Charisa Kiyô Smith (CUNY School of Law) has posted From Empathy Gap to Reparations: An Analysis of Caregiving, Criminalization & Family Empowerment (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 90, 2022) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
America’s legacy of violent settler colonialism and racial capitalism reveals a misunderstood and neglected civil rights concern: the forced separation of families of color, and unwarranted state intrusion upon caregiving through criminalization and surveillance. The War on Drugs, the Opioid Crisis, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, are a few historical examples demonstrating the precariousness of our nation’s collective empathy well towards caregivers and our tattered social safety net. In fact, these instances illuminate what this paper coins an “empathy gap” in perception when the general public, policymakers, and the mainstream media view similarly situated families with different identities. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic presents both a tragic crisis and an unparalleled opportunity to reimagine the status quo for communities of color and society at large. Families and children deserve comprehensive transformation, resourced through abolition of carceral protection systems, restorative approaches, and true reparations for slavery.
This paper reconciles fragmented perspectives on family integrity and civil rights, applying empirical research about disparate treatment while engaging the framework of vulnerability theory. Ultimately, a paradigm shift is needed. Public health and socioeconomic wellbeing necessitate protection for marginalized families and innovation beyond the limits of law. Recognition of inherent vulnerability in the human condition is pivotal to achieving family empowerment, economic justice, and racial justice.
