Latest news with #ReparationsNow
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Demanding slavery reparations now is proof Democrats have lost the plot
Even for a party as troubled as the Democrats, the decision by a group of lawmakers to introduce a congressional resolution demanding reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans is particularly hairbrained. It's not that African Americans, like myself, do not deserve formal recognition for the centuries of labour our ancestors were forced to contribute to building this nation. But reparations? It's the wrong solution from the wrong party at the wrong time. The specific legislation on the table is not new. Officially known as the Reparations Now resolution, the bill was first introduced back in 2023 by former Representative Cori Bush – then a leading member of the Democrats' ultra-progressive 'Squad', whose best-known figure is New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Last August, Bush was defeated in an unusually-costly Democrat primary race dominated by her aggressive criticism of Israel and its war with Hamas in Gaza. This time, the reparations push is being led by Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee, another vocal Israel-critic and 'Squad' member. 'Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers. We're owed repair, we're owed restitution and we're owed justice,' said Lee at a press conference announcing the bill. Bush, who also attended the event, added: 'For over 400 years … America has been cashing checks written in black blood.' Reparations Now calls upon the federal government to allocate trillions of dollars – $14 trillion in Bush's original version – for reparations atoning for slavery, as well as for the legacies of Jim Crow, housing discrimination and the effects of America's decades-long war on drugs. With African American household wealth still roughly one-sixth that of their white counterparts, according to data from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, few could deny that there is a problem. But Reparations Now is not the plan to address it. Beyond the logistics of such a scheme – funding, eligibility, disbursements – is the timing behind the idea's resuscitation. Lee has made clear that she is picking up where Bush left off as a direct response to the Trump White House's assaults on race-based preference programmes such as DEI. Such thinking was also behind the reintroduction of a similar bill – HR 40 – by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker in February. HR 40 would establish a federal commission to examine the long-term effects of slavery and explore possible reparations programmes. Pressley was even more biting in her critique of the president and the necessity of reparations now than her fellow Squad-members, branding Trump's second term 'a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids'. While it might make for easy headlines, tying reparations directly to the return of Trump makes no sense. For one thing, the relative poverty of African Americans is nothing to do with the current president: black Americans have been poor under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In fact, many African American leaders, such as Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, believe that Democratic efforts to eradicate poverty among black communities through handouts – most notably President Lyndon B Johnson's 1960s'-era 'Great Society' campaign – have done more harm than good. 'What was hard to survive,' said Scott during his short-lived run for the presidency back in 2023, 'was Johnson's Great Society, where they decided to put money – where they decided to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail. And you can now measure that in unemployment and crime and devastation.' Although Scott was skewered by progressives such as 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones, data from Pew reveals that Scott is likely to be speaking for a not-insignificant proportion of African Americans. Roughly 20 per cent do not support a reparations push, with higher-educated and higher-earning black Americans leading such opposition. Overall, 70 per cent of Americans believe reparations schemes are a bad idea. It isn't particularly difficult to see why. In California, reparations commissions at both the state level and in the city of San Francisco spent years – and millions on research and task forces – but have yet to take any concrete actions. And this in a state that never had slavery. A San Francisco plan was particularly ambitious, floating a $5 million payment to every eligible black resident — a process that the Hoover Institution said would cost every local non-black family $600,000. Unsurprisingly, the scheme has been stalled by budgetary constraints. Although such figures have yet to be considered on a national level, the price tag for bills like Lee's Reparations Now would be difficult to stomach even for most Democrats – and face almost certain legal opposition from Republicans. A modest reparations scheme in Evanston, Illinois, for instance, was sued last year by the conservative group Judicial Watch, which claims that it is unconstitutional because applicants must qualify by race. The programme – which launched in 2022 – provides $25,000 in housing grants to direct descendants of black residents harmed by historic housing discrimination. Rather than focus on reparations schemes that spend decades in development but inevitably go nowhere, Democrats would be better served — and better serve their constituents — fixing their party and focusing on efforts that are actually likely to improve the plight of black Americans. But that would involve confronting some hard facts and making some difficult decisions. Like with their support for preferred pronouns or Pride flags, it's far easier to embrace virtue-signalling and anti-Trump bluster. The Democrats thrive on distraction – and reparations fit this mold perfectly. David Christopher Kaufman is a New York Post columnist Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats reintroduce federal resolution for reparations
A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and advocates on Thursday reintroduced a resolution to offer reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) led the reintroduction of the Reparations Now resolution, which was first introduced in 2023 by former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). 'We're here to say that there's no more waiting, no more watering down, no more putting justice on layaway,' said Lee, the descendant of enslaved Africans. 'Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers. We're owed repair, we're owed restitution and we're owed justice.' The resolution calls for the federal government to allocate trillions of dollars in reparations to Black Americans to atone for chattel slavery, Jim Crow and the ongoing effects of other federally sanctioned discriminatory policies. 'For over 400 years, this country has profited off the stolen labor, the stolen land and stolen lives of Black people,' said Bush, who attended Thursday's press conference. She continued: 'From the first shackled bodies brought to these shores — and those that didn't make it to the shores — to the grueling, back-breaking, murderous work done on plantations that built America's wealth, to the federal officials who enslaved human beings while they wrote our laws even here in this building, America has been cashing checks written in Black blood.' Lee and Bush on Thursday specifically pointed to the Trump administration's attempts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion policies, including President Trump's recent efforts to nullify a key component of the Civil Rights Act. 'The harms done to enslaved Africans and subsequently their descendants for generations to follow are innumerable, but they are well documented, traceable and persistent,' said Lee. Since Trump took office in January, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have introduced multiple pieces of legislation to recognize the nation's history of slavery and discrimination. In March, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a monument recognizing the historically Black Greenwood District, which was burned to the ground in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Earlier this month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Booker led the reintroduction of H.R. 40, which would create a federal commission to examine the lasting impact of slavery, systemic racism and racial discrimination. It would also explore measures — such as reparations — to address these harms. Pressley on Thursday condemned Trump's efforts to limit DEI in federal institutions, including threats to defund the Smithsonian. 'We are in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids, and we refuse to be silent,' said Pressley, adding that Congress has an obligation to right the wrongs of slavery and discrimination. 'We will not back down in our pursuit of racial justice,' she said. 'The antidote to anti-Blackness is to be pro-Black, and we will do it unapologetically. The United States government owes us a debt, and we need reparations now.' Efforts to establish reparations for slavery have been ongoing since the end of slavery. Many advocates have pointed to Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15, commonly referred to as '40 acres and a mule.' But the directive, which ordered Confederate land seized in Georgia and South Carolina to be split among formerly enslaved Black people in those states, was never carried out. However, white slave owners were compensated for the loss of their land following the end of the Civil War. In 1989, former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 40 for the first time. He would continue to reintroduce the bill each session for three decades. Conyers died in 2019. That same year, the NAACP released a resolution detailing the lasting harms of slavery and discrimination and called for federal reparations, including a national apology. In 2021, Evanston, Ill., became the first U.S. city to create a reparations plan for Black residents. Other states have since followed, including California and Maryland. 'Reparations are a proposal to level the playing field, but the only way we could ever have a level playing field is by remedying the harms that have been done by the system,' Lee said on Thursday. 'We need real, concrete action. We need policies that close the racial wealth gap, eliminate Black maternal health disparities, fund education, address environmental racism in our communities, and we need reparations. It is a moral obligation, the debt that this country owes.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Democrats reintroduce federal resolution for reparations
A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and advocates on Thursday reintroduced a resolution to offer reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) led the reintroduction of the Reparations Now resolution, which was first introduced in 2023 by former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). 'We're here to say that there's no more waiting, no more watering down, no more putting justice on layaway,' said Lee, the descendant of enslaved Africans. 'Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers. We're owed repair, we're owed restitution and we're owed justice.' The resolution calls for the federal government to allocate trillions of dollars in reparations to Black Americans to atone for chattel slavery, Jim Crow and the ongoing effects of other federally sanctioned discriminatory policies. 'For over 400 years, this country has profited off the stolen labor, the stolen land and stolen lives of Black people,' said Bush, who attended Thursday's press conference. She continued: 'From the first shackled bodies brought to these shores — and those that didn't make it to the shores — to the grueling, back-breaking, murderous work done on plantations that built America's wealth, to the federal officials who enslaved human beings while they wrote our laws even here in this building, America has been cashing checks written in Black blood.' Lee and Bush on Thursday specifically pointed to the Trump administration's attempts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion policies, including President Trump's recent efforts to nullify a key component of the Civil Rights Act. 'The harms done to enslaved Africans and subsequently their descendants for generations to follow are innumerable, but they are well documented, traceable and persistent,' said Lee. Since Trump took office in January, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have introduced multiple pieces of legislation to recognize the nation's history of slavery and discrimination. In March, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a monument recognizing the historically Black Greenwood District, which was burned to the ground in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Earlier this month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Booker led the reintroduction of H.R. 40, which would create a federal commission to examine the lasting impact of slavery, systemic racism and racial discrimination. It would also explore measures — such as reparations — to address these harms. Pressley on Thursday condemned Trump's efforts to limit DEI in federal institutions, including threats to defund the Smithsonian. 'We are in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids, and we refuse to be silent,' said Pressley, adding that Congress has an obligation to right the wrongs of slavery and discrimination. 'We will not back down in our pursuit of racial justice,' she said. 'The antidote to anti-Blackness is to be pro-Black, and we will do it unapologetically. The United States government owes us a debt, and we need reparations now.' Efforts to establish reparations for slavery have been ongoing since the end of slavery. Many advocates have pointed to Gen. William T. Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15, commonly referred to as '40 acres and a mule.' But the directive, which ordered Confederate land seized in Georgia and South Carolina to be split among formerly enslaved Black people in those states, was never carried out. However, white slave owners were compensated for the loss of their land following the end of the Civil War. In 1989, former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 40 for the first time. He would continue to reintroduce the bill each session for three decades. Conyers died in 2019. That same year, the NAACP released a resolution detailing the lasting harms of slavery and discrimination and called for federal reparations, including a national apology. In 2021, Evanston, Ill., became the first U.S. city to create a reparations plan for Black residents. Other states have since followed, including California and Maryland. 'Reparations are a proposal to level the playing field, but the only way we could ever have a level playing field is by remedying the harms that have been done by the system,' Lee said on Thursday. 'We need real, concrete action. We need policies that close the racial wealth gap, eliminate Black maternal health disparities, fund education, address environmental racism in our communities, and we need reparations. It is a moral obligation, the debt that this country owes.'
