A focus on private property and generational wealth seems central to discussions of remedying past wrongs from the period of slavery and colonization, says Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar Kyle T. Mays.

However, since the core idea of property rights in the U.S. was based on the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples, he rejects seeking reparations in this form.

An Afro-Indigenous professor of African American studies, American Indian studies, and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Mays will explore these ideas in a free public lecture, “Reparations and decolonization: a critique,” Tuesday, Feb. 4.

He is the author of Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America, An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States, and City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit.

Tuesday’s lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the Armouries Building at 37 University Ave. East and is sponsored by the Department of History.