Immediately, I am compelled by Thomas’ stylistic choices within her writing as well as the framework she has decided to adopt for her research. She herself states that “using reparations as a framework for thinking about contemporary problems also requires that we focus on structural, rather than cultural, lineages and inheritances,” which I think is an incredibly interesting approach that can lead to some significant findings (Thomas, 2011: 6). Focusing on the structure is what allows for emphasis on the historical, as she mentions, and culminates in a quote that really stuck out to me while reading: “the historical thus becomes both analytic category and method, a way to parse the place of the past and present” (2011: 11). This immediately reminded me of something that was discussed in a class I had taken last semester about race in the Americas; the historical and colonial significance of identity making cannot go overlooked, but often does. Both Michel-Rolph Trouillot, who was referenced in this reading, and Patrick Wolfe reference the power and significance of history as it pertains to the present plight of racial minority groups. When we understand that “the production of historical narratives involves the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals who have unequal access to the means of such production” (Trouillot) and also how “invasion [read: colonialism/settler colonialism] is recognized as a structure rather than an event, its history does not stop” (Wolfe, 2006: 402), then we can fully absorb the situation of societies who were gravely affected by colonialism and the slave trade. Thus, I appreciate Thomas’ approach to her work so that it does not neglect the historical constructions and structures that shape contemporary environments, finally removing the assertion that the observed violence is something inevitable and passive as it is embedded into the area’s “culture.” I cannot help but wonder, however, how much this perspective would shift if this “culture” was also recognized as an event: something that is ever-changing and never at all passive. If the concept is considered in this manner, then how does structure work in tandem to create our modern settings? Is such a thing worth thinking about in this context?