Tag: reparations

‘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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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson calls for reparations funding to reduce violent crime

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson insisted to CNN that funding for reparations in his new budget will help get to the root of the city’s record violent crime epidemic.

While speaking to network anchor Poppy Harlow on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday, Johnson acknowledged the high crime rate in Chicago and declared that the “full force of government” is required to solve it, including the city throwing $500,000 at reparations programs. 

Harlow prompted his answer by citing Chicago Police Department statistics revealing that although “the murder rate is down from 2022,” “all other forms of violent crime, Mr. Mayor, are up from a year ago, up 17% overall.”

“Are Chicagoans going to be safer in 2024?” the anchor asked. 

Johnson, who has been mayor of the Democrat-run city for about seven months, claimed the solution to the problem lies with a major government response, and the “full out community safety plan,” he claimed, “not only gets at the root causes of violence in the city of Chicago,” but makes “critical investments.”

He listed the investments: “A quarter of a billion dollars to address homelessness, $100 million for violence prevention. We added 80 million more dollars to our youth employment program of which we hired 25,000 young people just this summer. That’s a 20% increase from the previous year.”

Johnson also touted his proposal “to hire 4,000 additional young people this summer,” adding, “We have stood up an entire office dedicated to re-entry. So individuals who are returning to our communities who have been incarcerated because of failed policies will have a welcoming space for them.”

He then spoke about city funds being diverted to providing reparations for its African American community. “I’ve added a half a million dollars for restoration and reparations to address, again, the cycle of violence, which looks like school closings, closing of mental health facilities, of which I’ve invested in now. We’re going to open up two mental health clinics that were closed from two previous administrations ago.”

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RFK Jr. comes out in favor of reparations, carving out lane to Biden’s left

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supports issuing reparations to the black community, making him the most prominent 2024 candidate to favor the controversial policy meant to atone for slavery and legal segregation.

President Biden has largely been silent on the issue, leading to frustration among the far left.

Kennedy — who ditched his Democratic primary challenge to Biden earlier this month — has spoken out in favor of issuing federal dollars to “rebuild black infrastructure” like banks and businesses, and as well as “direct redress payments or tax credits” rather than no-strings cash giveaways.

“Communities that were specifically targeted for destruction need to be specifically targeted for repair,” he states on his campaign website.

“During Jim Crow, Black banks, businesses, hospitals, schools, and farms were targeted for destruction. Racists knew that without these, the Black community had no chance of building wealth. We must set federal dollars aside to rebuild Black infrastructure.”

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New poll finds California voters resoundingly oppose cash reparations for slavery

California voters oppose the idea of the state offering cash payments to the descendants of enslaved African Americans by a 2-to-1 margin, according to the results of a new poll that foreshadows the political difficulty ahead next year when state lawmakers begin to consider reparations for slavery.

The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by The Times, found that 59% of voters oppose cash payments compared with 28% who support the idea. The lack of support for cash reparations was resounding, with more than 4 in 10 voters “strongly” opposed.

“It has a steep uphill climb, at least from the public’s point of view,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS poll.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers created California’s Reparations Task Force in 2020 with the goal of establishing a path to reparations that could serve as a model for the nation. After two years of deliberations, the task force sent a final report and recommendations this summer to the state Capitol, where Newsom and the Democratic-led Legislature will ultimately decide how the state should atone for slavery.

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Chicago suburb starts disbursing $10 million reparations package to black residents

A Chicago suburb has become the first city in the nation to begin disbursing reparations payments to black residents over discrimination and limited access to housing, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Approximately 140 residents in Evanston, Illinois, will receive $25,000 from the city by the end of the year, according to the outlet.

In 2019, the city of roughly 75,000 residents approved a $10 million reparations package to be distributed over 10 years. So far, the city has already disbursed reparations payments to sixteen qualified residents, the Evanston Round Table reported.

Individuals must have been at least 18 years old and resided in the city between 1919 and 1969 to qualify for the payments.

The city is providing reparations in cash or vouchers, which are supposed to come from marijuana and real-estate transfer taxes.

However, the Evanston Round Table noted that the marijuana sales tax revenue slowed after the opening of a second dispensary in the city was delayed. Another location is scheduled to open in September, which will help cover the reparations program.

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San Francisco Reparations Panelist: Straight White Men “A Danger to Society” and ‘Serial Killers’

Nikcole Cunningham, a member of San Francisco’s slavery reparations committee, called straight white men a “danger to society” and “serial killers” in a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph.

In the interview, Cunningham says, “Straight white men are abusive. Straight white men are serial killers. They have the most — I watch these shows — the most serial killers. Straight white men are the ones who are shooting up schools, right? So they are a danger to society,” adding, “Not all of them.”

Further, Cunningham suggests white people should be held accountable for the actions of slave owners because they are “still benefiting from the harms that… [their] ancestor[s] caused.”

The New York Post reports:

Cunningham also claimed that “white supremacy is ingrained in the DNA in this country and definitely in this city.”

*****

She slammed white men for not backing reparations.

“They’re not doing that. So if anything, they pose more of a harm than support and help. And then you got to remember their ancestors … are the ones who were standing out here in their Sunday best watching black people hang and burn,” Cunningham told the outlet.

“So until white people come to grips with their ancestry too and make amends with them, to say, I want to be the change,” added Cunningham, who was reportedly appointed to the committee because she is suing the city, her former employer, for discrimination.

The Gateway Pundit reported on the proposal from the San Francisco “Reparations Committee” to pay each longtime black resident $5 million and grant them total debt forgiveness for suffering decades of “systemic repression.”

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‘Time for a Divorce’: California Reparations Task Force Meeting Gets Heated

A California Reparations Task Force meeting got heated this week when several people began publicly denouncing the United States for its role in slavery, with one even calling for a “divorce.”

The final meeting of the Reparations Task Force in Sacramento occurred a little over a month after the nine-member panel recommended that California state legislators pay black residents of the state up to $1.2 million in reparations for slavery and past discrimination. During the public speaking segment, people did not hold back their opinions. One man, named Reggie Romanie, believed the recommended $1.2 million would never be enough.

“This reparations task force, I appreciate y’all, but you all opened up a whole can of worms. I’m going to tell you this: reparations is about ‘repair.’ To me, I qualify. I’m going to tell you how you repair this,” he said, as reported by Fox News. “First of all, America, from the evidence that they gave us, you’re guilty.”

Referencing the debunked 1619 Project, which made the false claim that America had been founded specifically to protect slavery, Romaine accused the United States of essentially marrying black Americans and now owe them a divorce settlement.

“You kidnapped us! Put a hate crime on us! That’s the first one. Now you came here with all the other atrocities. When you brought us here, you raped our men, women, and kids. So, therefore, you married us!” he said. “Don’t treat us like no cheap piece of meat! So, therefore, our last name’s ‘American!’ So now’s the time for a divorce! What do you get in divorce? You get half the money, half the land, alimony, child support, attorney fees, and everything else! So that’s what we want!”

Don Tamaki, a Japanese-American attorney and member of the task force, said that he sees parallels between the black American fight for reparations and the Japanese-American fight for reparations.

“If it wasn’t for the Black Civil Rights Movement, where would we be?” Tamaki told NBC News. “That whole movement changed the culture a lot. And it changed us. And so it began this movement toward redress and reparations.”

“I don’t think we knew who we were. The term ‘Asian American’ was not coined yet. And we called ourselves ‘Orientals,’ and we just assumed we were second-class citizens,” Tamaki contnued. “What woke us up was Martin Luther King on national television, leading peaceful demonstrators and being sicced on by dogs and being beaten by police with clubs … just to be able to go to a school, just to be able to sit in a restaurant or be in an integrated bus. And that was followed by a more militant call for Black power.”

California state Sen. Steven Bradford, a task force member, said on Thursday that reparations “likely won’t happen with one legislative cycle or two legislative cycles, or one bill,” according to USA Today.

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NYC considers reparations for black residents, removal of ‘racist’ public art amid flurry of legislation

The City Council is mulling a package of controversial bills that include weighing whether black New Yorkers deserve reparations for slavery, and another resurrecting a woke push to remove artwork they consider “racist” from public property.

Councilwoman Farah Louis (D-Brooklyn) introduced her reparations bill on Thursday – the same day the state Legislature in Albany approved a comparable bill.

That legislation, which has been sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul for consideration, would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination on the entire Empire State and potentially reward payments.

Louis’ reparations bill – which only covers the city — would create a nine-member task force that would be required to deliver a report one year after being appointed. Like the state bill, any recommendations would be non-binding and strictly advisory.

It is part of a larger legislative package introduced Thursday by some council members of color they said is aimed at “rectifying” historical “injustices.”

One measure by Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn) would require the city’s Commission of Racial Equity to create a “Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation” process that establishes “historical facts” about the city’s past use of slavery and then recommends changes for local government and institutions to “prevent recurrence” – even though New York abolished slavery more than two centuries ago, and lost more than 50,000 men while fighting to free slaves during the Civil War.

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