Why America needs a Commission on Truth,
Racial Healing, and Reconciliation
By Jennifer Tompkins
Coming to the U.S. in the
mid-1980’s I was shocked to
find how much it appeared to
me to resemble South Africa I
had left in the late ‘70s at the
height of apartheid.
U.S. activists, mobilizing the
American people and institutions,
had played a supporting
role in the overthrow of apartheid.
However, they had singly
failed to help accomplish the
removal of de-facto segregation
at home.
I believe it is high time that
those of us who are — often
unwittingly — the beneficiaries
of white privilege, fully
recognize the enduring consequences
of our own nation’s
“original sin” of racism. This
racism is not only a matter so
much of individual prejudice
but also of deeply entrenched
institutional bias but to address
it will require white allies to
support the Black leaders who
are working to change it. It’s
time to be all in.
Fortunately, at this juncture,
there are clear signs that after
over 150 years of failed promises
and false hopes this could
be the moment. White people
have joined their Black brothers
and sisters in droves to
protest police violence, not just
in liberal San Francisco but
also in the conservative small
towns such as DeKalb, IL.
Though the killing of George
Floyd was the flash point, not
only has Black discontent been
rising, so has Black organizing
around issues from criminal
injustice to voter suppression.
Since 2016 we have
An image of George Floyd is pictured in “City Hall Autonomous Zone” in support of “Black Lives Matter” in the Manhattan
Borough of New York City, New York, U.S., July 15, 2020. REUTERS / Carlo Allegri
seen the rise of an increasingly
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
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Caribbean L 10 ife, July 17-23, 2020
strong and savvy cadre of
Black women organizers. They
include leaders such as Stacey
Abrams, LaTosha Brown
and Jessica Byrd, all of whom
have founded organizations
designed to empower Black
voters and train future Black
leaders.
One place white allies could
begin to play an immediate
role is in helping build support
for Resolution 100 introduced
into the U.S. House by
veteran Congressional leader
Barbara Lee of Oakland. She
is asking that white people step
up by contacting their congressional
representatives and
urging them to cosponsor the
resolution.
Resolution 100 calls for the
establishment of a “US Commission
on Truth, Racial Healing,
and Transformation” in
order to acknowledge the past
history of America’s racial
injustice and progress towards
addressing persistent racial
inequalities. This concurrent
resolution (1) affirms, on the
400th anniversary of the arrival
of the first slave ship, the U.S.
debt of remembrance not only
to those who lived through
the injustices of slavery but
also to their descendants; and
(2) proposes a U.S. Commission
on Truth, Racial Healing,
and Transformation to properly
acknowledge, memorialize,
and be a catalyst for progress,
including toward permanently
eliminating persistent racial
inequities. Lee is calling for
the establishment of a United
States Commission on Truth,
Racial Healing, and Transformation
“to properly acknowledge,
memorialize, and be a
catalyst for progress toward
jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy
of human value, embracing
our common humanity,
and permanently eliminating
persistent racial equalities.”
At least 40 such Commissions
exist around the world
from Guatemala to Sierra
Leone. The best known is
that initiated by Rev. Tutu in
1995 after South Africa ended
apartheid. They receive mixed
reviews, depending on the different
situations and national
cultures and have certainly not
proven to be a panacea.
Lee is aiming to have 218
co-sponsors to Resolution 100
by the end of this week. Those
of us who have it need to exercise
our white power and privilege
to get behind the initiative
using our networks to reach
out to as many members of
congress as possible to ask
them to sign on.
Supporting Lee’s initiative
would be a start but it is not
enough; not by a long chalk.
As the resolution makes clear,
white America needs to do the
serious soul searching and selfeducation
about our shared
history that Black people have
long been asking us to do. Only
then can we become the kind
of effective allies Black leaders
need in order to effect the
deep culture change that this
moment calls for — and may
make possible.
OP-ED
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