"What Iâ€™m talking about is more than recompense for past injusticesâ€”more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What Iâ€™m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal. Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs on the Fourth of July while denying the facts of our heritage. Reparations would mean the end of yelling â€œpatriotismâ€ while waving a Confederate flag. Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history."

-- Ta-Nehisi Coates

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