New website allows white people to offer ‘reparations’ directly to people of color

One Louisiana native just wanted some books. A mother from Oklahoma simply wanted some help to buy a new laptop battery.

So they, along with dozens of other people of color, took to a new website to ask for help from those who have discriminated against them for decades: white people. Simultaneously, white people came to the site, called Reparations, to offer what they could and to start to answer the question: What can I do to help fix racial injustice?

It’s a big, complicated question. The site offers a concrete solution: a public forum where white people can offer their belongings or services and people of color can request help for a specific need.

But the site isn’t about atoning for slavery, says its creator, Seattle-based artist Natasha Marin.