Institutional pessimism and optimism in racial repair

The 2017-2018 Task Force on Slavery and Justice at Furman University documented historical harms and initiated reparative action. In this article, I advance a theory of institutional optimism and pessimism that flows through the work of racial repair. Narrating my experience as co-chair of this process, I call others to learn from the protean agency and hope of minorities, rather than embrace cliche forms of institutional pessimism-forms used by allied majorities to avoid prolonged stakeholder activism that leads to healing.