Even if there are exceptions to progress, the critics of working to repair past injustices might ask, why does the history of an injustice matter? Injustices today ought to be addressed, they argue, but why does the pedigree of the injustice matter? The critics are right in a narrow sense, that current injustice matters more than past injustice, but they are wrong to treat long-standing injustices in the same way as other injustices. Instead of discussing historical injustice, I want to build upon my argument about the exceptions to progress to reframe the issue as one of enduring injustice. Enduring injustice has roots in the past, and continues into the present day; an enduring injustice endures over time and often over space as well. What makes an enduring injustice particularly perplexing is how difficult it is to repair. This difficulty is rooted in the solutions offered by most versions of liberal justice, which typically focus on individual rights and a modest redistribution of resources. Cases of enduring injustice, however, often encompass matters of exile, mistrust, sacred land, and acknowledgement of the past, all of which lie outside the bounds of liberal justice, and all of which cannot be accounted for without taking the past into account, which is why a solely contemporary focus is insufficient.

The idea of enduring injustice helps to answer the question of why and which past injustices cry out for attention today. The answer is not just because the history of some groups was unjust, but because their present is also unjust, and the future appears to be unjust for them as well, without some changed in course of action. Part of what I hope to accomplish with the idea of enduring injustice is to turn our gaze away from beginning in the past and moving forward. Rather, I want to call attention to the way in which we should begin with present injustices, trace them backward and then project them forward. The account of enduring injustice that I present is a political one. My argument here helps to explain what cases of injustice should be considered as ones of concern to the political community; I point to what kinds of injustices should be remembered, but this leaves open other events that can be remembered, or perhaps should be remembered for other reasons.