Not a Handout, Not a Payoff, Not a Bribe
Rev. Douglas Taylor
May 17, 2026
Sermon video: https://youtu.be/wAWfaR_Xoxo
When Dr. King went to Washington 1963 and delivered the speech for which he is most famous, he did say “I have a dream…” and cast into our collective awareness a vision of beloved community for which we still yearn and strive. But he also said “In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.” In saying that, he was speaking of reparations. He likened the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to a promissory note written to every American guaranteeing the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
King pointed out the ways in which our government had “defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.” King lamented the conditions poverty and discrimination faced by people of color back then. He called on the country to make good on the promise enshrined in our founding documents. And this was not the only time Dr. King called for reparations in his speeches or in his books.
A piece I find quite compelling is the way King framed the conversation in our shared American values as the land of liberty and opportunity. Reparations can get mistakenly framed as charity or entitlement or some sort of handout – but in truth the concept is rooted in repair. Reparations is a way to repair something broken.
In his highly acclaimed piece in the Atlantic back in 2014 “The Case for Reparations, Ta-Nehisi Coates explains the goals of the concept.
“What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts. What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt. What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” (Atlantic, 2014)
I remember a conversation I had with a contractor doing some work for me on my roof. He shared with me some of his struggles as a small business owner and how working for some other big company might be the easier way. But he complained about a state program that gave financial incentives to people of color starting small businesses. He wondered where his support was. But this guy had generational wealth and support – his dad and two of his brothers all did similar work; and when he hit hard times, I witnessed his family pitch in to help him. That’s the point. Our country has systematically undercut generational wealth for Black people.
I recently read about the 2019 Yale University study revealing a dramatic disconnect in our understanding of the financial situation for Black people in our country. The story revealed that “most Americans believe that Black households hold $90 in wealth for every $100 held by white households.” (in The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones) What do you think it really is? (The actual amount is $10-13.)
Reparations is about thinking like a community instead of like an individual. What does the community need in response to the harm that’s happened, not what do I need or what would work for me. It doesn’t really mean anything for me to say I’ve never owned slaves or stolen land from indigenous people or blocked someone from homeownership with a restrictive racial covenant or put a Japanese American in an internment camp. I didn’t do any of those things. And in so stating I’ve contributed nothing to the conversation. We need to start thinking like a community for this. Instead of refusing to be blamed, ask what we need. What do we need to repair, to heal, to bring more justice to our situation.
Reparations can often begin in education, in helping the community understand the situation we are in. New York State passed the Amistad law ten years back mandating schools to teach comprehensive instruction on the American Slave trade and its impact on our country and our people. And currently the state is hosting public hearings on Reparations.
https://www.ny.gov/programs/new-york-state-community-commission-reparations-remedies
They had a hearing in Binghamton just a few weeks ago that I regret missing. The group is currently just soliciting input and feedback with the likelihood of new legislative proposals when they publish their report later this year. They may end up talking about education again. Perhaps they’ll tackle housing, or climate, or poverty. We’ll see.
In a news article about the hearings, Commission Chair Seanelle Hawkins says,
“There’s still a lot of hurt and trauma. And healing needs to happen, especially when we see there are inequities that are still present today. We said that slavery happened many years ago but we’re still feeling the impact of that today. So, we invite the Southern Tier to be part of the healing process.”
What might reparations look like in a congregation? I suspect our monthly Special Collections are a small beginning of that work. Not because we are sending money to a group or organization doing good work; but because we are working to develop our relationships with these groups. Money is one way to approach reparations. But are root, relationships are the key.
There is a fascinating case study online about First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Needham, MA. During some research and investigation for an anti-racism workshop, the minister uncovered a deep history of slavery associated with the congregation she served. Rev. Catie Scudera went on to offer some powerful truth-telling about Needham UU’s founding slave-owning minister. There was no money involved in this example, just a facing of the harm wrought.
https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/widening/restoration-reparations
Consider another example, the Akron UU church has what they call “reparations through music.” On their church website, that explain that, as part of their anti-racism work, the “Music Committee is initiating taking an offering every time we use a Spiritual in our services.” It is a recognition that we owe a tremendous debt to the catalogue of music categorized as ‘spirituals.’
The Music Committee has designated the local Akron non-profit group YEPAW (Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop) as the recipient of this offering because of the transformative, life altering work YEPAW does for young people in the Akron area https://uuakron.org/justice-council/reparations-through-music/
Here is a third example: I attended a UUA sponsored workshop on Reparations a few weeks ago and listened to Rev. Oscar Sinclair and lay leader Louise Livesay-Al talk about an internal racism audit they did at Unity – Unitarian in St. Paul, MN more than a decade back that laid the groundwork for their thinking and perspective when a bequest came their way of a significant chunk of money. In discussion and discernment, the congregation decided to give the money in the form of reparations to people affected by the impacts of racism and oppression. That choice from over ten years back has led the congregation to be remarkably engaged with the community around them to this day.
A final example I’ll offer is from Camp Unirondack, the UU youth camp I attended growing up. Recently the emails from executive staff have included a tag with a land acknowledgement. “Unirondack is located on stolen Haudenosaunee land.”
By themselves, land acknowledgements like this can feel less like a statement about injustice and more like virtue signaling. ‘Are we planning to give the stolen land back?’ some people will ask. A real response to this tension is not so simplistic, of course.
On the website, under the page about camperships and discounts, the camp has this:
Camp Unirondack is committed to anti-colonial justice. That is why Unirondack is free for Indigenous campers.
We recognize that the Haudenosaunee land that we occupy does not belong to us. We recognize that, while it may not be possible to fully reconcile that fact, there are many things that we can do right now to address the harms of ongoing colonial violence in our communities.
During our time as occupants here, we strive to be good stewards and caretakers of the land so that it may be in good health for future generations. We use our platform as educators to teach our campers and staff about the painful realities of colonial history in North America, and the ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples today. We hope to inspire a generation of youth who will fight back against colonial injustice in their communities.
https://www.unirondack.org/camperships-discounts
Reparations can take many forms. It may be about sending money in a particular direction such as investment or divestment, or simply offering uncomfortable truth about our history such as about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. It may be about crafting or advocating legislative changes at various levels from federal to local, or it may involve reconciliation among communities where harm has been committed. What might it look like for us?
Our Unitarian Universalist values call us to build Beloved Community. Our core values of generosity, Equity, and Justice lead us to engage with the conversations happening in and beyond our congregations to repair what is broken among us.
Most of the work of justice and repair is about relationships. I’m not suggestion a particular program or path. I’m not offering answers. I hope we will reflect together more deeply and honestly about our values and the harm we know has happened and is happening.
May we trust that we can think like a community rather than like individuals. May we lean into relationships around us where harm has been experienced. May we be curious together about what repair could look like here and in our country. May we speak truth, love justice, and move humbly through a hurting world.
In a world without end,
May it be so.
Rev. Douglas Taylor 