Reparations, Apologies and Trump Voters

“There are many kinds of experience. Experienced politicians got us into the war in Vietnam. Experienced politicians got us into the war in Iraq,” Ms. Williamson said. “Experienced politicians have led us to the greatest wealth inequality since 1929. Experienced politicians have led us to a situation where, if we don’t act within the next 12 years, in terms of climate change, the survivability of the human race will be in question.”

A political campaign is also a chance to exhume everything a candidate has said in her career, from all the tweets to exactly what she meant 30 years ago when she called herself a “bitch for God” at a charity event.

“I think it’s fair to say I wish I had never said that. Something was going on many years ago, in a situation that had to do with some AIDS patients. I would open my course with a prayer. There was something we were doing, and somebody was saying, ‘Marianne, I don’t think we should open with a prayer.’ And I said, ‘No, I think we should open with a prayer.’ And I was getting all this resistance to opening with a prayer. And they said, ‘You’re being a real bitch about this.’ And I said, ‘If I’m a bitch, I’m a bitch for God,’” Ms. Williamson said. “I think it was something about fund-raising, and some very chic people in Manhattan who were going to be there. And I just took umbrage at the idea, whatever.”

Her call for reparations, maybe the most radical yet timely point of her policy proposals, isn’t new to her either. She has been talking about it since the publication of her mid-1990s book, “Illuminata,” and she says that without it, America’s racial and economic divide will never heal.

Ms. Williamson began leading what she describes as “public ritualistic apologies from white people to black people,” after witnessing a charismatic priest named Father DiOrio lead a room of Catholics in a round of apologies to the non-Catholics for anything they or a member of the church had ever done to hurt or offend.

“It was one of the most emotional experiences I ever had,” Ms. Williamson said. She believes the country could benefit from a national workshop.