reparations "readiness".. for lack of a better term. If anyone is not bored of this post yet, please educate/entertain me on this:


If you had to guess, what proportion of Black Americans/ADOS possess proof of ancestral enslavement (eg. copy of a deed, manumission record, etc.)??

And how difficult is it to acquire such proof? Like is there a lot of variation across different states in terms of how well maintained these records are?? Or is it mostly private organizations that maintain them, like historical societies and such?

Because I was just thinking some more about different types of proof/documentation people could show to become eligible for reparations benefits, and found myself wondering at about what level of readiness is the US Black American/ADOS population.

And IF readiness IS low, are there any groups or organizations whose mandate it is to help families obtain such documentation? Or if there aren't, do you guys think one would need to be created? Or would it be best to tap an existing org like NAACP or whoever that has an aligned mission, plus sufficient funding and capacity to organize such an effort??

Because it seems even though obtaining proof of ancestral enslavement would likely be a requirement for reparations eligibility, obtaining possession of that proof wouldn't necessarily need to wait until a reparations program was in place... similar to how registration to vote occurs before an election, or enrolling for ACA occurs before seeking healthcare. Right? And do you think anti-reparations/racist powers that be could work to suppress accessibility to enslavement records if the reparations movement gained ground?? (a horrifying, but not unrealistic, risk to consider unfortunately)

And last thing I want to ask about: Enumeration.

The 2020 US Census is coming up. And there are some changes occurring with race and ethnicity data collection (Note: Hansi Lo at NPR does excellent reporting on this topic):

- https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1101227172516294656
- https://www.npr.org/2018/01/26/580865378/census-request-suggests-no-race-ethnicity-data-changes-in-2020-experts-say

^^This census in particular presents a very good opportunity to get an accurate headcount of the Black American/ADOS population and relevant demographics (eg age distributions, geographic distributions, etc) both nation-wide and within states, which would be critical for congress (or other entities, like think tanks or government agencies) to draw up appropriation proposals for reparations.

So my last question is: Is there coordinated discussion among Black Americans/ADOS about how to respond on the 2020 Census, to ensure the population is properly identified and enumerated?