When seen through a historical lens, the connection between poverty, opportunity, and incarceration for Black communities is crystal clear: we are still seeing the ramifications of racist policies from previous generations, and White racial ideologies are still maintaining the racist structures of American institutions. It seems to me that reparations of many kinds are in order to bring about a change in opportunity for people of color. Although reparations are not the only answer, they may serve to close the wealth gap, in the short term, in order to increase the opportunity. But so much more needs to be accomplished. We need people of color in political positions working to change the policies that are depressing communities of color.
