Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development Volume 25 Issue 4 Volume 25, Summer 2011, Issue 4 Article 5 From Radical to Practical (and Back Again?): Reparations, Rhetoric, and Revolution Kaimipono David Wenger Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcred This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FROM RADICAL TO PRACTICAL (AND BACK AGAIN?): REPARATIONS, RHETORIC, AND REVOLUTION KAIMIPONO DAVID WENGER* The story of reparations advocacy is a story of ideas. The language of slavery reparations varies widely - it can be radical or practical, framed in dry legalese or soaring moral sermons. These rhetorical choices are more than just semantic differences; they illuminate reparations goals, shape the debate, and ultimately create or close off possibilities for reparations action. Framing is especially important because of the unusual position of the reparations movement, with signs of both danger and promise. Federal courts recently dismissed two different cases seeking different kinds of reparations for slavery, effectively bringing to a close the possibility of achieving reparations through the courts in the near future.1 A lawsuit- propelled settlement, like those in the tobacco or Holocaust cases, is also now unlikely. Public support for reparations, particularly among non- Blacks, 2 remains alarmingly low, with some recent surveys placing white * Associate Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson Law School.