immersion in ideas, stories, relationships, and behavior norms as the context shaping how we move through the world,鈥� Evans says.
Over the past few years, PCC has awarded millions of dollars to organizations such as to advance pop culture narratives about caregivers and to the Center for Cultural Power to accelerate the power of immigrants, refugees, disabled, and trans people in emerging television. While these identity-centered strategies continue to be shaped by strategists and activists, academic theorists and political scientists are more wary of their effectiveness.
The use of identity has gotten its fair share of critiques from scholars and activists on the left and right of the political spectrum. In an adapted from his book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, political scientist Yascha Mounk notes that the likely outcome of an emphasis on identity politics is 鈥渁 society that places an unremitting emphasis on our differences,鈥� which he thinks could lead to the pitting of identity groups against one another 鈥渋n a zero-sum battle for resources and recognition.鈥�
Similarly critical of identity politics, Ol煤f岷固乵i O. T谩铆w貌, philosopher and assistant professor at Georgetown University, argues in his book, Elite Capture, that in the past few decades, we have failed to build alliances across our identities and instead chosen to 鈥渃lose ranks鈥攅specially on social media鈥攁round ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.鈥�
But activists, particularly those who engage in conversations with everyday people in their communities, see the use of identity, particularly liberatory identities, as a unifying force as long as it seeks to explore the depth and principles of the identity. 鈥淚f a narrative ocean changes but the change within individuals is not durable, it鈥檚 a whole lot of work for a very fleeting impact,鈥� Evans points out.
In other words, to effectively achieve the progressive transformation activists desire, it鈥檚 not sufficient to merely increase the number of individuals who identify as anti-racists, abolitionists, feminists, or reparationists. What鈥檚 crucial, according to activists such as Richie Reseda, CEO of , a worker-owned production and artist management group, is fostering a deeper, more impactful change that is actively integrated into the fabric of our culture. Transformation, according to Reseda, rests on cultivating a daily practice of 鈥渂uilding more healing and accountability into the world.鈥� Reseda identifies as an abolitionist, but his thoughts converge with the spirit of reparations through the idea of repairing and healing past harms.
The use of identity can also be used as a means for maintaining and consolidating power among dominant groups, instead of evenly distributing it. For example, white supremacist identity politics was on full display during Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign and presidency. In 2016, political scientist David Edward Tabachnick wrote in that while 鈥淭rumpism鈥� is obviously 鈥渓inked to the person Donald Trump, but its roots run much deeper, intertwining contemporary and traditional political trends in such a way that it makes it both uniquely American and of the 21st century, distinct from the European Fascism of the last century.鈥�
Evans concurs, saying, 鈥淭he pro-authoritarian movement鈥檚 strategy is entirely about identity formation鈥攖hey understand the identity of the patriot, and they understand the way that identity creates norms in people.鈥� The weaponization of social justice identity politics is 鈥減urely a tactic that is being used to deconstruct cultural innovation rooted in BIPOC communities.鈥�
As the nation braces for the potential recurrence of a Trump versus Biden election in 2024, the future of progressive identity politics hangs in the balance. Will these political dynamics further divide or unite the populace? How will the reparations movement and the thousands of reparationists who have stepped into this liberatory identity since 2020 fare? Amid the uncertainty, the question of how individuals align themselves in these politically charged times becomes increasingly pertinent.
Researchers have found that when an individual feels a stronger sense of belonging to a community or social group, they report higher overall well-being, reduced stress, and improved mental health. To white Americans in particular, reparations feel , a suite of policies that would do the exact opposite of fostering inclusion and belonging, especially regarding white people.
Over the past year, a cohort of activists who participated in the a program of , whose mission is to accelerate the Black-led movement for racial repair, unpacked this and a suite of other narratives that stand in the way of further advancing the reparations conversation. (Full disclosure: the author of this piece worked as director of narrative change at Liberation Ventures while writing this story.)
The Lab centered its efforts on enhancing the movement鈥檚 influence and capacity within Black communities, with the ultimate goal of achieving widespread support for reparations across all racial groups. Recognizing this, activists across the movement also acknowledged the critical part white allies play, especially in mobilizing and educating members of their white communities about the importance and necessity of reparations.
Lotte Lieb Dula, a white woman based in Colorado and the founder of , says that her most prominent social identity today is that of a reparationist. Her journey began after her mother鈥檚 passing when she uncovered that her family built its wealth on the enslavement of human beings for more than 200 years. As a child, she was shielded from this family history, alongside the revelation that her mother was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Today, Dula says she has committed herself to 鈥渦n-whitewash this history and encourage other white people to find their own pieces to the puzzle and then speak publicly about it.鈥�
This raises the question of whether Black reparationists should expend effort toward helping white people and other non-Black individuals belong in the reparations movement or if that is the work of those communities themselves. According to David Ragland, co-founder and co-executive director of , there is a difference between what it looks like to show up as a Black reparationist versus a non-Black reparationist. 鈥淲e walk through the world differently and with different levels of threat depending on where we are,鈥� says Ragland.
According to Ragland, a power analysis and a deep understanding of how we鈥檝e arrived at this point of racial inequality and racial hierarchy will be crucial in the upcoming years to grow the movement for reparations. He surmises that true liberation lies in living our lives through these frameworks.
Conversations with modern-day reparations activists across the country reveal that a central part of this identity is based on understanding the economic, social, political, cultural, and spiritual nature of reparations. After obtaining this understanding, reparations activists stress that only when one commits to the work of transformation can one truly start the work of being a reparationist.
Creating lasting and durable change to realize reparations will rely on 鈥渟ituating social identity formation as a north star of our strategies,鈥� according to Evans and as per the new vision of PCC. 鈥淭hat is where sustainability lies.鈥� Just as people identifying as 鈥渁bolitionists鈥� helped abolish slavery, it will take a critical mass of 鈥渞eparationists鈥� to achieve reparations.
This story was funded by a grant from , as part of the YES! series 鈥�Realizing Reparations.鈥� While reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, YES! maintained full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy here.
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Trevor Smith
is the co-founder and executive director of Narrative Power of the BLIS Collective, a culture change tank focused on building narrative infrastructure across Black, Indigenous, and progressive social movements to repair, decolonize, and transform culture. He was formerly the director of narrative change at Liberation Ventures, where he created and launched the Reparations Narrative Lab, a creative and research hub supporting the movement to increase public support for reparations. He鈥檚 held positions at the Surdna Foundation, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.聽
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