The local committee assigned to come up with reparations recommendations to address slavery's living legacy in St. Louis is no doubt going to hear a lot of community input about the need for cash distributions similar to the $500 payments the mayor approved last year. That's not the way to go if the mayor and the committee truly want reparations to have a lasting impact on the city and the people whose ancestors were subjected to the inhuman brutality of slavery.

Mayor Tishaura Jones announced the nine committee members in March with an eye toward analyzing the history of race-based harms and injustices. "Ultimately, the commission will offer recommendations for methods to develop and implement reparations for Black St. Louisans and the descendants of enslaved peoples," her office stated.

The national discussion of reparations has taken many routes, with some proposing large payouts to descendants of slaves from a $10 trillion fund. Reparation skeptics abound, and given the harsh political divisions around the country these days, it's safe to say that something on that scale is probably going nowhere.

But the discussion of reparations should remain a constant in the American conversation because real harm was done during the centuries when Blacks were deprived of their freedom and humanity while forced to work as the enslaved property of white people. Even after the Civil War, blatantly discriminatory practices deprived slave descendants of their right to equal opportunity and liberty. The descendants have never been made whole for the economic and human toll of that legacy.

Here's why cash payments would be a bad approach: Money has a bad tendency to be squandered for fleeting purposes, usually for immediate needs such as food, housing, clothing and transportation. The ultimate beneficiaries are those who take the cash as payment: grocery stores, landlords, big-box retailers, car dealerships — very few of which tend to be owned by Black people.

The city of Evanston, Illinois, offers an excellent model of how to make the most of reparation funds. The program's goal is to create lasting wealth among slave descendants. That means empowering them to purchase and fix up their own homes. Evanston is well on the way toward a reparations-based home mortgage assistance program that includes a rigorous process to confirm that the applicant is, indeed, a descendant of slaves.

In St. Louis, such a program would serve a double benefit, not only uplifting a long-neglected community but also helping rebuild and repopulate neighborhoods. The wealth created by such a program would remain in the city, helping the intended population without necessarily enriching others, like vendors and retailers, whose only goal is to make a buck.

The mission of the reparations committee is a valid one. Its recommendations must be based on the most effective and beneficial long-term solutions, not short-term gratification.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: ahundt at Pixabay