Reparations, presidential vote on assembly agenda By Paula R. Kincaid The Presbyterian Layman Volume 34, Number 4 Posted May 30, 2001 The Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns is asking the 213th General Assembly to create a task force to study “reparations for African Americans, Native Americans and Alaskan natives, Asian Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and others who have experienced unjust treatment.” If approved, the task force will report back to the 216th Assembly regarding how the church can foster dialogue and healing. The resolution lists groups that have received reparations, including Jewish people who have received reparations from Swiss banks for the unlawful abduction of property during the Holocaust and Japanese Americans who received reparations for being interned in concentration camps during World War II. “Enslaved Africans and Native American peoples have never been compensated for the brutal and inhumane treatment received during slavery and are now seeking financial compensation and return of lands through court action,” reads the resolution. “Although we acknowledge that financial compensation is one approach, we submit that taken alone it has the potential to seriously divide this nation. Therefore, we suggest that reparations be more broadly conceived; and that the church serve as an agent of reconciliation as we seek a reconciliation much deeper than financial compensation.” The advocacy committee is also requesting a second task force be created to study the “disenfranchisement of people of color in the United States’ electoral system; to consider whether or not the church should make a policy statement on this matter.” The rationale states, “People of color have been disenfranchised through a variety of means, including defective voting apparatuses, voter suppression, and other discriminatory practices such as exclusion of previously incarcerated nonfelon persons, and of those who have completed serving their sentences and probationary periods, realities that disproportionately affect people of color because of the demonstrated racial bias of the United States’ criminal justice system.” If approved, the task force would report its findings and recommendations to the 215th General Assembly.

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