Can Slavery Be Repaired?

Vis a Vis

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In the wake of current debates on racism and racial discrimination in the US and Europe, the question of reparations for slavery is gaining renewed interest. In her book Faire justice de l’irréparable, (Justice As a Response to the Irreparable), Magali Bessone, Professor of Philosophy at Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, explains that the French abolition of slavery in 1848 did not put an end to economic exploitation, nor did it generate political and economic equality for formerly enslaved people. Similarly, in the United States, promises of compensation made to formerly enslaved people after the civil war were not kept. On both sides of the Atlantic, the issue of reparations for slavery is a source of controversy: who should be compensated? What kind of compensation should be envisaged? On what basis?

To mark Black History Month, Vis A Vis is featuring a conversation with Professor Magali Bessone, the author of several books on theories of justice, racism and slavery reparations – among them, Faire justice de l’irréparable. Esclavage colonial et responsabilités contemporaines, Vrin, 2019 (Justice As a Response to the Irreparable: Colonial Slavery and Contemporary Responsibilities)

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Magali Bessone is a professor of political philosophy at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. A former student of the Ecole Normale supérieure in Paris, she holds the agrégation and a PhD in philosophy. Her work focuses on contemporary liberalism, on theories of justice, on international criminal justice and on theories of race and racism. She has published an annotated translation of W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk (Les Âmes du peuple noir, ENS, 2004, reprint La Découverte, 2007); she is the author of Sans distinction de race ? (Paris, Vrin, 2013). With Daniel Sabbagh, she co-edited the anthology Race, racisme, discriminations (Hermann, 2015). Her latest book Faire justice de l’irréparable. Esclavage colonial et responsabilités contemporaines was published in November 2019 by Editions Vrin.