John Torpey, Professor of Sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York will be at ICS March 26th to talk about The Debate over African-American Reparations . Organized by António Costa Pinto (ICS-UL) and Susana Chalante (ICS-UL) the conference will take place at ICS Classroom 2 and will start at 17:30.

This paper offers an overview of the debate over reparations for African-Americans in the United States. We state the point in this way because there is little consensus about the "cause of action" for which reparations are sought, whether for slavery or segregation: for that matter, there is little agreement on the type of remedy reparations might effect. This raises the question of political mobilization for and popular views of reparations for African-Americans. It is well known that whites and African-Americans have very different perspectives on this issue. We seek to address the reasons underlying and the significance of this dissensus, stressing peculiarities of American political culture. Less discussed, however, have been the consequences for the reparations debate of recent historical developments in the United States - in particular. the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. In addition to assessing the significance of these developments for the debate over reparations, we point to a number of new directions that the notion of reparations appears to be taking. We conclude with some thoughts about the ways in which reparations - understood chiefly in terms of their larger aim of enhancing racial equality -- might realistically be achieved.