American Racial Justice on Trial - Again: African American Reparations, Human Rights, and the War on Terror

Abstract

The essay examines the ongoing and impending African American reparations suits and frames in larger terms what may well be at stake in this forthcoming epochal trial of American Racial Justice. In particular, the essay draws linkages among African American redress claims, the United States' approach to international human rights and America's moral authority to fight its preemptive "war on Terror." Drawing upon and extending Professor Derrick Bell's interest-convergence thesis and Professor Mary Dudziak's ensuing research into the international underpinnings of Brown v. Board of Education," the essay offers insights into what the future might be, here and in the eyes of worldwide communities, depending on what choices we in America make about African American justice claims and human rights.