Defining the Debt

One of the biggest challenges for a local reparations effort is determining who should get repaid. Historically, the idea of reparations has been tied to the forsaken promise of 400,000 acres the U.S. government was going to give to formerly enslaved people due to the atrocities of slavery. However, the harms endured by Black people have not been confined to that period. We start the episode at Cape Coast Castle, a slave trading outpost on the coast of Ghana where enslaved people were first taken from the African continent and sold into the institution of slavery. We use this first point of harm to begin a discussion with a series of Black political thinkers about how the harms against Black people can begin to be addressed through reparations.

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Credits:

Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith 

Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell 

Editor: Paul Singer

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits 

Production oversight: Lee Hill 

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott 

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams 

Artwork: Mamie-Hawa Bawoh & Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He 

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins