Accounting 

Acknowledgment

Repair

Laying the Groundwork to Reverse Harms
From Systemic Racism
Against African Americans in Seattle and King County

   

Why Reparations:
Six Areas of Harm


The Washington Supreme Court, in a letter of 2020, stated: “The injustices faced by black Americans are not relics of the past.” Rather, the devaluation and degradation of black lives “is a persistent and systemic injustice that predates this nation’s founding…. We continue to see the accumulated impact of racialized policing and the overrepresentation of black Americans in every stage of our criminal and juvenile justice systems.


These harms are significant at the local level as well. For example, Seattle - King County Public Health (DPH) has found that the consequences are lifelong: Systemic disadvantages create inequitable access to opportunities and resources that result in lower life expectancy for Black individuals. In The Race Gap, DPH has also found that: While health outcomes and behaviors are complex with interwoven factors, it is clear that broader inequities and discrimination – unequal access to opportunities and resources, discrimination, and systemic oppression – can all take a toll on the body and create biological changes that affect the health of mothers, newborns, and infants.


SAARC's leaders have prioritized six areas of egregious harm, which must be explored in order to identify and calculate the value of harms that must be mitigated through reparations.

Area of Harm #1

Economic Empowerment

The absence of family wealth that passes from generation to generation effectively means that Black families lack the means of economic advancement enjoyed by white households. Without resources, they have no collateral to support loans to grow a business. A recent study found that the median white income in Seattle is 2 – 3 times high than that of Seattle’s Black residents. Black workers are 3 times more likely to be unemployed than white residents. The study [1] also found that white-owned businesses have twice the value of black owned businesses. One-third of Black households have no wealth at all. Reparations programs can be instrumental in mitigating these entrenched inequities.



Photo by Lawrence Crayton, Unsplash

Photo from The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, UW

Area of Harm #2

Housing Development

The impacts of redlining redound today. A recent University of Washington study found an association between past redlining practices and air quality today. Neighborhoods classified as “hazardous” under historical redlining practices are today exposed to higher concentrations of all types of pollution than those once labeled “desirable,” the study found. Black and lower-income communities have been subject to some of the worst pollution. 

“Whites-only clauses and other restrictions …can be found today in deeds and property records covering more than 34,000 properties.”

- The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, UW

Area of Harm #3

Education for
Black Children

Many factors contribute to this disparity. Low-wage jobs destabilize housing, resulting in more frequent school changes for African American children than for their white counterparts. Inequities in school funding result in fewer supports for African American children in the classroom. African American kids are disciplined more harshly than their white counterparts and are out of the classroom more frequently.


In King County, 73% of Black students do not obtain a college degree, a rate 21% greater than their white counterparts [1]. This has lifelong implications; Black people’s lack of access to stable, well-paying jobs limits wealth accumulation over a lifetime. Because health insurance access ties to education and employment status, their access to comprehensive health insurance is limited, with health consequences over the lifespan.

"Seattle’s schools are now more segregated than they were in the 1980s, and in the past decade, the district’s gap in academic outcomes between Black and white students has grown to become one of the widest in the country.”

- Katherine Long, Seattle Times

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions, Unsplash

Photo by Heather Mount, Unsplash

Area of Harm #4

Civic and
Political Access

African American civic engagement has been thwarted by systemic racism since chattel slavery. Since legal enslavement ended, laws limiting African American civic participation have been endemic in the US, including fees, fines, taxes, tests, and wide-ranging voter suppression strategies. 

In Washington, these have largely ended but their legacy continues. Civic engagement remains hampered by economic and housing instability, health disparities and disproportionate engagement with the police and courts. Vote-by-mail ballots of Black voters are still rejected at four times the rate of those of white voters [1]. The outcome has been white-centric policies shaping communities, leadership and opportunities.

Area of Harm #5

Health Care for Black People

Disparities in insurance coverage, service availability, service quality and dismissal of patient concerns are reflected in  6 years shorter life expectancy for Black residents (75.5 years) than for white residents (81.4 years).  8.1 per thousand Black infants die relative to 3.2 whites infants. Access to food is essential for healthy growth and development, yet, in King County, 40% of Black households are food-insecure.

"We recognize that historically and currently King County has been complicit in maintaining and perpetuating structural racism, and that as an institution we must be a vital player in dismantling oppressive systems that are grounded in white supremacy."

-King County, 2020

Photo by  Matheus Ferrero, Unsplash

Photo by Tingey Injusty Law Firm, Unsplash

Area of Harm #6

Judiciary/
Carceral System


From its inception, the United States has systematically developed and refined judicial and extra-judicial systems to control and exploit African Americans. From slave patrols to vagrancy laws to the War on Drugs, sanctioned police violence, brutality, forced labor and incarceration have decimated African American families, culture and opportunity. 


Seattle and King County are no exception, with disproportionate targeting of African Americans for infractions, penalties, convictions and sentencing. From racial profiling to excessive use of force to disproportionate sentencing, the criminal justice system harms Black people at every juncture with lifetime consequences. 


Black residents of Washington are 1.6 times more likely than white people to get arrested for the same offense [1]. The incarceration rate for Black people in King County is 5.1 times greater than for white people [2]. Black drivers are 1.6 times more likely to be stopped than white drivers [3].


About SAARC

Our Approach

Through research, education and base-building, Seattle – King County African American Reparations Committee (SAARC) is laying a foundation for passage of legislation to implement reparations for African Americans in Seattle–King County.


Accounting, acknowledgment and repair of past and present harms are all essential to shift policies that perpetuate anti-Black racism. SAARC will develop a reparations plan, rooted in research and community support, to mitigate systemic harms in Seattle and King County. 

 

SAARC’s research is essential to generate support for reparations from community members and elected and appointed officials. With these underpinnings, Seattle and King County will then be well-positioned to adopt a reparations plan. That reparations plan will increase wealth and stable housing, improve access to quality health care, provide meaningful education, protect civil rights and reverse injustices in the criminal justice system for African Americans. 

SAARC’s Activities

Supported By

Reparations Resources

PLACEHOLDER,  Brief descriptive copy of the resources that are shared below.

Larry Gossett - former King County Council member and SAARC Convener at the 26th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, 2013

SAARC Leadership

SAARC’s leaders are deeply-rooted community members with significant records of change-making. 88% of its leaders are African American and 100% are people of color. One Japanese-American member’s family was displaced during the Internment that uprooted families without compensation for decades. The Convener is Larry Gossett, retired 26-year member of the King County Council.

 

SAARC’s leaders have generated meaningful change in criminal justice reform and labor equity. Collaboratively, they developed drug court in King County, organized a mental health program for incarcerated people, and negotiated an agreement opening the local construction industry to people of color and women.

 

In 2022, SAARC met with Dr. Ron Daniels of the National African American Reparations Commission, who outlined Reparations strategies in 100+ communities. Strategies differed, depending on harms mitigated. This affirmed SAARC’s priority to research the nature and extent of harms perpetrated in the City and County.

Contact Us

We'd love to hear from you, send us an email at mlkreparations@gmail.com

Act Now

📋
Sign the Petition to Our Elected Leaders

The Seattle – King County African American Reparations Committee (SAARC) calls on the elected officials of Martin Luther King County and the cities, private sector and religious institutions within it to review their histories to ascertain the extent to which economic and other forms of systemic discrimination against African Americans descendants of those enslaved in the United States have taken place within their borders.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, SUPPORT THE ADOPTION OF A SIGNIFICANT REPARATIONS PROGRAM, FUNDED AND SUPPORTED BY M.L. KING COUNTY AND THE CITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS WITHIN IT, TO PROVIDE DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND BENEFITS TO AFRICAN AMERICANS

💸
Donate

Join SAARC as we research harms, educate our communities, grow our base, develop reparations proposals and bring to life the experience of African Americans who have been harmed by systemic racism in Seattle and King County.

Contributions to SAARC can be made through SAARC’s fiscal sponsor, 350 Seattle.

Donations may be made online or by check.

How to make a check donation

1) Address the check to:
350 Seattle
5031 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

2) Please write:
“SAARC” in the memo line

🙋🏽
Volunteer

In upcoming months, SAARC will offer many ways in which you can volunteer to advance the movemet for reparation. Please sign up here to let us know about your interests! We'll be in touch with you soon. 

💼
Job Opportunities

Please check here often for upcoming community organizer opportunities. We expect to have several in upcoming months.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏾
Join a SAARC Cohort!

How can I best walk in solidarity with SAARC and support its work? Please sign up here for further information.


📆
Events Calendar

Community meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Address
321 16th Ave S, Seattle, WA  98144

Get all the updates from SAARC!

*We won't sell your information.

Site created by Dante Garcia |© 2024 Seattle King County African American Reparations Committee