Trump’s trillion-dollar cuts to health and EDI show that, if racial equity is to survive, it must be constitutional

In the pendulum-swinging political landscape of the US, racial equity initiatives remain vulnerable to the whims of changing administrations. Across the country, hard-won racial equity initiatives are being systematically dismantled – from diversity programmes to voting rights protections to fair housing enforcement. As someone who has spent years dedicated to economic and racial justice, I've watched this cycle repeat itself: progress followed by backlash, advancement followed by retreat.

A fundamental question keeps me up at night: How do we build racial justice that lasts? How do we create change so deep and foundational that it can't be swept away by the next political tide?

After years of advocacy and research, I've come to believe there's only one answer: a constitutional amendment guaranteeing comprehensive reparations for the descendants of slavery. This would make racial justice a fundamental obligation, not a political preference.

For here's the uncomfortable truth we need to face – most racial equity policies are built on quicksand. Even programmes we once thought were politically untouchable, like Social Security and Medicare, are now under direct attack. The Trump administration's ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ has cut over $1 trillion from health programmes and imposed automatic Medicare cuts that could reach $500 billion over eight years. If programmes that serve tens of millions of Americans can be systematically dismantled, then racial justice initiatives that lack constitutional protection are even more vulnerable.

A debt long overdue

One glaring aspect of racial inequality is in housing. We know that Black homeownership hovers around 46% while white homeownership sits just below 74%. We can point to redlining (the denial of financial and other services to particular neighbourhoods), discriminatory lending, and predatory practices. We can create first-time homebuyer programmes and fair lending initiatives. But when the next administration arrives, these programmes become easy targets because we haven't addressed the fundamental issue: the wealth gap that slavery created, Jim Crow cemented and mass incarceration preserves.

The same pattern repeats across every metric of racial inequality. Whether we're talking about the eight-to-one wealth gap between Black and white families, the maternal mortality crisis, or mass incarceration – each traces back to the same source, slavery. Essentially we're trying to heal a wound that's never been cleaned.

The US built its prosperity on stolen labour and that debt has never been settled

When I talk about reparations, I'm drawing from the internationally recognised framework developed by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). This isn't just about cutting cheques – although financial compensation is certainly part of it. According to the OHCHR framework, reparation measures include:

Restitution, which should restore the survivors to their original situation before the violation occurred, e.g. restoration of liberty, reinstatement of employment, return of property, return to one's place of residence.

Compensation, which should be provided for any economically assessable damage, loss of earnings, loss of property, loss of economic opportunities, moral damages.

Rehabilitation, which should include medical and psychological care, legal and social services.

Satisfaction, which should include the cessation of continuing violations, truth-seeking, search for the disappeared person or their remains, recovery, reburial of remains, public apologies, judicial and administrative sanctions, memorials, and commemorations.

Beyond these four categories of reparations, the broader transitional justice framework includes guarantees of non-repetition through institutional reforms, legal changes, and structural transformation that prevent future violations.

This isn't charity – it's debt payment. It's acknowledging the US built its prosperity on stolen labour and that debt has never been settled.

Creating a constitutional foundation

This year, we learned that no programme is truly safe from political attack. But comprehensive reparations backed by constitutional amendment would be much harder to reverse than ordinary policies. They wouldn't just be programmes. They would be acknowledgments of a foundational promise to repair the harm the US government has caused.

Constitutional standing would transcend electoral politics, providing legal protection that current equity initiatives lack. More importantly, such reparations would shift the entire framework of how we think about racial justice. Instead of asking "should we help Black communities?" the question would become: "How do we fulfil America's constitutional obligation to repair the harm it caused?"

That's a much harder question for future administrations to ignore or reverse.

We don't have to speculate about whether this approach works – we have evidence from international transitional justice processes. The OHCHR framework has guided successful reparations programmes globally, from Germany's ongoing Holocaust reparations to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Germany's reparations programme endured through multiple governments precisely because it established the five pillars: acknowledging truth, ensuring justice, providing comprehensive reparation, memorialising victims, and implementing guarantees of non-recurrence. These weren't just payments – they became foundational to German democracy's legitimacy.

In contexts like The Gambia, victim-centred reparations processes that follow the OHCHR framework may be imperfect, but they create sustainable change. The key? These approaches addressed root causes and established institutional foundations that transcended political transitions.

The question isn't whether the US can afford reparations. The question is whether we can afford not to finally pay what we've owed for over 400 years

As the founder of Equity and Transformation, I chose that name deliberately. Equity without transformation is temporary. It's vulnerable. It's what we've been doing for decades – and it's why we keep losing ground.

Real transformation requires us to be honest about how we got here. It requires acknowledging that slavery wasn't just a historical wrong, but the foundation of an economic system that continues to shape our lives. It requires admitting that every major federal programme that built the American middle class – from the GI Bill to the New Deal to FHA loans to Social Security – either excluded Black Americans or provided them with inferior benefits.

Reparations would force this reckoning. They would require us to quantify the harm, acknowledge the debt, and commit to genuine repair. From that foundation, every other racial justice initiative gains legitimacy and protection.

Ensuring our children inherit justice

The path forward requires implementing the full OHCHR reparations framework alongside broader transitional justice measures. We need federal truth commissions with the power to investigate and document the full scope of slavery's ongoing harm. We need legal accountability through constitutional recognition of the right to reparations. We need investment in pilot programmes that are rooted in OHCHR’s reparations framework to build a robust source of solutions.

Most importantly, this process must be survivor-centred, meaning descendants of enslaved people must be in the driver's seat of designing and implementing these measures. The OHCHR framework emphasises that reparations work only when they affirm the humanity and agency of those who were harmed.

We stand at a crossroads. We can continue the cycle of progress and backlash, building programmes that the next election can sweep away. Or we can finally address the foundational injustice that makes all our other work vulnerable.

Reparations aren't just about money – they're about building racial justice that lasts. They're about creating a constitutional and moral foundation so strong that future generations won't have to fight the same battles we're fighting today.

The question isn't whether the US can afford reparations. The question is whether we can afford not to finally pay what we've owed for over 400 years.

The time for transformation is now. The foundation we build today will determine whether our children inherit the same struggles or finally inherit justice.