On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… an archaeology of grievances.

In honor of the third Juneteenth being celebrated as a national holiday, it’s worth unpacking symbolic gestures like Juneteenth — and, as many states are finding out, like Reparations.

The movement to compensate the descendants of slaves is gaining more traction than ever before, in many parts of the country. Could this be our chance to clear a massive, lingering blight on our nation’s history? 

Our guest today argues no. Podcast host and columnist Coleman Hughes joins us to make the case that compensating the victims of slavery was something we should’ve done long ago – and now, it’s too late for it to be anything other than a problem.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

Podcast production by Maura Currie

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