Conclusion: Clearing Ground
摘要
This chapter concludes the book by offering some reflections on the ambitions of the project in relation to the broader political struggle for reparations in the United States. I begin by noting that while calls for reparative justice are often dismissed as utopian, shifting political circumstances can radically alter the prospects for progressive social change in ways that are difficult to predict. Given these conditions of uncertainty about when and how new openings in the struggle will arise, we must persist in our efforts in order to be prepared when they do. Against this backdrop, the central aspiration of the book—to confront and reckon with whiteness in relation to the issue of reparative racial justice—can be understood as an attempt to clear the political ground of debris and obstacles so that intelligent collective action can be taken should the opportunity arise, while also encouraging the steady and stable growth of the reparations movement in the longer term.