Move over Go Fund Me. There’s a new website on the Internet and it caters to a particular audience. It caters to a need that black people have been talking about for decades. It caters to the issues Black Lives Matter leaders have been rallying for. That need is to fix racial inequality. The website is called Reparations and it’s dedicated to white people helping black people out with goals.
Reparations was created by Natasha Marin, a Seattle-based artist creating opportunities that bring people together online and in real life. According to the biography section, the website is an experiment that started on Facebook July 15th, 2016. The main goal is to see how many Black people will ask for help and how many White people will offer help.
“I invite People of Color to ask for what we need to feel better, be happier, be more productive by posting in this space. These may be both material and immaterial requests.”
So far on Reparations White people are offering help in many different ways such as child care services, developmental editing, Tarot card reading, and therapy. People on Twitter are responding too.
I will sure as hell answer Natasha Marin’s bat signal. ❤️ LOVED her talk, her ideas, her empathy, her drive. #osfeels
— Angela Riggs (@AngelaRiggs_) July 23, 2016
Support Natasha Marin for her maverick project reparations.me.https://t.co/AKpvhdWV4Z
— Bettina Judd (@bettinajudd) July 27, 2016
Even though this is a brand new website dedicated to healing, not everyone is speaking positively. Even though their ancestors owned slaves, not all White people feel they should contribute to the healing process. Some of the negative people have voiced their opinions on Twitter.
I refuse to take the blame for slavery #NatashaMarin. Next time, start a project where all people help each other https://t.co/CFZR73ykDI
— JesseLogister (@JesseLogister) July 24, 2016
#NatashaMarin #ReparationsProject – We ALL would like some help. You aren’t “owed” anything. Slavery has occurred in many cultures.
— Laurie (@MoSassy10) July 28, 2016
Does this website make you feel compelled to ask a White person for help? If you are White, do you feel like you should be offering more helping toward a Black person because of how your ancestors acted?
Clearly Go Fund Me won’t disappear because of Reparations. It’s a website that has received billions of dollars in donations to help people of all races, including White people, in need. People can go on Go Fund Me and ask for help for anything from funeral expenses for a loved one to going to a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. However, in a world where Donald Trump is running for presidency and encouraging racism, Reparations might just offer some healing.
-Lashuntrice Bradley
