Sophia Overturf 

Dr.Baasanjav 

CODES 120 

9/21/23 

Multimodal 1 

Our problem likely has all the all 6 of the wicked problems, our problem being the social injustices at mobot and the need for reparative justice. We might not be able to properly identify which wicked problems fit where with our problem. But the wicked problems allow us to see what exactly is wrong and help us get a better understanding of what we need to investigate.  

The first wicked problem being the vague problem being reparative justice and the exact history behind MOBOT. As we have documents and things that tell us what happened during that time. Yet we still don’t know the full story of what happened during that time, even the people that work at the gardens told us that they don’t know everything and need to ask people. They only know bits and pieces, that they are trying to put together the pieces they do have to put the story together. In an attempt to fully understand and document what happened during this time, which is difficult when you have to go around, ask people. Which means some parts are lost just from person to person. Reparative justice might help correct the wrongs created but I don’t think it can properly help document everything. 

Our unidentified problem or where to start to locate the possible solution for our problem. We may know what our problem might be but locating where we need to look to solve the problem is not the easiest thing to do. Reparative justice addresses what may have started the problem and does not attempt to fix what is already done. Instead, it corrects before more can happen, creates solutions for things that the past still affects till this day.  

The third we are unsure where the endpoint will be, we do not know what the correct solution is. So, we must continue searching for what we think it could be. We need to test what we think will work and use trial and error until we get closer to what we are looking to fix. Currently there is a large divide between where different communities live. Which might be impossible to change immediately. Most of the time where people live influences how they live the rest of their lives, reparative justice might produce ways to help correct. But it does not have immediate fixes which means problems are likely to continue leaving no end in sight. 

The reason the problem is irreversible is because the damage that has been caused by the past cannot be fixed now. HR 40 talks about how the lives of people are now and how unequal the black and white communities are. It also states that the laws that were created during that time have not even been properly looked at or assessed at the national level. Even today, a couple of hundred years later, there has been a failure to for racial injustices of slavery and its legacy. Which has fueled the racial inequalities today.  

Fifth, our problem is unique because of why it is a problem. It goes all the way back to when people had slaves, so this problem has needed a solution for a while. Of course, over the years there have been laws and regulations put into place. But their history was terribly documented due to that, so we need to look through that to find what is needed to fix this unique problem. People are still negatively impacted today because courts have never investigated it. Which makes our problem unique because they haven’t made a full or good enough attempt to fix the problems caused by the past. The area we are focusing is saint louis which has its own unique history and inequalities between the people that live in the city. For example, Delmar boulevard is divided into north and south where 95% of the people that live in the north are black and 2/3 of the people that live in the south are white. 

The sixth and most urgent part of our problem is the need to pass H.R 40. Which will aid in reparative justice and help stop any issues from history that still affect people to this day. It talks about viable solutions for what can be done to fix the inequities of today. How certain things can be put into place to make sure the future is no longer affected by the past. A commission of people working on H.R 40 needs to develop a concrete plan to eliminate the wage gap and compensate for any moral losses.  

In the end this is a problem that needs to be fixed. It is just going to take a lot of work to get to any possible solution. So, all we can do is research and keep testing out new ideas until we get to a point where we are happy with what we have done. Reparative justice takes time so we will not get results immediately, so we just have to stick with it until we start seeing the results we were hoping for.