Carrying the cost: Jonathan Dale on reparations

‘I have been shocked out of my complacency.’

For many of us, the impetus for thinking about racial justice came after the murder of George Floyd. Our local elders sought ways of opening ourselves to the subject. Eventually our informal Black Lives Matter group became an Area Meeting Racial Justice Group. We held a regional gathering, where a group of nurses talked about the many manifestations of racism in the NHS, and other creative listening exercises. Our minds, hearts and spirits have been enriched, some insights have been gained – and some truths have become less abstract and more urgent.

So what of reparations particularly, now that Yearly Meeting has asked us the consider them? Our Area Meeting has had just one exploratory session, but for me it has become an important question. I have been shocked out of my complacency. I had always seen my nineteenth-century Quaker forbears as progressives, even financing the release of enslaved people. Then I heard Ann Morgan’s depiction of the Lancaster Quakers who trafficked enslaved people in their boats. I hadn’t known! At first I didn’t connect this information with my family, but the names of two slave traders – Foster and Birket – crept into my mind. Myles Birket Foster was a relation of mine. Eventually I had it confirmed.

By this time I was enrolled in the brilliant Woodbrooke/QPSW course ‘Exploring Faith and Climate Justice’. It offered an excellent choice of reading, including from Olúfémi Táíwò on reparations. I now see reparations as having four connected components: one, our nation has stolen the labour of enslaved people to build its riches; two, it has stolen objects, materials and trading opportunities; and thirdly our wealth has been produced by using more than our fair share of carbon – we have a lot to pay back. There is also a huge fourth reparation that is due: the urgent and vital repair to the natural world and all the other creatures that live in it.

This is huge. Some will say it’s so huge it’s impossible. Some Friends have even argued that it is all too vague and in the past, and we should focus instead on contemporary slavery. ‘As well as’ not ‘instead’, please. ‘Instead’ would minimise the illegitimacy of white privilege. So it’s huge, maybe. But it’s also simple. We have taken what was never ours and we need to repay. That’s hard but it seems to me to be true. If it is, that is our guidance. I need to work more urgently for equality for all. Whatever the next years bring, I am profoundly grateful to all those who have contributed to my heart being slowly but firmly prized open. My physical eyesight is degenerating, but the work done on climate justice, racism and reparations over these last few years has given me a much clearer vision. I better understand what has made me what I am, and it has liberated me into a fuller vision of what I owe. I now know it is more than I could ever repay – but that is no excuse at all for not starting.

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Comments

Ann Morgan and Jonathan Dale give a distorted and unbalanced view of Quakers and slavery. Quakers for the large part did not agree with slavery and many of the leading lights in the campaign for its abolition were Quakers.
Our actions for racial justice and inclusion should be based on our testimony to equality. 
Jonathan speaks to my condition with the implication that climate change and the environment are the most important issues at the moment.

By Gareth E on 14th December 2023 - 10:48

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