What's interesting is that no credible discussion here rests rests solely on $$$ recompense. The problem is that leading with $ puts the cart before the horse, then drives both the cart and the horse over a cliff.

Let me take a step back.

When we start a conversation with the money-harm . . . I'm spitballing but

"pay Blacks x PLUS improve education" or "put all the recovery money into fair housing remedies" or "fund job training programs"

. . . then add other non-monetary remedies, people get stuck on how x doesn't shoehorn well into Y. When people can't get past that . . .

"why JOB training programs? Why not community centers?" or "yes, education, but for COLLEGE not schools"

. . . our inability to prioritize the same way becomes the reason to abandon the discussion.

But, when we start the conversation where the actual breach was - deprivation of equitable standing . . .

“No more two systems of education” and “no more dumping NIMBY projects in Black backyards” and “no more race wage gap”

. . . EVERYTHING can go on the table b/c everything fits. And that opens the door wide open. We won’t need to do a trade off of prioritize: education, housing, justice, employment, voting — that ALL get their own break out sessions.

Reparations also gets it’s own, and will not have to serve as an equality Santa to shove in a bunch of other stuff we want but can’t cleanly tie to dollars. For the same reason, it defeats derailment: it’s not hard at all to trace the property, the wealth and the recipients. And that’s all one needs to do to recover in law.

Everything fits perfectly in its natural place in the breakdown tree: deprived ES → lost rights/resources as a result → [solution], [solution], [solution]. We can allocate pure resources — think tanks, legislation, and so on — with no Peter/Paul robbing. And it has the value of being right.