Truth-Telling Leads to Racial Healing, Studies of Other Countries Show

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:


Truth-Telling Leads to Racial Healing, Studies of Other Countries Show

BY BENJAMIN APPEL &
CYANNE E. LOYLE

JUN 29, 2020


As the U.S. prepares to celebrate another year of its independence, the country is paying renewed attention to the founders, and how their legacy of slavery is linked to systemic racism.

Calls for reform to policing across the nation can help to directly reduce police violence against civilians but don’t address the centuries-old underlying problems in American society. Our research indicates that the country is not likely to escape its historic cycles of violence and racial oppression without addressing this painful and troubled history.

Sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, protests have emerged across the United States demanding police and criminal justice reform. Reform efforts abound—including Minneapolis city councilors declaring they will dismantle the police department, school districts cutting ties with local police, and states banning the police use of chokeholds.

Those efforts can make meaningful differences in individuals’ lives, but they do not address the systemic injustices perpetrated throughout the nation’s history. Our research into how war-torn and fractured nations find peace, justice, and societal reconciliation offers one possible approach. Truth commissions and reparations programs can effectively involve all perspectives in a conflict in a national-level discussion about longstanding political and economic grievances. In other countries, those efforts have led to sustainable and lasting peace in divided societies.

How do truth commissions work?

Truth commissions are investigations into past wrongdoings by a group of authorities, such as community or church leaders, historians, or human rights experts. The truth commissions are designed in varied ways, but their missions are the same. These investigations include the voices of those who experienced the wrongdoings as well as those alleged to have done harm. ...........(more)

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2020/06/29/racial-healing-reparations-truth-reconciliation/

[Karadeniz]

1. Yep...we need counseling. Since it's unchristian to be racist, churches all over the country

Could gather the information and conduct sessions.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Truth-telling is great for all kinds of issues.

That's the main problem with right-wing media... NOT being truthful!