Tag: reparations

‘White Fragility’ author slams conservative podcaster Matt Walsh, who duped her into giving black producer reparations in new documentary

“White Fragility” author Robin DiAngelo slammed well-known conservative podcaster Matt Walsh, who posed as an anti-racist activist and duped her into giving a black producer reparations in an upcoming flick that she called a “Borat-style mockumentary.”

DiAngelo vowed in a statement on Thursday not to watch the film she argued is “designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists,” and addressed the uncomfortable scene that played out between her and right-wing personality Matt Walsh in the documentary “Am I Racist?”

Walsh, 38, went undercover when he sat down with DiAngelo and claimed to be interested in anti-racist sentiments before asking his producer, Ben, who is black, to join them.

Walsh, who works at conservative outlet the Daily Wire, convinced her to give Ben some cash in the form of reparations after Walsh also doled out some of his own dough in the awkward moment.

DiAngelo, 68, said in her lengthy statement that when she was contacted by a group about the doc in 2023, it was supposed to be named “Shades of Justice” and about efforts to combat racism in the US.

She was paid $15,000 (that she later donated) to participate, but when she showed up for the interview, “a few things felt off,” including the “ill-fitting wig” Walsh had on as a man bun.

But she said Walsh seemed “earnest” about anti-racist work and his questions were not adversarial until “things got weird” at the end in which she delved into the cringeworthy reparations scene that left DiAngelo visibly bewildered.

“I was so unsettled by the way Matt manipulated this last scene that I emailed the contact person – who went by the name of ‘Lee Hampton’ – to explain that this scene was not an example of reparations and could mislead viewers,” DiAngelo explained.

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Resurfaced Video Shows Kamala Harris Promising Race Grifter Al Sharpton She Will Sign Reparations Bill

Newly surfaced video has shown Kamala Harris promising to sign a reparations bill into law if she is elected president.

In what is reported to have been an appearance with notorious race grifter Al Sharpton during the 2020 presidential campaign, in which she polled so bad she pulled out before the primaries, Harris promised she would support the radical plan to take money from ordinary Americans and give it to black people.

“In the area of reparations of for descendants of Africans enslaved: If you’re elected president would you sign that bill [Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act proposed by Representative Shelia Jackson Lee] if it came across your desk?” Sharpton asks Harris during the event.

“When I am elected president I will sign that bill,” she responds to the delight of the audience.

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Oakland Reparations Committee Demands $5 Million Just To Write Plan

A ‘reparations panel’ for Alameda County, whose largest city is Oakland, has demanded $5 million to come up with a plan for reparations over racism, and say it will take them two years to do it.

According to NPR affiliate KQED, the 15-member commission was assembled in March of 2023 to ‘study anti-black racism’ and come up with a plan to compensate allegedly harmed residents. We should note, the commission was supposed to have completed its work by this July. Instead, as KQED notes, “it has hardly started.” (plus the $5 million thing)

Nate Miley, president of the Board of Supervisors and author of the resolution that created the Reparations Commission, blamed the pandemic and a months-long recall process of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, which is set for a vote this November.

“I didn’t think it would take as long to get people appointed,” Miley told the outlet. “We do want to have a sense of urgency, and that’s why I was kind of looking at a year and a half, but maybe I might have been a bit ambitious.”

The committee was the combination of two resolutions by the Board of Supervisors from 2011 and 2020. The first apologized for slavery and racial segregation, while the second vowed to examine the role that Alameda county played in perpetuating discrimination against black residents, and then come up with a plan to show them the money.

“We are trying not to recreate the wheel,” said Debra Gore-Mann, president and CEO of Oakland racial justice organization the Greenlining Institute, who asked supervisors for a dedicated staff to complete their work, and a new deadline of June 30, 2026. Oh, and the $5 million.

The commission also asked for a budget of about $5 million, dwarfing the initial budget allocation of approximately $51,000. The requested budget would support research, public outreach and community listening sessions over the next two years. Commission members currently receive a $50 stipend for each meeting they attend. -KQED

“I think $5 million is a hefty amount of funding,” said Miley, who noted that the county’s budget deficit is projected to reach between $70 million and $100 million this year – and that even getting the board to respond and other support requests could take months.

Last year, Milley suggested that reparations was not a top priority.

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California’s Leftist Committee Approves Bill for Reparations that Could Cost $800 Billion

A California State Legislature committee has approved a bill that could allocate a staggering $800 billion for slavery reparations—a sum that is more than 2.5 times the state’s annual budget.

This decision comes from a state that historically never practiced slavery and will be paying individuals who themselves were never enslaved.

The reparations initiative stems from the recommendations of California’s Reparations Task Force, which convened for the first time in 2020. The task force, made up of eight black members and one Asian member, was established through Assembly Bill 3121.

According to the California Attorney General’s website, the committee’s purpose is threefold: “(1) to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans; (2) to recommend appropriate ways to educate the California public of the task force’s findings; and (3) to recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Task Force’s findings.”

The task force ultimately voted in favor of recommendations that could include payments of a minimum of 360,000 to each eligible black resident in the state. As reported by the New York Post, this reparations proposal could potentially cost the state up to 800 billion — more than 2.5 times its annual budget.

On May 21, 2024, following a motion for reconsideration and a series of procedural votes, the bill was passed in the California State Senate, securing a vote of 30-7.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee heard the bill. State Rep. Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, the only member to raise concerns, voiced her alarm.

“Economists, consultants from the task force reported the total amount could be as much as 800 billion. That’s two and a half times the size of our entire state budget. To pay for that, you’d need a major tax hike unlike anything this state has ever seen before,” Sanchez said.

“The majority of our state is Latino and Asian, making up 55% of our population. Most of them, like me, are second, first, or third generation immigrants who had nothing to do with slavery or Jim Crow laws. It is fundamentally unfair to force these people to pay for this, and because of that, I will be opposing today,” she continued.

In an X post, Sanchez wrote, “A key committee just approved a [California] bill to help distribute reparations that could total $800 billion. I was the ONLY member to raise concerns.   Why should CA taxpayers foot the bill when none of us had anything to do with this? Ridiculous!” 

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California lawmaker unveils ‘Genealogy Office’ to decide who’s REALLY descended from slaves and wins reparations payouts

A California lawmaker has unveiled plans for a ‘Genealogy Office’ to decide which residents are genuine descendants of slaves and could get life-changing benefits payouts.

Steven Bradford, a Democratic state Senator for LA County, proposed bill SB 1403 to create a controversial genealogy unit to ‘confirm reparations eligibility’ of applicants.

The state’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force last year decided that some residents should win $1.2 million payouts as compensation for injustices from the slavery era onwards.

But lawmakers have struggled to turn those plans into reality, and have advanced several bills to devise a working reparations scheme amid fears of spiralling costs in a cash-strapped state. 

Bradford’s bill, which was amended this month, aims to solve the problem of working out who is in line for a payout.

Its planned genealogy team would ‘support potential reparations claimants by providing access to expert genealogical research to confirm reparations eligibility,’ says the bill.

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Councillor dubs Boston the ‘most racist city in the country’ and seeks millions in reparations to help black residents buy organic food at farmers’ markets

A Massachusetts council woman has slammed Boston as the ‘most racist city in the country’ and called for a multimillion dollar reparations package so that black residents can improve their diets with organic food.

Julia Mejia, a Boston councilor-at-large, said the city had only spent $2.1 million to address the ‘historical trauma that’s been carried from generation to generation’ and that much more was needed.

Speaking at Harvard University, Mejia, called for a $300,000 maternity clinic for ‘birthing people’ and payouts, so the descendants of slaves could shop at farmers’ markets for organic syrup and other healthy items.

Reparations activists in Boston seek $15 million to repay black residents for injustices against their slavery-era forefathers — an eye-watering sum that’s nearly four times the city’s annual budget.

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North Carolina city spends $300,000 on reparations expert DESPITE her posts about locals ‘romanticizing segregation’ and ‘White accommodation’

A North Carolina city has approved $300,000 for a reparations consultant with a record in online posts about ‘White accommodation’ and how her neighbors ‘celebrate and romanticize segregation.’

High Point City Council on Tuesday greenlighted $292,460 for Lea Henry and her team at the National Institute of Minority Economic Development, to lead its reparations efforts.

At least two councillors have queried the large sum — but there are few signs that members are aware of the hard-line views that Henry, a Harvard University graduate, posts on social media.

On Facebook, Henry has slammed her North Carolina neighbors for ‘celebrating segregation’ and railed against ‘White accommodation’, a term critical race theory (CRT) advocates use to describe a type of black oppression.

Whether taxes should fund cash payouts and other schemes for the descendants of slaves is a hot-button issue in America’s culture wars. For critics of them, reparations consultants are a drain on much-needed resources.

Henry’s posts raise questions about whether she’s the right woman for the job.

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‘We Want It Now’: Black Clergy Demand $15 Billion in Reparations From ‘White Churches’ in Boston

Black clergy in Boston are demanding a $15 billion reparations package paid for by “white churches” in the local area.

The demands were made during a press conference the Resurrection Lutheran Church, organized by the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, according to The Boston Globe.

Among the speakers Reverend Kevin Peterson, who previously led a campaign to rename the popular tourist site of Faneuil Hall because of the name’s links to a slaveowner.

“We call sincerely and with a heart filled with faith and Christian love for our White churches to join us and not be silent around this issue of racism and slavery and commit to reparations,” Peterson declared.

“We point to them in Christian love to publicly atone for the sins of slavery and we ask them to publicly commit to a process of reparations where they will extend their great wealth — tens of millions of dollars among some of those churches — into the Black community,” he continued. 

Also speaking at the event was Danielle Williams, the director of a social justice group called Prophetic Resistance Boston, who claims her great-great-grandmother was a slave in North Carolina.

“Black people, the descendants of slavery, have been washing the feet of our oppressors for well over 400 years,” Williams reportedly said. “Now it’s time for you to wash our feet. The descendants of slavery, we want our reparations. We want it now.”

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You Can’t Make This Up: Champion of Slavery Reparations Sunny Hostin Discovers on “Finding Your Roots” Program that She is a Descendant of Slave Owners from Spain

In a twist that sounds like it’s straight out of a satirical comedy, Sunny Hostin, a far-left progressive political commentator and a co-host of The View, experienced a jaw-dropping revelation on PBS’ Finding Your Roots.

Hostin, an outspoken advocate for slavery reparations, was shocked to learn that her own lineage traces back to Spanish slave owners.

The episode left the 55-year-old far-left host grappling with a complex personal revelation.

Hostin, whose mother is Puerto Rican and father is African American, has long identified with her Puerto Rican heritage and the civil rights movement.

However, the PBS series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. uncovered that Hostin’s maternal ancestors were far from the freedom fighters she had imagined; they were slave owners in Spain.

According to Daily Mail, Hostin’s third great-grandfather, Fermín, a son of a Spanish merchant who was likely involved in the slave trade, was revealed to have owned slaves. Hostin also found out that she is only 7% indigenous Puerto Rican.

“Wow, I’m a little bit in shock. I just always thought of myself as half Puerto Rican. I didn’t think my family was originally from Spain and slaveholders,” she said.

“I think it’s actually pretty interesting that my husband and I have shared roots, so I do appreciate that, and I think it’s great for our children to know this information.”

“I guess it’s a fact of life that this is how some people made their living, on the backs of others.”

“I had no idea the Spanish roots to this extent. I’m still sort of shocked at the depth of the ties,” Hostin added.

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Squad member Jamaal Bowman on slave reparations – says he wants ALL 42 MILLION black Americans to get $333,000 and reveals ‘creative ways’ to pay them

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.’

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