Reparations with Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson

A conversation with authors Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson about their book, Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair (March 17, 2021). The questions we covered: 1. Introductions (00:15) 2. Why talk about reparations now and how did you get into this subject? (04:05) 3. When you talk about the Black intellectual tradition, who are the thinkers and movements that inform your understanding of reparations? (08:30) 4. Would you say conversations about reparations are fundamentally cross-cultural conversations? If so, do you recognize a tendency among white Americans and Christians to define cross-cultural perspectives as "radical" or "un-American"? (16:45) 5. You guys use language in the book that some regard as inflammatory. Terms like "reparations" or "white supremacy." But you think and feel differently. Talk about some of the key concepts and frameworks you're using and why embrace some of the terms and ideas some regard as inflammatory. (22:14) 6. The body of the book has seven chapters, broken into two broad sections: the call to see and the call to own. What are Christians called to see? (33:30) 7. What are the costs of seeing what you want the reader to see? (36:25) 8. What are Christians called to own? (39:50) 9. Where is reparations in the Bible? What is your biblical and your historical theological case for reparations? (48:50) 10. How would you respond to the objection that reparations requires people who did no wrong to make payment to people who were not wronged through the coercive power of the state? (56:00) 11. What in your mind is a distinctively Christian understanding of or approach to reparations? What kind of spiritual life have you found to be necessary to embracing and pursuing reparations? (1:08:56) 12. What hopes do you have for the book and final exhortations would you like to leave us with? (1:19:30)