Debates over reparations are not limited to the United States nor to African Americans. This section features texts that compare and contrast demands for African American reparations with other contexts, including slavery and colonialism in Caribbean nations, Japanese American internment, Native American land dispossession, and genocide. By tracing the connections between these movements for reparations, this section provides readers with an international and transcontinental view of the topic.

 

Alcenat, Westenley. “The Case for Haitian Reparations.” Jacobin. January 14, 2017 
In this article, Westenley Alcenat offers arguments in favor of Haiti’s call for reparations from France. Identifying the 150 million franc penalty France levied on Haiti after its independence as crucial to understanding current socio-economic conditions on the island, Alcenat argues for reparations by combining present conditions and past injustices.

Beckles, Hilary. Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Slavery and Native Genocide. University of West Indies Press, 2013.
In this book, Hilary Beckles argues that reparations are owed from Britain to present-day ancestors of slaves in Caribbean plantations. Noting both the spiritual, physical, and social remnants of slavery in contemoprary Caribbean nations, Beckles presuasively argues for the contemporary necessity of reparations.

Corlett, J. Angelo. Race, Racism, and Reparations. Cornell University Press, 2003.
In this book, Angelo Corlett examines the relationship between race and ethnicity as it pertains to claims for reparations in the United States by African Americans and Native Americans.

Franklin, V.P. “Commentary–Reparations as a Development Strategy: The Caricom Reparations Commission.” The Journal of African American History 98.3 (2013): 363-366.
In this article, V.P. Franklin contextualized debates over reparations in the United States with global struggles for reparations in Africa and the Caribbean. He concludes by arguing that arguments for black reparations in the United States need to be connected to the international reparations movement.

Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda E. “Getting to Reparations: Japanese Americans and African Americans.” Social Forces 83.2 (2004): 823-840.
In this article, Rhoda Howard-Hassman asks why the Japanese American reparations movement succeeded while the African American reparations movement has not. Howard-Hassman catalogues several problems standing in the way of a successful claim that did not face Japanese Americans after internment.

Kymlicka, Will and Bashir Bashir (eds.). The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies. Oxford University Press, 2010.
The essays in this book debate the congruences and conflicts between proposals for reparations and reconciliation and multicultural societies.

Miller, Jon and Rahul Kumar (eds.). Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries. Oxford University Press, 2007.
In this collection of essays, Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar take a broad survey of the debates over reparations, from the historic oppression of slaves and African Americans to the victims of contemporary conflicts and violations of human rights. The volume also contains a discussion of possible reparations policies, debating the extent to which government policies could count as reparations.

Minow, Martha. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence. Boston: Beacon Press: 1998.
In this book, Martha Minow highlights the variety of ways in which a society deals with collective violence moving from the Nuremberg trials, to Japanese-American internment, to the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa. Ultimately, Minow argues that personal narratives and cultural reparations provide the best model for social healing in the aftermath of mass trauma.

Moorehead, Monica (ed). Marxism, Reparations, and the Black Freedom Struggle. World View Forum, 2017.
In this collection of essays, reparations is framed as a part of the struggle for black liberation. Monica Moorehead puts together a remarkable study of reparations as a part of the struggle for black liberation. The collection begins by discussing the material basis for reparations and the history of racial oppression in the United States before broadening to consider black reparations from an international and intersectional approach that considers the position of women and working people in this struggle.

Nuruddin, Yusuf. “Promises and Pitfalls of Reparations.” Socialism and Democracy 16.1 (2002): 87-114. 

Thompson, Janna. Taking Responsibility for the Past: Reparation and Historical Injustice. Polity, 2002.
Taking a broad view of reparations that includes considering Native American land rights as well as African American slavery, Thompson argues that the issue requires a reconciliatory view of politics that views the project of reparations as intergenerational.

Torpey, John (ed.). Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003.

Yamamoto, Erik K. “Racial Reparations: Japanese American Redress and African American Claims.Boston College Third World Law Journal 19.1 (1998): 477-523.