Can the Federal Government Make Reparations a Reality?

Jun 28, 2023

Hundreds of movement leaders, activists, organizers, funders, and journalists gathered in Atlanta in June 2023 at , an invitation-only conference on reparations organized by the . As the conference鈥檚 media partner, 大象传媒 Media spoke with more than a dozen prominent organizers, activists, and leaders, among them Dreisen Heath, reparatory justice expert with the . Heath previously led Human Rights Watch鈥檚 domestic research and advocacy on reparations and reparative justice, and documented conditions of pervasive inequality and structural violence stemming from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Heath spoke with 大象传媒 Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar in Atlanta about her role in the movement for reparations and how she helped to co-write a sponsored by U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.).

This video is part of Realizing Reparations, an exclusive digital series exploring the leading edges of the reparations ecosystem鈥攁nd revealing a path toward healing and reconciliation.

This series was funded by a grant from Liberated Capital, a fund of the , which is led by Edgar Villanueva, of the Lumbee tribe, and works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, but 大象传媒 maintained full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.