Still Not Okay , A Word From Ty.....(Part 1): Why Reparations Keeps Getting Blocked (and Why That’s Not an Accident)

Usually I do “A Word From Ty” at the end of each post —a short, unfiltered rant. No outline, no direction, just my emotions in real time.

But this topic hit me so hard I couldn’t keep it as a little closing paragraph. It needed its own space. A full, standalone 3 part post—because I had to get all of it out, all the way, without shrinking it down to fit.

So this one isn’t polished. It’s not packaged. It’s just me, telling the truth just as it is and why I am not okay with any of it.

People keep asking the same questions, and I’m asking them too:

Why haven’t we gotten reparations?

Why does it feel like the country can “find money” for everything except repairing what it broke?

Let me protect myself real quick "This is not legal advice. It’s a plain-language breakdown of why the conversation keeps getting stalled."

First: it’s not that there’s no evidence

There is evidence.

There are records. Laws. Maps. Policies. Court cases. Data. Testimony. Photos. Bodies.

The problem is that in the U.S., evidence doesn’t automatically create accountability when power wrote the rules.

The part they don’t say out loud: the law was built with escape hatches

A lot of people assume you can just “take it to court.” But the legal system has built-in barriers that make it extremely difficult to force repair for historic and systemic harm—especially harm that the government itself helped create.

Here are a few of the biggest blockers, in everyday language:

• The government has special protection from being sued. In many situations, you can’t sue the government unless it has allowed that kind of lawsuit. (

• Courts often require a specific, provable harm to a specific person/group by a specific policy/actor.Systemic racism is real, but it’s also designed to be spread out—so it’s easier to deny. Again playing in our face

• Time limits are used like a weapon. Many legal claims have deadlines. Historic harms get treated like they’re “too old,” even when the consequences are still happening.

• They demand a “straight line” of causation. Racism is layered—housing, schools, jobs, policing, healthcare—so the system plays games like, “Prove this one exact decision caused this one exact outcome.”

• Courts sometimes dodge big issues. They’ll say it’s a “political question,” meaning they want Congress to handle it (even when Congress won’t).

And here’s the part that makes people furious (rightfully): those barriers are not accidental.

If you were building a system that harmed people and you wanted to keep the benefits of that harm, you would build the law to protect you too.

“But other people have sued the government…”

Yes. And that’s part of why this question burns.

People sue the government all the time.

Companies sue.

Politicians sue.

Wealthy people sue.

And when the people suing already have access—money, legal teams, relationships, and the benefit of being seen as “credible”—the system suddenly knows how to move.

So the question isn’t “Can the government be sued?”

The real question is: Why is it treated as normal for some people to sue and be heard, but treated as impossible—or “radical”—when Black people demand repair?

Because it’s not that the idea has never existed.

It’s that it hasn’t been allowed to become real in a way that changes the structure.

I’m tired of being told to “be patient” when the harm never stopped.

I’m tired of watching people sue over ego while we’re expected to accept stolen generations like it’s normal.

And I’m tired of watching powerful people threaten lawsuits over headlines, jokes, and criticism—while Black people have had lies told on us for centuries and we’re expected to just take it.

They’ve called us dumb. Called us dangerous. Called us cursed. Called us “less than.”

And then punished us for the stereotypes they created.

So yeah—I’m questioning all of it now.

Next up: Part 2

In Part 2, we’re going to talk about the question behind the question:

Why can’t we do it?

Why unity has been attacked by design—from slavery and family separation to the way Black organizing gets labeled “radical” the moment it becomes effective.

It’s a whole new world. So Be Particular & Move Accordingly. Still not okay, but still here Peace and Blessings