Reparations: a divisive issue under trial run - BCB #28
Also: a drop in crime reporting after the midterms, a brand new social media platform to tackle polarization
Reparations are still divisive, a few cities try it anyway
Pew Research Center’s new survey on reparations shows the issue remains divisive: three-quarters of Black adults (77%) say the descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be repaid in some way, while only 18% of white Americans say the same. There is also a split between Blue and Red: 48% of Blue favor reparations of some sort, while only 8% of Red say the same.
Reparations can be a core tool for dealing with past injustices, and racial injustice has been, and continues to be, a major driver of American conflict. But the question is far from straightforward. America has tried reparations before: after the Civil war, for Native Americans, for Japanese people interned during WWII, and for certain instances of abuse by police. Although money was paid in each of these cases, it’s not clear if any of these actions can be called successful from a conflict perspective – most of these topics are still live issues.
Nonetheless, there are a small number of cities going ahead with experiments. Evanston, Illinois has promised $10 million in housing benefits to 154 “ancestor” applicants — a small fraction of the city’s 12,000 or so Black residents. California’s state-wide reparations task force issued preliminary recommendations this summer, revealing deep divisions even within the state’s Black community. Last week Providence, Rhode Island announced a program to distribute a $10 million dollar fund to help equalize racial wealth differences. However, the use of Federal funds means the money must be distributed to people in need regardless of race, so about half of the city’s white population would also be eligible to apply. This is a vivid illustration of two different visions of fairness: helping people in need today versus rectifying historical injustices.
Drop in crime reporting post-election
Media mentions of crime have dropped significantly since the election, and this article argues that this is because of an unfounded “crime is out of control” narrative coming into the midterms. Fox News’s coverage of crime had surged in late September, relative to the first six months of the year. And it’s not just Fox – CNN, MSNBC, and even the New York Times reported more on crime in the run-up to the midterms. Mentions of crime on all networks collapsed in mid November.
Whether or not crime has increased or decreased depends a lot on which question you ask, including factors such as the time period, the region, and the type of crime. Data is not yet available for 2022, but from 2020 to 2021 violent crime fell by 1% nationally, while murders went up by 4%. However, it’s unlikely monthly data will show a nationwide wave matching the surge in coverage in the fall of 2022.
This has led to an argument about whether crime “deserved” so much coverage in the run up to the election. Reds were far more concerned about crime, but as with anything to do with conflict, it’s not that simple: Black Americans were also more likely to say that violent crime is a major problem — as they consistently say, regardless of election cycles.
Post.news wants to create a different kind of social media
A newly launched social media alternative aims to cure the polarizing tendencies of social media (though just how polarizing it actually is, and in what way, remains an active topic of debate). Post.news promises to be a civil place to debate ideas and learn from experts, journalists, and individual creators, where people can converse freely. Their argument is that today's ad-based platforms rely on capturing attention, which incentivizes the angriest, loudest, and most offensive posters. Post says they want to “give the voice back to the sidelined majority.”
They say they will “rigorously enforce” rules via content moderation, regardless of “gender, religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, net worth, or beliefs” (after criticism, they retracted the “net worth” part). Perhaps more interesting is its experimental micropayments business model: it wants users to read premium news articles for a small fee, and they even have a tipping system for posts. We welcome the attempt to redesign social media for better politics, but success will depend on whether their new model can offer up something that will truly entice users to pay.
Quote of the Week
How people in each political quadrant see the other quadrant:
(from here, original source unknown)