>ONE, it would stop making the racial history of America some
>amorphous, misty thing. It becomes real as fuck when you start
>putting names and positions to those random faces. Seeing
>that that person holding the rope that is hanging a charred
>black body is the MAYOR of a town/city..? Yeah, that's real,
>and as image/facial recognition tech gets better, that shit is
>gonna be doable from an average laptop.

i think with the history we have now, we already have that. do you think some massive codification would make things any clearer than they already are? maybe but i would say they are clear enough as it is.

>TWO, with companies, the benefit is a str8 line to making the
>case for reparations much, much more concrete. I mean,
>American banking is deeeeeeeeeeep in slavery money.

there is no way private institutions would be made to pay for this sort of thing, especially as it was not illegal. federal or possibly state governments would be the only entities held accountable either way. a much more useful tool would be something that would better identify recipients of the reparations.

>THREE, beyond the enslavement of Africans, the mob violence
>and legalized theft that took place during Jim Crow should be
>catalogued as much as possible. Aaaaaaaalllllll them black
>folk the headed north after the red hot summer left a lot of
>land/property behind.

they made a tough choice and it was the right choice. that happens to people who flee all over the world. i think it's worth learning about but i question seriously if it would lead to restitution. the mistake here is that information will lead to action. that's overly optimistic to me =(

>Point is, if you put the experience of black america in the
>larger narrative of oppressed minorities globally in the last
>two centuries, the fact that we HAVE NOT attempted any of this
>is a minor miracle

well i do think there are very hard-working historians who have attempted to show causal relationships between the generational wealth and disparities therein. i just think a big "database" seems more challenging than it is useful.