Making Reparations

This chapter summarizes the theoretical account offered and then applies it to several case studies. The chapter begins with an unsuccessful attempt at reparations, offered recently by the Catholic Church. The chapter analyzes where this attempt goes wrong and where it goes right. The chapter then turns to several examples of making reparations, or first steps at making reparations, that have been defended by wronged communities: the Land Back movement, the Makoce Ikikcupi traditional earthlodge-building movement in Minnesota, the work of Ghanian-American physician (former medical student) Joel Bervell to address racism in the practice of medicine, and conceptual transformation of the concepts “woman,” “sex,” and “gender,” as this transformation has been defended by transgender philosophers. These latter three approaches represent good first steps for allies and members of wrongdoer groups to support in their efforts to begin to understand, and make, reparations for the past.