Tag: reparations

NYU prof: What if White Americans’ taxes were investigated for ties to slavery?

A New York University professor suggested that White people should be forced to submit their taxes to be checked for ties to slavery.

On Nov. 18, the University of California-Berkeley hosted a panel titled “The Future of Freedom: Reparations after 400 Years.” The goal of the panel was to “consider what the question of reparations means for this freedom’s fulfillment and what kind of future could follow for African-Americans beyond 400,” according to the video description. 

The panel consisted of professors Bertrall Ross and Jovan Scott Lewis, both of UC-Berkeley; Katherine Franke of Columbia Law School, and Michael Ralph of New York University.

Each professor provided past examples of reparations given to marginalized people, and said these could be examples of how to pay reparations to African Americans for 400 years of “systemic and violent racism.” 

Keep reading

Real headline, folks: The Votes of Black Americans Should Count Twice

Black votes in this country are worth less than white votes. Joe Biden won the Electoral College because Black voters in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia turned out in significant numbers. But even with overwhelming Black support—94 percent of Detroit voted for Biden!—the outcomes in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were worryingly close.

The Argument is a column where writers and thinkers propose a provocative idea that may not be politically realizable in the short term but that pushes one to think broader about a pressing issue of public importance.

One core problem is the Electoral College. Wyoming, which has just 580,000 residents and is 93 percent white, gets three electors because of its two senators and one representative in the House. By comparison, Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District—which includes Atlanta, has 710,000 residents, and is 58 percent Black—has no dedicated electors or senators and can only occasionally overcome the mostly white and conservative votes from elsewhere in the state. This devaluation of Black votes allows our political system to ignore Black lives, and the consequences are devastating. Unequal representation has led to unequal health care outcomes, which the Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened. Without sufficient voting power, Black communities receive substandard education, and politicians are free to appoint judges who sanction mass incarceration, abusive policing, and electoral disenfranchisement.

This is all by design. The Constitution’s framers set up the Electoral College to protect the interests of slave states. Along with the Senate, the Electoral College was critical in the endurance of slavery and its continuation by other means. Abolishing this system would mean that ballots cast by Black voters—or any voters, for that matter—would count the same.

But there’s another way to undo the damage of the Electoral College and other structurally racist political institutions: We can implement vote reparations by double-counting ballots cast by all Black residents. The poisonous legacy of slavery applies to Black people regardless of when we or our ancestors arrived in this country. Vote reparations should also extend to Native Americans. Slavery is rightly called America’s original sin, but so too was the United States’ genocidal seizure of land from its original inhabitants. Various legal forms of disenfranchisement have applied to them. It wasn’t until 1962 that all Native Americans were allowed to vote, and even then they faced—and still face—electoral obstacles. These are not the only examples of American oppression; we should include in vote reparations others who have suffered similar disenfranchisement.

Keep reading

These People Want To Convince Everyone That Looting Is A-Okay

Looting is okay because it’s “reparations”

First, there was the woman who spoke after the Magnificent Mile in Chicago was looted so ferociously that Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulled the drawbridge open to keep people out of the downtown area. I recently wrote:

According to a Black Lives Matter activist and organizer, Ariel Atkins, it was just “reparations.” Atkins believes that anything the looters wish to damage or steal is owed to them. She made the radical statement at a solidarity rally in front of a Chicago police station, where people were gathered to support those who had been arrested.

“I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci’s or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes,” Ariel Atkins said at a rally outside the South Loop police station Monday, local outlets reported.

“That’s a reparation,” Atkins said. “Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.” (source)

At a time when more people than ever in the United States were willing to get on board and protest police brutality and racial violence, entitled statements like the one made by Atkins have served to return us to a place of absolute division. (source)

Atkin’s statement was made at a solidarity rally in front of a Chicago police station where people were gathered to support those who had been arrested for pillaging the Windy City.

Keep reading

Economist Puts $12 TRILLION Price Tag on Reparations for Black Community

A Duke University economist has put a $12 trillion price tag on what he believes to be just reparations for slavery. The economist proposes the hefty sum be disbursed to the descendants of those affected by American slavery.

Duke University economist William Darity Jr. and his wife Kirsten Mullen came to the massive total in a report for the Roosevelt Institute titled, Resurrecting The Promise of 40 Acres: The Imperative of Reparations for Black Americans.

Within the plan, Darity calls for $10 to $12 trillion dollars to be distributed among black households. This would roughly equate to $800,000 per capita, according to Breitbart News.

Keep reading

LOL:Rapper T.I. Wants $44 Trillion In Slavery Reparations

Rapper T.I. has put a heavy price tag on slavery reparations: $1 million for every descendant of slavery, equal up to $44 trillion.

Speaking with radio host Charlamagne tha God on “The Breakfast Club,” T.I. outlined his reparations goal and demanded that black people be represented equally across the board in the United States.

“This is my goal,” he said. “My goal is to get every black person in America that’s a descendant of slavery one million dollars, at least. That take about $44 trillion. So that’s my goal, so I’m working up on $44 trillion.”

Keep reading

Member of Black Militia Demanding Reparations Accidentally Shoots Himself and Another Member at Louisville March

A member of the “Not F-cking Around Coalition,” a black nationalist militia demanding reparations, accidentally shot himself and another member in the leg ahead of their Louisville march on Saturday.

Members of the Three Percenters militia are also in downtown Louisville for an armed counter demonstration.

The black nationalist group says they are in Kentucky to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by police during a raid.

Keep reading

Teen Vogue says sleep is for privileged white people: Calls for ‘rest reparations’

Last week, Teen Vogue published an article that argues that sleep is an example of systemic racism, and activists are now even calling for “rest reparations” to fix this.

In an article called “Black Power Naps is Addressing Systemic Racism in Sleep,” the magazine discusses the Black Power Naps initiative, which claims that African Americans have shorter life spans than white people do. The initiative was started by activists Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa, who claimed that this is because blacks suffer from “generational fatigue” due to their skin color.

Keep reading

‘My Nigerian great-grandfather sold slaves’

Amid the global debate about race relations, colonialism and slavery, some of the Europeans and Americans who made their fortunes in trading human beings have seen their legacies reassessed, their statues toppled and their names removed from public buildings.

Nigerian journalist and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes that one of her ancestors sold slaves, but argues that he should not be judged by today’s standards or values.

Keep reading

In Historic Move, North Carolina City Approves Reparations For Black Residents

In an extraordinary move, the Asheville City Council has apologized for the North Carolina city’s historic role in slavery, discrimination, and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants.

The 7-0 vote came the night of July 14.

“Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today,” said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the body and the measure’s chief proponent.

“It is simply not enough to remove statutes. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature.”

The unanimously passed resolution does not mandate direct payments. Instead, it will make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities.

Keep reading