In this essay, which focuses on the potential future of racial justice, I consider the palimpsest problem central to the idea of Square One, where this restarting point remains an overlay on what has come before, with visible traces of the past remaining present. Yet we must grapple with what this restarting point is, in a sociological rather than political sense, and how the present moment can reasonably be conceived as an opportunity to start over. This is an important problem to consider within the organizing query of the Square One Project, which asks: “if we start over from ‘square one,’ how would justice policy be different?” Even if the phrase is not meant literally, the project like much of the polity envisions a new starting point, where social policy and practice might turn in a more equitable and inclusive direction. The concept of a “Square One” in societal organization is a curious thing, and challenging analytic, particularly from the vantage of our embodiment of the past.
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