I had occasion to revisit this work by Ta-Nehisi Coates after a conversation I had with a friend about the possibility of reparations being discussed in the new Congress.

Never has Congress looked more likely to discuss the issue. But never has government been so full of people whose heads would simply explode at the mere mention of the topic, either.

I suspect some heads would explode here, as well. But Coates' take on this topic, to me, has always stood out for it's blunt discussion of so much that others typically pussyfoot around. And his core thesis is one I hearily agree with:

And so we must imagine a new country. Reparations—by which I mean the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences—is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely. The recovering alcoholic may well have to live with his illness for the rest of his life. But at least he is not living a drunken lie. Reparations beckons us to reject the intoxication of hubris and see America as it is—the work of fallible humans.