As a white person, as a Jewish person and as the descendant of Holocaust survivors who have benefited from the German reparations program, I feel morally obligated to pay reparations to Black grassroots organizations and Black individuals until reparations are formalized by the U.S. government.

In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates published an article titled “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic that outlines the many ways the U.S. government and white Americans have systematically benefited from the oppression of Black people beyond the institution of slavery.

The U.S. government and non-Black Americans must engage in this sort of cheshbon nefesh by paying reparations to Black citizens and unlearning and dismantling white supremacist systems in this country.

The American economy continues to exploit the free labor of Black people through carceral labor, as Black people are disproportionately incarcerated in the U.S. All Black people are systemically disadvantaged by the government and are deserving of reparations regardless of individual family history.

I feel the need to regularly give reparations to Black grassroots organizations, Black individuals, and organizations that strive for a just, equitable and anti-racist society even though they are not formalized by the U.S. government.