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Media Reparations
Anti-Black racism has shaped our media system since colonial times, when ads trafficking enslaved Africans kept the nation’s earliest newspapers afloat.
Today, there are very few Black media owners — and racist algorithms amplify the voices of white supremacists on online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
To address this historical and ongoing harm, Black staff at Free Press created the Media 2070 project, which seeks to create a future ripe with the capital needed for Black people to control the creation, production and distribution of their own stories.
The centerpiece of the project is Media 2070: An Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations. This visionary 100-page essay examines the history of anti-Black racism in the U.S. media system — and charts the efforts of Black activists, journalists and others to fight for an equitable way forward.
Media 2070 advocates for media institutions and policymakers to make reparations to the Black community for policies and practices that have baked inequities into our media system. Read our essay to learn more.
Question and Answers
Q:
What is a media system?
A: We use this term in reference to print, radio, television and online outlets that provide the majority of mass communication and information to the U.S. public. This white-controlled system is defined by policies that determine who owns the media infrastructure, philanthropy and narrative practices that uphold a white-racial hierarchy.
Q:
What are reparations?
A: The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America defines reparations as “A process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions and families. Those groups that have been injured have the right to obtain from the government, corporation, institution or family responsible for the injuries that which is needed to repair and heal themselves. In addition to being a demand for justice, it is a principle of international human rights law.” Reparations policy and practice should include acknowledgement, accountability, reckoning and redress.
Q:
Why is this a racial justice issue?
A: The U.S. media system has inflicted harm on Black people for centuries. It’s crucial to tell this story and fight for the repair and reconciliation necessary to build strong, free, just communities. There is no just society without Black liberation.
