Architectural Digest, July 17, 2020: Asheville, North Carolina, Residents Sound Off on Proposed Reparations for Its Black Community
Earlier this week, Asheville, North Carolina’s city council took the extraordinarily rare step
of adopting a measure that aims to atone for the centuries of civic injustices and destruction. Titled Resolution Supporting Community Reparations for Black Asheville
, the measure apologizes for the city’s role in perpetuating slavery, redlining, and urban renewal programs, and, most notably, calls for reparations to address inequity among its Black residents. The vote was unanimous, seven to zero.
The measure directs the city manager of Asheville—home to 92,000 residents, about 12% of them Black—to make recommendations “to specifically address the creation of generational wealth and to boost economic mobility and opportunity in the Black community.” But it does not establish direct payments to the victims of discrimination or their descendants, which some maintain should be a central component of reparations.
