By Danny Brady
“Massachusetts has been at the forefront of talking about reparations for slavery,” Matt Abramovitz, the president of New England Public Media (NEPM) said. “We felt that bringing this film and our community together to talk about this topic would be a great way of taking this national debate and giving it local roots.”
NEPM is a community-supported non-profit organization based in Springfield, Massachusetts. Abramovitz and his team helped plan, organize, and run the “Cost of Inheritance” screening and discussion event at Springfield College on Thursday, Feb. 15, from 5:30 to 8:00. The event, held in Fuller Auditorium, was open to local community members as well as students and staff.
Abramovitz highlighted the importance of holding this type of event.
“We’re in a moment in our country’s history where it’s really hard to have conversations about things that are difficult,” he said. “Our job is to help provide listeners with the tools so that they can have those difficult conversations and recognize the problems are big but we can also still try to solve them.”
His team assembled a panel of people from around the country to discuss the film, what they learned from it, and to take questions from the audience.
Lotte Lieb Dula, who co-founded ‘Reparations 4 Slavery’ after finding out that she was a descendant of slaveholders, was one of the panel members and also was featured in the film. Other panel members included professors at Amherst College Dr. Stefan M. Bradley and Dr. Jallica Jolly, as well as social justice workers Michelle Miller and Brayna Cuffie.
Sebastian Perez-Jimenez, a Sophomore in the Sport Management program at Springfield, attended the event.
“This is something that’s so important,” Perez-Jimenez said, “With recent occurrences like removing affirmative action I think it’s good to be on top of things and know what we’re talking about.”
The event began with the screening of the eye opening 55 minute film.
“It was very inspirational. So often it’s thrown around that we should ‘do something’ but not really what we should do about it” Perez-Jimenez said, “(The film) provided more of a practical solution and gave a specific example of somebody taking intentional action towards reparation.”
Following the film, the panelists led a discussion that elaborated on the film and dug deeper into the topic of reparation. Each panel member took the time not only to answer each question or concern brought up by the audience but also to stay solution-focused. One specific problem was brought up by a black Veteran.
“He asked that question about experiencing racism in the army and then being denied for health benefits because it was argued that his PTSD came before then.” Said Perez-Jimenez.
The panelists were very thoughtful and respectful in breaking down his problem and asking follow-up questions to offer the correct solutions for him.
After attending the event, Perez-Jimenez walked away with one major takeaway.
“We need reparations. There is really no argument against it.” Added Perez-Jimenez said, “Reparations need to be instituted not only on a local or state level but on a federal level and to all territories as well.”
NEPM has a strong interest in hosting similar events like these at Springfield in the future. Vanessa Cerillo, the company’s senior director of communications and events has enjoyed her experiences at the College.
“We like making different stops around all of the different counties and places that we serve in Western Mass but Springfield College is such a great venue and has been an incredibly hospitable host to us.”
Photo courtesy of American Documentary