Reparations: A Social Justice Imperative

250 years of slavery. 90 years of Jim Crow. 60 years of separate but equal. 35 years of racist housing policy.

At Project Animal Freedom, we pride ourselves on fighting for justice for all, no matter one’s sex, sexuality, skin color, site of origin, socioeconomic status, disability status, senescence, and even species.

But in a society built upon the systemic oppression of BIPOC, there is neither full justice nor true freedom. So long as the massive racial wealth gap between White and BIPOC families persists, there will be no full and complete justice. So long as BIPOC are denied the same wealth-building opportunities as White people, there will be no full and complete justice. And so long as institutions uphold unjust social arrangements that systemically deny BIPOC the opportunity to forge their own destinies, there will be no full and complete justice.

We would like to express our solidarity with the struggle for reparations to BIPOC as a matter of both principle and practice. Reparations are a social justice imperative necessary to address the bloody, ongoing legacy of slavery, colonialism, and imperialist warmongering. After centuries of colonial violence, White people and the businesses, governments, and other institutions they control owe BIPOC just restitution for the crimes committed against them by our White supremacist society.

We must not stop fighting until full and complete reparations are made for the countless, continuing crimes perpetrated against BIPOC.