Episode 260: Daniel Philpott on Racism and Reparations (May 31, 2023)

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink and Mario Ramos-Reyes discuss racial reparations. Our special and returning guest is Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in religion and global politics with a focus on reconciliation, the political behavior of religious actors, and Christian political theology. His books include Revolutions in Sovereignty (Princeton, 2001), Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Oxford, 2012), and Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World (Oxford, 2019). Most recently he has authored an essay titled “A Christian Case for Racial Reparations.” (An abstract is posted below.) Among the questions we’ll be asking are the following:1. Is racism in America both like and unlike original sin?2. What does it mean for a nation, rather than a person, to apologize for a wrongaction? Might a refusal to apologize constitute a structure of sin?3. What does it mean for one nation to forgive another nation?4. Can you give us a working definition of “reparations”?5. On your view, an historical injustice violates the natural law. What if a nationdoes not recognize the natural law? Might it still have a basis for reparations?6. What do you mean by the expression “a standing wound of injustice”? How canwe best respond to such a wound?7. Can we say, without racial prejudice, that some cultures are in some respectssuperior to others? Here one might think of the unique contribution of classicalGreek philosophy to Christian theology.8. Should we believe that injustice’s greatest damage is to the wrongdoer? If thisview is true, what reason do we have to also punish the wrongdoer?9. You write that “Justice in the Bible…is understood best through the words sedeq(or its feminine equivalent, sedeqah) in Hebrew and dikaiosune in Greek, whichtranslate to comprehensive right relationship.” Is this important in discussingreparations?10. Can you spell out why you think that “It is entirely plausible to attribute vastinequalities in wealth, position, and opportunity faced by African-Americanstoday to historical injustices faced within the past two generations”?11. Should the principle of subsidiarity play a role in making reparations?12. What are some specific forms that reparations might take?13. What might be some specific forms of forgiveness?14. Can we appeal to the concept of covenant in a secularized society?Abstract: National healing for the persistent wounds of racism, America’s original sin,can be advanced through a national apology, reparations and forgiveness. The frequentpractice of apologies and reparations around the world in the past generation provideprecedent for such measures. Christianity’s teaching of reconciliation and accompanyingnotions of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and atonement provide a strong moral basis forthese measures and resonate with the rationales through which the United States’sgreatest champions of civil rights and equality have fought against racism and slavery.Because racism and slavery were supported with the sanction of the state, in the nameof the collective body, measures of repair may now be performed by the state, in thename of the collective body. Questions of who pays, who receives, and what formreparations take are important ones and can be answered adequately. Throughcollective apology, reparations, and forgiveness, the United States would enact andrenew its national covenant, acting in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln, FrederickDouglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr.