A framework and policy case for black reparations to support child well-being in the USA

Lisa A. Gennetian (), Christina Gibson-Davis and William Darity
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Lisa A. Gennetian: Duke University
Christina Gibson-Davis: Duke University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, vol. 9, issue 6, 1090-1097

Abstract: Abstract Enslavement of African Americans and the legacy of structural racism have led to disproportionate hardship for black people in the USA. Reparations realize unfulfilled promises of financial compensation and redress. Existing US reparations initiatives have not yet included financial transfers or investments in black families or children, which a survey shows black parents support. We offer a three-pronged approach of child-specific, family-level and systemic educational and information renumeration via a child-centric reparations framework. Mechanisms for such government transfers have precedent in the USA but face limitations in that their broader implementation would also require political will. Such wealth transfers may address economically meaningful differences that persist between black and white children’s outcomes at nearly every developmental stage from infancy to young adulthood and long-standing racial wealth differences among US households with children.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02189-3

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