Hey @chesaboudin, what the hell is this? Do you have any idea how BADLY the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission went? Are you completely unaware of the sheer untrustworthiness of Shaun King?

The TRC was oriented in the direction of a forgiveness-based reckoning (amnesty in exchange for testimony) that ultimately allowed structures of white supremacy to remain intact. I think Prof. Tshepo Madlingozi explains its shortcomings here really well https://soundcloud.com/the-funambulist/tshepo-madlingozi-there-is-neither-truth-nor-reconciliation-in-south-africa

In ‘98, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation compiled a report of workshops they did w/ 560 victims/survivors. It found 1) people didn’t believe amnesty constituted justice and 2) reconciliation must include a reparation
https://web.archive.org/web/20060925181412/http://www.csvr.org.za/papers/papkhul.htm

What does it mean that de Klerk appeared before and made his apology to the TRC in ‘96 only to, in February, claim that calling apartheid a crime against humanity “remains an agitprop project initiated by the Soviets and their ANC/SACP allies to stigmatize white South Africans”?

What the TRC did, more than anything, was allow the top brass of the apartheid regime to go free if they offered whatever qualified apology they wanted to make on the stand; if anyone was punished in seriousness it was their foot soldiers for the most part.

I’m trying to lean out of the unimaginative idea that justice can only be punitive, but what could SK possibly be trying to replicate with two district attorneys? People are pushing for defunding and abolition, reallocating to communities—where does this commission fit?

I would genuinely like an explanation, @chesaboudin. I would like to understand how we want to talk about a reconciliation commission modeled after one that really didn’t do what it sought out to instead of focusing energy on dramatically reducing the scope/function of police.

Because, and I have to say it, this is NOT an abolitionist/transformative justice alternative to the inability-failure of grand juries to bring charges against murderous and brutal police. Not at all.