How Reparations Fit Into the Push for Racial Justice

As protests against police violence against Black Americans spark larger discussions about racism, an idea long relegated to the political fringes -- reparations for slavery and the discrimination that followed -- is going more mainstream. A bill under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives would create a commission to study reparations for the descendants of slaves. The issue also has traction in the U.K., where financial institutions have wrestled with the ways they benefited from slavery.

The term is usually used to mean monetary compensation for widespread injustice. But it can be applied more broadly. The United Nations, which says states “are under legal obligation to provide reparations for gross violations attributable to them,” says they can take the form of restitution, rehabilitation, compensation, satisfaction (apologies) and guarantees of non-repetition.