The Political Economy of Land and Reparations: The Case of Reparations for African Americans in the 21st Century

The global interest in research on the political economy of reparations has been rekindled by recent developments in the United States of America, but much of this renewed investigation is misinformed, distorted, or limited to recycling what is already known. Recent work by Darity and Mullen is an exception. They have contributed eloquently to age‐old debates on reparations for emancipated enslaved Africans. This essay examines their work in the context of historical movements against economic apartheid in the United States, its origins, and how it can be overcome. The focus of this essay is on how reparations should be considered as a response to the entire history of racism‐cum‐discrimination, which has consistently blocked economic opportunities for African Americans. Reparations , if adhered to, will either directly or indirectly modify the economic injustices that continue to face African Americans in their adopted nation (America). Central to any new case for reparations is the power of land, which offers to breathe new life into the broken, old promise of “forty acres and a mule” as a means of addressing long‐term social stratification in modern America.