What is urgently needed in the US right now is transitional justice.

A thread on why.

I am NOT going to say what transitional justice should look like in the US. This is a national conversation for Black Americans to lead. What all should advocate for right now is having it.
2. Transitional justice is about dealing with wrongdoing as part of a broader effort at relational transformation.

@SenKamalaHarris is advocating for transitional justice here: https://twitter.com/SenKamalaHarris/status/1266159428547592192?s=20
3. There are a wide range of processes used to deal with past wrongs and facilitate broader change:

criminal trials, institutional reform (incl. police reform), reparations, truth commissions, memorials, art, educational reform. This is an incomplete list.
4. The need specifically for transitional justice *and the concrete possibility of pursuing it* arise when four conditions are in place (I wrote a book on this).

All four conditions are vividly present in the US.
5. Condition 1: pervasive structural inequality
(inequality in opportunities to be educated, healthy, participate politically & to shape institutional rules for conduct)

@JWhitePubRadio is describing inequality along racial lines in the US in this thread: https://twitter.com/JWhitePubRadio/status/1267090670050779138?s=20
6. Condition 2: normalized collective & political wrongdoing
(rights violations become a basic fact of life for targeted groups of citizens)

@ericabuddington is describing normalized wrongdoing against Black Americans in the US in this thread: https://twitter.com/ericabuddington/status/1266531249914601472?s=20
7. More on normalized collective & political wrongdoing

See @KeishaBlain's piece https://twitter.com/KeishaBlain/status/1266677307726614528?s=20
8. Condition 3: Serious existential uncertainty
(Periods where the status quo is called into question & it is no longer clear where a comm is heading)

@MRogers097 "What opens—what is beginning right now in this country—is a profoundly unsettled space." https://twitter.com/MRogers097/status/1266717785645858817?s=20
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