evanston accept it as reparations. talk a little bit about that. absolutely. so there was really no pushback in our city on passing reparations and beginning the process, but as we get into identifying and prioritizing the harm, there comes the challenge because there s a such great harm. and to choose one and move forward with that, as you will see in the documentary, is challenging. and so there is really no right or wrong. all of it is needed. and municipalities, we have capacity, more of a specific harm and the repair will need to be indirect correlation to the harm. so, in evanston, we started with housing, because our harm is specifically in anti black zoning laws and practices. robin, i want to talk about how it goes from here. the fight for h.r.40 is still going on. i know you do this work full-time. there s a headline here there s a coalition called, why
leading the 30-year fight to pass the national study in congress. and whitney i know you from the whiteness project. that s how we met. used to speak to my classes when i used to teach at syracuse. why did you t wte filmmaker like yourself to be involved in a project that was about reparations? why should white audiences care about in? well, we created the situation. it s our job to solve, it right? i mean, we created slavery. we created the structural racism that disenfranchised black americans for generations, and i really feel like i hope that when audiences watch this film, they see a place for them in the story and that they need, to you know, step up to the plate and participate in the repair. absolutely. robin, you know, we get to know you and your daughter and your family through this film. talk about the fight because it was a fight to try to not only get the reparations project in place, but also to have the recipients in the community of
critical race theory and so on. and it would be the statement that we need to hear from our president and this administration, to pass hr 40, that it is not just a ceremonial commitment to black lives. but it is an actual commitment to black lives and redress with passing reparations. and i want to note that california has a task force suggesting reparations in a report. lasting harms of slavery the first state to adopt a law the first statewide law to study reparations proposal, [inaudible] reparations task force, it s a 500-page interim report detailing harm. so, there is movement on this issue. erica, the other thing that happens in this film is that we really get to know representative sheila jackson lee. i knew as a guest as we ve had her on the show, but i really got to know her in the film. what is the importance of her place in history? she is carrying on where john conyers left off. she s part of a very long line of people who have been in the