In Washington, DC, the story often ends when Congress passes a law. For us, that’s where the story begins. We examine the consequences of what happens when powerful people act — or fail to act. This season, Jillian Weinberger explores the big ideas from the 2020 presidential candidates: how their ideas worked, or didn’t work, in other places or at other times. Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

What good are piecemeal reparations? From Georgetown University, where school leadership once sold enslaved people, to Evanston, Illinois, where redlining kept Black residents out of homeownership, institutions and local governments are attempting to take reparations into their own hands. But do these small-scale efforts detract from the broader call for reparations from the federal government?
Fabiola talks with Indigenous philanthropist Edgar Villanueva, founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and creator of the Case for Reparations fund, about the reparatory justice efforts underway across the country and the role that individual donors might be able to play in reparations. Fabiola also speaks with activist Kavon Ward, who worked to restore Bruce’s Beach, waterfront land in California, to the descendants of Black families who were pushed off the land by eminent domain. (Ward’s work was funded by Villanueva’s organization.) They discuss how jurisdictions are repaying Black people for what was taken from them — and if that repayment can be considered reparations at all.

This series was made possible with support from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9
Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox
Guest: Kavon Ward, founder, Where Is My Land; Edgar Villanueva, founder, Decolonizing Wealth Project
References: 
Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva (Penguin Random House, 2021)
How a California beachfront property now worth millions was taken from its Black owners (CBS, May 2021)
Governor Newsom Signs SB 796, Authorizing the Return of Bruce’s Beach (California state Sen. Steven Bradford, September 2021)   
How Black activist Kavon Ward found her calling in the fight for Bruce’s Beach (Orange County Register)
272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? (The New York Times, April 2016)
In Likely First, Chicago Suburb Of Evanston Approves Reparations For Black Residents (NPR, 2021)

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This episode was made by: 


Producer: Jonquilyn Hill 


Engineer: Patrick Boyd


Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall


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The Impact

40 Acres: Reaching reconciliation

Why slavery? Marxist scholar Adolph Reed argues that Jim Crow — not enslavement — is the defining experience for Black Americans today. Reed recounts his childhood in the segregation-era South in his book The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives. Fabiola speaks with Reed about his experience, his argument that reparations aren’t necessarily a healing balm, and what policies and resources are needed to create a more equitable society.

This series was made possible with support from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9
Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox
Guest: Adolph L. Reed Jr., author of The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives
References: 
The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed Jr. (Verso, 2022)
The Marxist Who Antagonizes Liberals and Left (New Yorker)
Black Americans’ views of reparations for slavery (Pew Research)
Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint (New York Times, 2015)
The Racial Wealth Gap Is About the Upper Classes (People’s Policy Project, 2020)
Income Inequality and the Persistence of Racial Economic Disparities (Robert Manduca, 2018)

We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback
This episode was made by: 


Producer: Jonquilyn Hill 


Engineer: Patrick Boyd


Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall


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40 Acres: The old Jim Crow

Paying the price. One of the typical questions asked during conversations about reparations is how to pay for them. Fabiola talks with economist William “Sandy” Darity and folklorist Kirsten Mullen about how reparations could be executed. The husband-and-wife team lays out a comprehensive framework in their book, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, for who would qualify and how the federal government would afford the $14 trillion price tag.
This is part of 40 Acres, a four-part series examining reparations in the United States.
This series was made possible by a grant from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9
Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox
Guests: William “Sandy” Darity and Kirsten Mullen, authors of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century
References: 


From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen (The University of North Carolina Press; 2020)


Homestead Act (1862)


Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve; 2020)


Evanston is the first U.S. city to issue slavery reparations. Experts say it's a noble start. (NBC News; 2021)


The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers (New York Times; 2020)

‘We’re Self-Interested’: The Growing Identity Debate in Black America (New York Times; 2019)

 
We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback
This episode was made by: 


Producer: Jonquilyn Hill 


Engineer: Patrick Boyd


Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall


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40 Acres: $14 trillion and no mules

Fabiola Cineas talks with Nkechi Taifa, the founder and director of the Reparation Education Project, about the history of the fight for reparations in America. Though they came to the forefront during the 2020 election in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, activists have been fighting for repayment for slavery since the practice was abolished. This is part of 40 Acres, a four-part series examining reparations in the United States.
This series was made possible by a grant from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9
Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox
Guest: Nkechi Taifa, founder and director of the Reparation Education Project
References: 

WMUR, 2019: Joe Biden discusses China-US trade talks, gun violence

The N'COBRA movement and HR 40

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: The Truth Behind “40 Acres and a Mule”

Summer of Change: The Civil Rights Story of Glen Echo Park

Los Angeles Times, 1995: Inspired by Marcus Garvey, Audley Moore has struggled to lift up African Americans

The Republic of New Africa

The Atlantic: Martin Luther King Makes the Case for Reparations

HR 442 — Civil Liberties Act of 1987

HR 40 — Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act

Pew Research Center: Black Americans Have a Clear Vision for Reducing Racism but Little Hope It Will Happen

Gallup polling on American attitudes and race

Belinda Sutton and Her Petitions

No Pensions for Ex-Slaves: How Federal Agencies Suppressed Movement To Aid Freedpeople

Wall Street Journal, 2019: "Reparations Ray" Blazed Lonely Trail

Associated Press, 2019: New Orleans mayor to apologize for 1891 lynching of 11 Italian Americans

NPR, 2009: Senate Apologizes For Slavery

ABC News: Advocates call on Biden to act on reparations study by Juneteenth

NPR, 2006: COINTELPRO and the History of Domestic Spying

Washington Post, 2000: In Aetna's Past: Slave Owner Policies

New York Times, 2016: Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life's Complicated Past

 
We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback
This episode was made by: 


Producer: Jonquilyn Hill 


Engineer: Patrick Boyd


Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall


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40 Acres: The original promise

In this bonus, chat episode of The Impact, Jillian is joined by Vox's Matt Yglesias and Course Correction's Nelufar Hedayat to talk about how the data collected on Covid-19 deaths will help shape our world, now and in the future.
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The Toll

Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, are known as “Ambos Nogales” — “both Nogaleses.” The city straddles the border of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. For a long time, a hole-riddled chain-link fence ran along that border. Residents could cross back and forth with ease. But in 1995, the federal government replaced the chain-link fence with a wall. Over time, that wall has been fortified with surveillance towers, more Customs and Border Patrol agents, and drones. 
President Trump wants to extend the Nogales model all along the US-Mexico border. In the final episode of the season, The Impact goes to Nogales with the Arizona Republic to find out why the federal government decided to build the wall, how it has changed Ambos Nogales, and how it has affected migrants who hope to cross into the United States.
Further listening and reading: 

Rafael Carranza’s reporting in the Arizona Republic


Maritza Dominguez’s work on the Valley 101 podcast 

Radiolab’s Border Trilogy explores Operation Blockade and the federal government’s Prevention Through Deterrence policy

Vox’s guide to where 2020 candidates stand on policy, including immigration


Subscribe to The Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app to automatically get new episodes of the latest season each week.
Host:
Jillian Weinberger, @jbweinz
About Vox:
Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.
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