Excerpts reposted from @time "If something of such horror is revealed and you're still benefiting from the proceeds, you cannot turn your head and say, 'Well, what has that to do with me?'" says #EstherPhillips, Barbados' first #poetlaureate... For years, she dismissed reparations as radical—but now she's an unwavering supporter.
In TIME's [July 6] cover story, we go inside Barbados' historic push for slavery reparations.
This year's demand for reparations—which will call for a Marshall Plan–like public investment, not the individual payments that have dominated the conversation elsewhere—will arrive with force.
Letters are expected to say the time has come to negotiate reparations to improve infrastructure and human conditions in the Caribbean. Come to the table, they will say, or prepare to see much of the Caribbean in international court.
"I have my doubts, to be honest, that England will ever pay a thing," says Kyle Blackmen, 30, who manages workers near Drax Hall—a Barbados plantation which now belongs to Richard Drax, a Conservative member of the British Parliament....
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When we reach the dirt road leading to Drax Hall plantation, writes Janell Ross in TIME's recent cover story, Phillips suggests we stop the car. She gets out and draws in a deep breath.
Drax Hall, a Barbados sugar plantation, was the site of untold horrors...In July 2021, Phillips published an open letter in Barbados Today under the headline pay up, mr. drax. Phillips had read an article in which Richard Drax said slavery was regrettable but he didn't see himself as culpable.
"This man has profited and still profits by the largesse, the wealth, all that was poured out for him through the sacrifice of my ancestors. And the only thing he can find to say is it is 'regrettable'?" Phillips says.
"I personally want nothing from Richard Drax. But if I were Richard Drax, I would be so glad to get rid of that [Drax Hall]. I would say let me give it up to show...
Read the full cover story at time.com - link in bio.
Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera @cgregoryphoto for TIME.
It isnt what they say about you - it’s what they ****whisper. Saw that a couple times ago. From a whisper to a scream. Miss you Esther Phillips. Peace. I’m off .