What reparations mean to one American family

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Today on Post Reports, business reporter Tracy Jan tells the story of one family for whom reparations mean more than money. Geoff Edgers explains the hidden history of Roberta Flack’s hit song “Killing Me Softly.

This family faced slavery and internment during World War II. To them, reparations mean more than money.
The true story behind the song ‘Killing me softly.’

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post.
0:05.0	Hi, this is Vanessa Williams from The Washington Post.
0:09.0	Hey, it's Philip Rucker at The Washington Post.
0:11.0	Do you have a minute?
0:12.0	Hi, this is Dan Zagff.
0:13.0	This is Post Reports.
0:15.0	I'm Martian Powers.
0:19.0	It's Friday, January 24.
0:24.0	Today, how reparations shaped the fate of a family.
0:28.0	And the true story behind the song, Killing Me Softly.
0:36.0	This conversation started really bubbling up last year.
0:38.0	It was the 400th anniversary of the arrivals of the first enslaved Africans to this continent.
0:44.0	And there was also the first time there was a hearing in recent years for HR40,
0:49.0	and this piece of legislation to study reparations for slavery.
0:53.0	And there were so many people there.
0:55.0	There were like three overflow rooms.
0:57.0	The typical black family in this country has one tenth the wealth of the typical white family.
1:01.0	Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women.
1:05.0	And there is of course the shame of this land of the free,
1:08.0	boasting the largest prison population on the planet of which the descendants of the enslaved make up the largest share.
1:15.0	This piece of legislation was actually sponsored by Michigan Democrat John Connier's first in 1989.
1:23.0	And so what we're doing is saying,
	...

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