In this interview, Professor Craemer looks at past reparations for slaveowners in the United States and Great Britain as successful examples of multi-generational payments. We go into the math of how Black reparations might be calculated, as well.
Thomas Craemer obtained a political science doctorate in 2001 from the University of Tuebingen in his native Germany, and a PhD from Stony Brook University, New York, in 2005. He teaches at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy. His experience of growing up in post-World-War II Germany motivated his research on implicit racial attitudes and race-related policies, including slavery reparations.
In 2015, he published an article titled Estimating Slavery Reparations: Present Value Comparisons of Historical Multigenerational Reparations Policies, which has been widely cited in the media, including appearances on “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.” He presented at reparations conferences in the Gambia, at Tulane Law School, and in South Africa.