‘The gravest crime against humanity’: What does the UN vote on slavery mean?

But it’s telling that even Barack Obama, America’s first black president, did not publicly pursue, propose, or endorse any reparations policy during his two terms in office. In a 2016 interview with writer and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates just weeks before leaving office, Obama revealed his belief that the country’s political system made reparations practically unworkable.