A New York lawmaker is calling for every black person in the US to receive $333,000 as reparations for slavery.
Jamaal Bowman is among nine backers of federal bill H.R. 414, which states there is a ‘moral and legal obligation’ to make restitution to the descendants of slaves.
The legislation would force the government to distribute $14 trillion between almost 42 million black Americans.
The figure is based on academics’ estimates of the amount the US benefited from forced labor between 1619 and the end of slavery in 1865, according to the bill.
Yonkers representative Bowman, a member of the so-called ‘Squad’ of young controversial Democrats in Congress, also suggested ‘creative’ ways of paying, including staggering the payments over a number of years.
He also claims the federal government’s response to the pandemic and the space race prove it has the capacity for the program.
‘When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,’ Bowman told the Journal News. ‘The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.’
Hellbound and Down 