THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

An overview focusing on slavery’s grim legacy.

Activist Chavis and journalist Brown trace the course of African slavery from its beginning in the 16th century, recounting its genocidal cruelty but emphasizing that emancipation did not eliminate institutional racism, economic and social exploitation of non-whites, or post-colonial oppression of Africa and its people. Sixteen chapters summarize this history but concentrate on its consequences. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery except as punishment for crime; the authors point out that from post–Civil War Black Codes to mass incarceration today, prison has been a vehicle for African American oppression. Redlining (banks denying loans to residents of low-income neighborhoods) is illegal, but a Black family looking to buy a house rarely has an easy time, they note. Urban renewal lost its shine when it became clear that it destroyed Black neighborhoods, but gentrification has had its own destructive impact. The authors acknowledge that progress has been made since the 1960s but contend that at the current rate it will take 500 years to close the economic gap. A long final section makes the case that reparations are due for the massive wealth that centuries of unpaid labor have delivered to whites and their businesses, even those not directly involved. Readers may be surprised when the authors recount examples of local governments approving restitution and even making modest payments, although these have been confined to cities and blue states; Congress has no current plans to get involved. It’s clear that the authors do not expect to win over skeptics but to inspire the like-minded, which their blistering recounting of centuries of injustices may well do.

Fact-filled and unsettling.