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Ever since the United States governments unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American 40 acres and a mule after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nations legacies of slavery. Land-based reparations are also a form of redress for the territorial theft of colonialism. Around the world, politicians tend to dismiss calls for such initiatives as wishful thinking at best and discrimination at worst. Or else, they are swatted away as too complex to implement, legally and practically. Yet our research shows a growing number of municipalities and communities across the U.S. are quietly taking up the charge. We are geographers who since 2021 have been documenting and analyzing more than 225 examples of reparative programs underway in U.S. cities, states, and regions. Notably, over half of them center land return. These efforts show how working locally to grapple with the complexity of land-based reparations is a necessary and feasible part of the nations healing process. The Evanston effect Evanston, Illinois, launched the countrys first publicly funded housing reparations program in 2019. In its current form, Evanstons Restorative Housing Program has provided disbursements to more than 200 recipients. All are Black residents of Evanston or direct descendants of residents who experienced housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969. Benefits include down payment assistance and mortgage assistance as well as funds to make home repairs and improvements. The goal is to redress the harm Evanston caused during these 50-plus years of racial discrimination in public schools, hospitals, buses, and segregated residential zoning. During that same period, banks in Evanston, as in other U.S. cities, also refused to give Black residents mortgages, credit, or insurance for homes in white neighborhoods. I always said you can keep the mule, program beneficiary Ron Butler told NBC News in 2024. Give me the 40 acres in Evanston. Reparations that focus on land, housing, and property are about more than making amends for centuries of racial discrimination. They help to restore peoples self-determination, autonomy, and freedom. Following Evanstons lead, in 2021 a group of 11 U.S. mayors created Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, a coalition committed to developing pilot reparations programs. Members include Los Angeles; Austin; and Asheville, North Carolina. The cities act as sites to generate ideas about how reparation initiatives could be scaled up nationally. Each mayor is advised by committees made up of representatives from local Black-led organizations. Colonial reparations In recent years the city of Eureka, in Northern California, has been returning some territory to its Native inhabitants. Indigenous people often call this process rematriation; its part of a broader effort to restore sovereignty and sacred relationships to their ancestral lands. In 2019, after years of petitioning by members of the Wiyot people, the Eureka City Council returned 200 acres of Tuluwat Island, a 280-acre island in Humboldt Bay where European settlers in 1860 massacred about 200 Wiyot women and children. Its a sovereignty issue, a self-governance issue, said Wiyot tribal administrator Michelle Vassel in a November 2023 radio interview. Minneapoliss sale of city lots to the Red Lake Nation for $1 in 2023 is another example of how city governments can make amends for past Indigenous displacement and removal. Plans to develop the low-cost lots include a cultural center for Red Lake people, an opioid treatment center, and potentially housing. The Red Lake Reservation once included 3.3 million acres. The 1889 Dawes Act forced the Red Lake Band to cede all but 300,000 acres. The federal government later returned some land, but today the reservation is still only a quarter of its original size. Reparations are critical to racial equity These initiatives may sound like a drop in the bucket considering the vast harms committed over centuries of slavery and colonization. Yet they prove that governments can craft targeted, achievable, and meaningful policies to address colonialism and enslavement. They also tackle a frequent critique of reparations, which is that slavery and colonialism happened centuries ago. Yet their effects continue to harm Black and Native communities generations later. Today, white households in the U.S. have roughly nine times the wealth of typical Black households. One explanation for this racial disparity is that Black households earn 20% less than their white counterparts. But a more meaningful driver is what scholars call the intergenerational transmission chainthat is, the role that gifts and inheritance play in wealth generation. Thats why reparations, with both land and money, are so critical to creating racial equity. Still, reparations programs do raise a host of complex, practical questions. Which kinds of historic racial injustice take priority, and what form should repair take? Who qualifies for the benefits? The state of Minnesota transferred Upper Sioux Agency State Park back to the Dakota people in 2023 in an effort to make amends for a war and historic slaughter there. [Photo: Tony Webster/Flickr] Community-based land reparations Reparations dont have to come from the government. In recent years, more than a hundred community-based organizations across the U.S. have introduced their own initiatives to redistribute land and wealth to make amends for past injustices. Makoce Ikikcupi, in the Minnesota River Valley, is a community reparations program led by Dakota peoples. Since 2009, the group has been collecting funds to buy back portions of the Dakota homeland. One revenue source is voluntary contributions from descendants of Europeans who colonized that land. This fundraising strategy is sometimes called real rent or back rent. The group purchased its first 21-acre parcel of land in 2019, where it is building traditional earth lodges, with plans for several self-sustaining Dakota villages. We consider our donation . . . back rent, reads the testimony of one monthly contributor, Josina Manu, on the groups web page. He calls the reclamation of Dakota land a vital step towards creating a just world. Fair compensation for eminent domain Many communities are also working together to repair the legacies of anti-Black racism. In the 1960s, the city of Athens, Georgia, used eminent domain to build dormitories for the University of Georgia. Paying below market value, it demolished an entire Black neighborhood called Linnentown. In early 2021, following petitioning from former Linnentown residents whod lost their homes, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing their neighborhoods destruction as an act of institutionalized white racism and terrorism resulting in intergenerational Black poverty. Because Georgia law prohibits government entities from making payments to individuals, a community group stepped in to organize compensation. The result is Athens Reparations Action, a coalition of churches and community organizations. Formed in 2021, it had raised $120,000 by 2024 to distribute among the 10 families who are Linnentown survivors and descendants. Backlash Our research also tracks legal challenges to the reparations initiatives we are studying. Conservative groups such as Judicial Watch have filed dozens of retaliatory lawsuits against several of them, including Evanstons Restorative Housing Program. A 2024 class action complaint alleges that the program discriminates based on race, violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. These legal challenges are part of the broader front of conservative-led assaults on voting rights, affirmative action, and critical race theory. Like reparations, all are efforts to grapple with the U.S.s historical mistreatment of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Attacking those initiatives is an attempt to preserve what scholar Laura Pulido calls white innocence. We expect more of them under a second Trump term already defined by its assault on antidiscrimination policies and programs. So far, none of President Donald Trumps decrees has targeted reparations specifically. For now, reparations are still legal and constitutionaland possible. Sara Safransky is an associate professor at the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. Elsa Noterman is a senior lecturer in human geography at Queen Mary University of London. Madeleine Lewis is a doctoral student at the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
The breakout star of this season of The White Lotus? Aimee Lou Woodand her distinctive real-life smile. I mean, I cant believe the impact my teeth are having, the English actress told Jonathan Ross last month on Ross’s eponymous British chat show. I hope that people dont start, like, filing their teeth so they have gaps. Too late. Unfortunately, Wood may have unintentionally reignited a troubling DIY dentistry trend. On TikTok, users are once again taking nail files to their own teeth, with hashtags like #teethfiling and #teethfile, racking up more than 130 posts, according to Screenshot Media. @nikkysixxbxtch Couldve ended very poorly original sound – elaina While Woods smile may be the most recent inspiration, this isnt a new phenomenon. Teeth-filing videos have been circulating online for years. Im going to file my teeth down with a nail file because they are not perfect, one TikTok user said in a since-deleted video posted back in 2020. I have some ridges, and were ballin on a budget. But what might seem like a quick cosmetic fix can cause lasting harm. When you file your nails, your nails grow back, but your teeth dont, Detroit-based dentist Zainab Mackie told the Washington Posts Allyson Chiu, who originally reported on the trend. That outer enamel layer doesnt grow back. ... Once its gone, thats it. Dental professionals on TikTok have long warned users to step away from the emery boards and see a professional instead. Dont get mad at me when your teeth are more sensitive than a two-year-old crying over spilled milk, because I aint going to help you, orthodontist Benjamin Winters (aka the Bentist) said to his 5.5 million TikTok followers in a video that went viral. @thebentist @cheneltiara why you do dis to me! PSA: I dont recommend doing this have your dentist check to make sure its safe first! #teeth #braces original sound – The Bentist / Orthodontist Wood herself has opened up about her struggle to embrace her teeth when she was growing up. The Americans cant believe [my teeth], but theyre all being lovely, she said on the popular chat show. It feels so lovely. A real full-circle moment after being bullied for my teeth, forever. Maybe theres a lesson in that.
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E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. As someone deeply invested in sustainable mass transit and supply chain automation, I’m also invested in an idea that could change the world of freight transport for us all. The global supply chain is in flux. Even before new tariffs, the nearshoring trend in North America has created an urgent demand for more innovative and efficient freight solutions. However, despite automotive advances, transport logistics are riddled with inefficienciesbottlenecks at congested ports, trucks idling for hours at border crossings, and outdated infrastructure struggling to meet modern demands. But what if we could change that? What if freight could move continuously, seamlessly, and autonomously away from public roads? That’s precisely the vision behind Green Corridors, an emerging technology company tackling some of the most congested trade routes in North America. A new era for freight mobility Led by president and CEO Mitch Carlson, Green Corridors is pioneering a transformative approach to freight logistics, combining industrial automation with intelligent infrastructure. Their pilot projects under development include a 60-mile autonomous freight corridor between the Port of Houston and an inland terminal currently in feasibility stage, and a 165-mile corridor between Laredo, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico in predevelopment stage. These projects will redefine the way goods progress across these critical trade arteries. The core of the new system is an elevated guideway system where autonomous freight shuttles traverse a dedicated track to transport cargo seamlessly over these highly congested routes. Beyond incremental improvements to trucking or rail, the solution is an entirely new paradigm for freight transport. The implications are massive: Eliminate congestion: By shifting freight movement away from roadways and onto dedicated guideways running autonomous shuttles, these corridors substantially increase safety, reduce road maintenance costs, and alleviate traffic jams that cost billions of dollars in lost productivity. Strengthen national security: The system integrates directly with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, ensuring that every shipment is pre-scanned and approved before it crosses the U.S./Mexico border. Compared to today’s manual methods, in which only about 5% of cargo is fully scanned, this would mark a monumental shift in security and efficiency. Reduce emissions: Freight shuttles vastly reduce emissions from semi-trucks. Likewise, the shuttles run at 30 mph versus 60 and run on rails versus rubber tires, using clean diesel fuel and electric propulsion. A single corridor could cut emissions by up to 75% while maintaining 24/7 operations. Productivity: The trade routes Green Corridors are targeting are money-losing scenarios for traditional transport. In the proposed new model, truckers are more productive, have a higher quality of life, and able to make more trips per day. Tailor-made for nearshoring As nearshoring increases in North American markets, Mexico has overtaken China as the leading U.S. trade partner. This trend is a positive development in many respects; however, the infrastructure challenges of ground transport continue to hinder efficiency. Laredo, the nation’s No. 1 port of entry, sees 18,500 trucks cross the border daily, often waiting up to eight hours. The high growth of this route, particularly as the U.S. moves further away from reliance on factories in Asia, has made it challenging for Laredo to meet the increasingly higher pressure to remain profitable and predictable for ground transport. Green Corridors removes these inefficiencies and sets a new standard for freight logistics in an era where predictability, security, and efficiency are paramount. A national and global vision While the Laredo-Monterrey and Houston projects are first in line, Green Corridors is eyeing a much larger transformation. As it scales, the company plans to target intelligent freight transportation corridors in major port cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York. Ultimately, the solution could scale to anywhere congested corridors are throttling economic productivity. In its next phase, the company would like to play a primary role in reshaping shipping routes worldwide. For example, Mexico’s proposed Interoceanic Corridor, a 188-mile rail project meant to compete with the Panama Canal, could potentially use the Green Corridors intelligent freight transportation system to create a more efficient alternative instead. Instead of waiting weeks for ships to queue through the canal, companies could seamlessly transport freight from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico in hours. The road ahead Clearly infrastructure projects of this scale don’t occur overnight, but momentum is building. Green Corridors has already submitted its presidential permit application for the Laredo-Monterrey corridor. If approved, the project could be operational by 2030, according to my interview with Carlson. The company has aligned itself with leading engineering firms (including my own organization, Chang Robotics), financial institutions, and multiple government agencies to ensure a smooth execution. This type of development is the future of freighta system that operates 24/7, doesn’t clog our highways, and enhances security, while reducing environmental impact. For businesses navigating the complexities of modern supply chains, it offers the path to a more efficient and sustainable future. In an era where logistics disruptions can mean the difference between profit and los, that future can’t come soon enough. Matthew Chang is the founder and principal engineer of Chang Robotics.
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E-Commerce
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