Discussion Issues – Concurrent Session on Reparations
Chris K. Iijima, University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law

* How we can begin to use the notion of reparations to articulate and implement a new progressive national agenda with respect to race, class, and gender in the coming decade faced with the contemporary reality that much civil rights terminology has been misappropriated. That is, how reparations, particularly African American reparations, may help forge a new framework for discussing justice claims since progressive forces are now spending much of their time on the defensive reacting to the misapplication of traditional civil rights terms. In that context, how reparations addresses the need to shift the discussion away from the issue of racism in the abstract which has eliminated any meaningful dialogue about the continued power of white supremacist ideology to a discussion of the concrete harms which racism has produced; from confronting racism defined as the result of individually prejudiced attitudes to the idea of identifying the present day legacy of historical oppression; from formalist discussions of equality and rights to discussions of the need to remedy ongoing harms;

* How court strategies have great public education benefits and help create a favorable political climate irrespective of the eventual outcome of the litigation, with some discussion of the obstacles with respect to court strategies in seeking redress for systemic dominance and oppression;

* How a legislative approach to reparations will require clear strategic thinking because in the process of winning public and Congressional support for reparations and articulating the reasons why such a result is just, there are pitfalls which must be considered and avoided. In that context, there will be discussion of the hidden dangers within legislative strategies for reparations using Japanese American reparations as an object lesson;

* How from an interest convergence perspective, there is a potential for casting the need for reparations not solely as compensation for harm caused, but as repair in terms of healing a festering historical wound in our society -- particularly as we enter a new millennium in which the face and color of the nation's majority population will undergo a radical transformation over the next century.