Tournament: NSD | Round: 4 | Opponent: Timothy Tang | Judge: Daniel Selman
Etzioni
A responsive community is one whose moral standards reflect the basic human needs of all its members. To the extent that these needs compete with one another, the community's standards reflect the relative priority accorded by members to some needs over others. Although individuals differ in their needs, human nature is not totally malleable. Although individuals are deeply influenced by their communities, they have a capacity for independent judgment. The persistence of humane and democratic culture, as well as individual dissent, in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union demonstrate the limits of social indoctrination. For a community to be truly responsive—not only to an elite group, a minority or even the majority, but to all its members and all their basic human needs—it will have to develop moral values which meet the following criteria: they must be nondiscriminatory and applied equally to all members; they must be generalizable, justified in terms that are accessible and understandable: e.g., instead of claims based upon individual or group desires, citizens would draw on a common definition of justice; and, they must incorporate the full range of legitimate needs and values rather than focusing on any one category, be it individualism, autonomy, interpersonal caring, or social justice.
Walker
Without a surrounding framework of respectful acknowledgment, responsibility, and concern, compensation can take on insulting, condescending, or dismissive meanings. The nature and meaning of restitution or compensation in restorative justice should emerge from a practice of communication centered on the needs and understandings of victims as well as wrongdoers' deepened understanding of the nature and meaning of the victims' loss and of the nature and extent of their own responsibility. A second difference between restorative justice and corrective justice approaches concerns the common phenomenon of denial, evasion, or minimizing of responsibility by those implicated in wrongdoing. Corrective justice, like retributive justice, requires that responsibility of particular parties be established in order to determine who must or should "pay" for wrong, through punishment or compensation. Ironically, this almost guarantees that the "bigger" the injustice the more contested will be the antecedent premises of responsibility. The more massive, collectively supported or tolerated, or historically extended an injustice is, the easier it will be to argue that assignments of responsibility are unclear, incoherent, or unfair, and so that arguments for large-scale redress cannot get started, or measures of redress are narrowly targeted to a few parties. Restorative justice practices by contrast typically create the conditions to leverage responsibility, that is, to move people from a minimal or peripheral sense of connection and responsibility to a richer and more demanding perception of what harms the wrong does and how they might be related to it.
And, restorative justice is key to solving any sort of racial disparity, since it focuses on healing the rift within communities.
Consedine
Restorative justice is a philosophy that embraces a wide range of human emotions including healing, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation as well as sanction when appropriate. It also recognises a world-view that says we are all interconnected and that what we do be it for good or evil has an impact on others. Restorative justice offers the process whereby those affected by criminal behaviour be they victims, offenders, the families involved or the wider community, all need to have a part in resolving the issues which flow from the offending. This provides recognition to a degree at least that all things are interconnected. Restorative justice cannot, of course, completely solve ~within~ the systemic issues created by class, race and gender divisions. These belong to wider communal efforts that seek to bring about equity and justice for all through transformative justice. Restorative justice does however play~s~ an important element in this transformative process. It can be used from situations in kindergartens and individual homes, through schools and communities, to the course of action followed in South Africa with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where a whole nation sought to be healed and reconciled to a criminal past. Where crime is involved, under restorative justice victims and offenders assume central roles and the state takes a back seat. The process does not focus on vengeance and punishment but seeks to heal both the community and the individuals involved. It seeks the common good of all concerned. This is done by putting the notion of reparation and not punishment at the centre.
Thus the standard is consistency with the principles of restorative justice.
The Oklahoma State Legislature should provide educational resources to the public, an excavation and reburial of victims of the Tulsa Race Riots and monetary compensation to living victims their living relatives.
The Tulsa Riots are a strong case for reparations, four warrants.
Brophy ====
One might ask, to what remedies would the Tulsa victims be enti- tled? Each victim would receive compensation for deprivation of property and temporary liberty. To that extent, Tulsa is a typical civil rights lawsuit. Is other relief available, too, that might permit a more community-wide remedy? Tulsa is a strong case for reparations of some sort, either through the courts or through the legislature. In- deed, four limiting factors suggest that the legislature owes Tulsa vic- tims reparations: (1) some of the victims are still alive, (2) the Tulsa riot is concentrated in time and place, (3) the government sponsored the harm, and (4) promises were made at the time to help rebuild the city. Tulsa is, however, at once compelling and limiting: as we move into larger reparations programs beyond Tulsa, the case becomes more amorphous.
To clarify, first: living victims means it is easier to identify whom to give reparations to, second, the circumstances of the harm are easier to identify, third, the wrongdoer is easily identified, and fourth is the inherency of promises being made but not kept.
A is Inherency and Harms
First, Black Americans still seek justice for the Tulsa Riots.
Ogletree
Fifteen days after the Riot, Judge Loyal~. Martin, chair of the Emergency Committee appointed to restore order after the Riot, acknowledged that: Tulsa can only redeem herself from the country-wide shame and humiliation into which she is today plunged by complete restitution and rehabilitation of the black belt. The rest of the United States must know that the real citizenship of Tulsa ... will make good the damage, so far as it can be done, to the last penny.22 Eighty years later, the commission created by the state to determine the causes of the Riot and to assess culpability agreed that "~r ~eparations are the right thing to do. "23 Yet, as of today, neither the state of Okla- homa nor the city of Tulsa has paid one cent to any of the victims or their descendants. There are over 120 survivors of the riots still living; for example, Otis Clark, who recently celebrated his one-hundredth birthday, is still alive and seeking justice.24
Next is the historical shroud over African-Americans.
Oklahoma Commission
During the last 20 to 30 years, several large and numerous small African American skeletal populations have been studied by physical anthropologists. Each pop u la tion has contributed significantly to the reconstruction of African American lives, experiences, communities, and historical events. African Americans to a great extent are the "invisible people" in the historical record. This is a common problem whenever one studies non-elite people in the historical past, especially members of the underclass. These are the people who facili tated the lives of the wealthy and the powerful of society; they built cit ies, pro vided goods and ser vices, and, to a great ex tent, were the essential elements of a growing society. How - ever, they remain obscure in publications of their times and the history books. Elites leave significant documentation of their lives in a va riety of forms and these materials have a high probability of being archived. The few sources of documentation for the poor and under classes of a so ci ety are likely to be lost.
And, the Riots regarded as a "local embarrassment" despite affecting numerous families.
Oklahoma Commission 2
What is remarkable, in retrospect, is the degree to which this nearly happened. For within a decade after it had happened, the Tulsa race riot went from being a front-page, national calamity, to being an incident portrayed as an unfortunate but not re ally very significant, event in the state's past. Oklahoma his tory text books pub lished dur - ing the 1920s did not men tion the riot at all — nor did ones pub lished in the 1930s. Finally, in 1941, the riot was men tioned in the Oklahoma vol ume in the in flu en tial Amer i can Guide Se ries — but only in one brief para graph. 8 No where was this historical amnesia more startling than in Tulsa itself, especially in the city's white neigh bor hoods. "For a while," noted for mer Tulsa oil man Osborn Camp bell, "picture post cards of the victims in awful poses were sold on the streets," while more than one white ex-rioter "boasted about how many notches he had on his gun." But the riot, which some whites saw as a source of lo cal pride, in time more gen er ally came to be regarded as a local embarrassment. Even tually, Osborn added, "the talk stopped."… That there would be some re luc tance to ward dis cuss ing the riot is hardly sur pris ing. Cities and states — just like in di vid u als — do not, as a gen eral rule, like to dwell upon their past short com ings. For years and years, for ex am - ple, Oklahoma school chil dren were taught only the most san i tized ver sions of the story of the Trail of Tears, while the his tory of slav ery in Oklahoma was more or less ig nored al to - gether. More over, dur ing the World War II years, when the na tion was en gaged in a life or death strug gle against the Axis, his tory text - books quite un der stand ably stressed themes of na tional unity and con sen sus. The Tulsa race riot, need less to say, did not qual ify. But in Tulsa it self, the riot had affected far too many families, on both sides of the tracks, ever to sink en tirely from view. But as the years passed and the riot grew ever more distant, a mindset developed which held that the riot was one part of the city's past that might best be for got ten al together. Re mark ably enough, that is ex actly what be gan to hap pen.
C is Advantages and Solvency
A line of criticism of reparations politics frequently encountered among African Americans is that it is a form of racialized identity politics that reinforces rather than reduces the essentialism at the heart of modern racism and that promotes a sense of victimization that is culturally and politically debilitating.49 This is, of course, a problem facing many historically oppressed groups seeking justice, particularly those first constructed as social groups through that very oppression. But it makes little political sense to maintain that a group identification forged during centuries of brutal oppression could or should be dissolved while the injuries still persist. To proscribe race consciousness for remedial purposes without removing the racial inequities produced through racial classification for purposes of domination would be a fateful political error.50 Moreover, as the abolitionist and civil rights movements demonstrate, it is a vast oversimplification to claim that the race consciousness forged in struggles against racial oppression merely reinforces a consciousness of victimization. Indeed, depending on circumstances, such struggles may well enhance a group's sense of effective agency and transformative power. Unremembered, unacknowledged, and unredressed historical injustices on the scale of slavery and segregation cannot help but demoralize the common life of a nation, as they have ours.51 Reparations harbor the potential, at least, for reshaping our public memory and remoralizing our political culture. Though pursuing them surely runs the risk of exacerbating racial tensions, it also promises to promote~s~ racial justice by helping to convince the majority that millions upon millions desolate lives were not "their own fault" but a national tragedy for which the nation as whole bears responsibility. Given the alternatives, or rather the lack thereof, the promise may be worth the risk.====
The reappearance of the atrocity in the public sphere will close the memory gap and invigorate the public consciousness.
McCarthy 2
In "Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the USA,"I argued that the politics of race in America was trapped in a vicious circle of racial injustice and racial resentment,and that we might,perhaps,break out of it through an intense and prolonged "national conversation on race," if only one could be set in motion. 41 I want now to suggest that the reparations movement could ignite a public debate in our mass-mediated public sphere and that this could eventually prove to be of great "pedagogical" significance in raising and reforming public historical consciousness.42 The structured forums provided by public trials,public hearings,commissions of inquiry,and the like are settings in which the massive gap between professional historiography and public memory might be narrowed somewhat;hat is to say,in which the dismal state of public awareness of the actual history of slavery and segregation in the United States,of the extent to which it has shaped our culture and institutions,and of the pervasive structural inequalities it has left behind could be improved.Of course,among African Americans, existing inequities are widelyun- derstood to be the consequence of systematic historical injustice. And black activists and intellectuals have repeatedly set the critical narrative of Ameri- can history behind that view over against the official "master narrative"of the birth and steady grow thin the American Republic of "liberty and justice for all." But the master narrative has dominated public historical conscious- ness.44Versions of it have been disseminated in every generation and to every new wave of immigrants—through schooling, citizenship requirements, public celebrations,museums and memorials,the mass media,and just about every other vehicle of political culture.On the other hand,versions of the crit- ical narrative have,since the 1960s,become firmly established as the dominant view in the professional historiography of slavery and its aftermath.As a result,critical narratives of slavery and segregation now have the weight of scholarship on their side,where as for almost a century after the Civil War, views much more sympathetic to the South's"peculiar institutions "predominated among professionals as well.45Debates about competing national nar- ratives are contests for public memory, with the potential to reshape political culture and therebytoinfluencepoliticalpractice.46Inregardtothehistoryof racial oppression in America, a public debate of this kind is desperately needed, and the filing of reparations lawsuits may set one in motion. The continued failure of mainstream politics seriously to address racial inequities has moved reparations activists to juridify them.And though the adversarial nature of lawsuits seems to speak against using them to initiate a "conversation," other aspects of judicial proceedings—such as the use of expert witnesses and the conduct of extensive discovery—speak for their possible value in public education.47One might reasonably expect that,under more controlled conditions of argumentation,the weight of historical scholarship and empirical inquiry would eventually make itself felt,and with the support of a broader political movement, one might reasonably hope that this would eventually have an influence ontheminds,andmaybeeventhehearts, ofthewiderAmericanpublic.Tobepoliticallyefficacious,thisprocessneed not result in unanimity of public historical consciousness. There is ample spacefor competing interpretationswithintheparameters setby historical scholarship, even after the deep ignorance and widespread error so politi- cally efficacious at present have been alleviated. In the end, the invigora- tion of public memory and the ongoing conflict of interpretations occa- sioned by it would, in democratic politics, have to take effect through winning over a majority to the critical narrative.Thus my line of argument involves a "political conjecture" that,were the reparations debate to occupy center stage in the public sphere,democratic deliberation would eventually reflect more accurate views of our interconnected history of racial domination and disrespect—and this "symbolic" gain might be achieved even if the pursuit of "material" reparations failed.
And, the excavation and reburial of the remains of Tulsa victims will give dignity and a voice to the unheard.
Oklahoma Commission 3
There fore, when African American skeletal populations are discovered or recovered they present a unique opportunity to add to the historical record and document the lives of the in di - vid u als and their community. Physical anthropological studies provide a direct method of assessment (providing evidence) when skeletal populations like the New York African Burial Ground or the Dallas Freedmen's cem e - tery be come avail able. Af ri can Amer i can skel e tal pop u la tions have be come avail able un der sev eral con di tions: 1) the in ten tional ex ca va tion due to land re de vel - op ment or threat of en vi ron men tal dam age; 2) the ac ci den tal dis cov ery of an aban doned cem - e tery; 3) ar chae o log i cal ex ca va tion pro jects for his tor i cal/an thro po log i cal re search and doc u - men ta tion. These skel e tal pop u la tions, rep re - sent a broad spec trum of Af ri can Amer i can life styles through out the eigh teenth, nine - teenth, and twen ti eth cen tu ries in the West ern Hemi sphere. Biological and behavioral factors affect the human skeleton because the skeleton is a dynamic system, that undergoes growth and development throughout the individual's life span. In gen eral, these bi o log i cal and cul tural fac tors can in ter fere in the nor mal pro cesses of bone growth and loss, caus ing dis ease ep i sodes and/or pe ri ods of de layed growth. These ex pe - ri ences can be usu ally in del i bly re corded on the skel e ton and dentition. Through ob serv ing these "his tor i cal rem nants" of bones and teeth, the physical anthro pol o gist has a means of measuring a population's health. In addition, the skeleton can record the actual cause(s) of death and/or con trib u tory factors surround ing ~it~ death. There fore, the potential contribution and importance of the Tulsa Race Riot victims' skeletal remains would be significant to both the documentation of the historical event and to African American history. It is imperative that these remains be located, recovered, "given a voice" through skeletal analysis, and then reinterred with dignity, as most of the African American skeletal populations have been and will be in the future.
The Rosewood Compensation Act provided monetary compensation to families and survivor of the similar 1923 Rosewood Massacre.
Hatcher
Then, in 1995, arising from the legal claims of families and survivors of the 1923 Rosewood Massacre, the Florida legislature passed the Rosewood Compensation Act. 52 This legislation marked the first time in American history that an American ad- ministration accepted responsibility for an act of racial violence committed against African Americans. 53 Prior to the massacre, the town of Rosewood was a prosperous oasis for African Americans, despite its geographical placement in a predominately White- American county in Florida. The Mas- sacre began when White-American residents of the county believed that an African-American man sexually as- saulted a White-American woman. Local and state law enforcers either participated or stood by and idly watched White-American residents kill African-American men, women, and children and burned their small town to the ground. 54 As a result of the violence, Rosewood was literally wiped off the Florida state map. Although the Florida government did not apologize for the massacre, the state acknowledged its responsibility for failing to prevent the tragedy and recognized that White Americans were responsible for destroying Rosewood. In addition, the Act re- quired a criminal investigation and directed state universities to conduct research on the Rosewood incident. Monetary repara- tions were paid to nine survivor s of the horrific tragedy in the amount of $150,000; while, the 14 5 decedents of residents were paid between $375 and $22,535 for property damage. 55 More- over, in the form of non-monetary reparations, individual educa- tional grants under the Rosewood Family Scholarship Fund were made available. 56 The scholarship gives preference to those stu- dents that are direct descendents of the Rosewood family. 57
Thanks to this, Rosewood is no longer off the map.
Curry .
In 2004, the state declared Rosewood ~is~ a Florida Heritage Landmark. A historical marker, sponsored by the Florida Department of State and the Real Rosewood Foundation, now stands on State Road 24 in Rosewood in front of the only building that was left standing following the town's burning. Archer resident Lizzie Jenkins, a retired Alachua County educator, is president of the ~Real Rosewood~ foundation. Her aunt, Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier, was a schoolteacher in Rosewood and fled during the riot. Jenkins said it's important to keep the Rosewood story alive. "We've experienced a lot. However, we still have the courage to fight on for justice and equality and make certain our children know where they come from and remember their history and the struggle," she said
Thus affirm.
