Is it time for the United States to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission similar to the one created in South Africa after apartheid?
Professor Ronald C. Sye, Seattle University School of Law, argued for that idea in an recent blog post. Truth Commission He suggested that a commission of this type would be important for analyzing the problem of slavery and how the poisonous legacy still haunts our society today, and affects social policies. It also would provide a safe space for all sides to calmly and rationally discuss their grievances.
A former President Barack Obama would be a perfect as head of the commission as someone who obviously brings the intellectual knowledge and could forge the connection between Africa and the U.S.
But, I would suggest placing a woman as candidate to lead the commission. Someone like a Marian Wright Edelman or Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan activists who has provided intellectual and international leadership to a host of problem from the environment to women's issues.
Now is the time, in the aftermath of the Mother Emanuel A.M.E massacre, to start a national conversation about race. It should be televised like the Watergate Hearings. We shouldn't forget that the city of Greensboro, N.C. established a commission TRC to discuss racism and violence in the city, and by all accounts it was successful in estalblishing a healthy dialogue after the Klan shooting in 1979.