Black Reparations
Have you thought about whether Black people who are descended from enslaved people should be given reparations? We can’t get away with arguments like “It didn’t happen on my watch” and “I never discriminated against anyone”. To the first, systemic discrimination against Black people and communities is not something that disappeared after the Civil Rights Act of 1964; it’s continued right up to the present. To the second, the government acts on behalf of the people; just because it was government in the past that committed the more egregious crimes against Black humanity, doesn’t mean the government today shouldn’t rectify the situation.
Here are some ways government has continued to support discrimination, both actively and passively, since 1945:
Subprime lending crash (2008): The government failed to regulate banks sufficiently, leading to predatory lending in Black communities.
Differential cocaine sentencing (1986): Crack, used in Black communities, was punished 100 times more harshly than powder, used in white communities. (In 2010 that was reduced to 18:1.)
Redlined communities (1968): The Fair Housing Act was supposed to end housing discrimination, but there have been redlining settlements as recently as 2015.
GI Bill discrimination (1956): Almost 8 million veterans had access to education and housing subsidies, but only 20% of Black GIs were able to get education benefits, and less than 1% got housing benefits.
Reparations need to include cultural and structural revisions as well as significant financial restitution. If there had been no enslavement through 1865, if there been no suppression through 1964, if there had been no discrimination through the present day, Black people would have more wealth and more income than they currently do. The median white:Black wealth disparity is 69:1; the median income disparity is almost 2:1.
I’d write the following Emancipation Reparations and Restitution Act**:
Wealth program (10 years to full funding): at the end of the ten-year funding period, each slave descendant alive on the June 19th following the law’s enactment would get $25,000, with a $10,000 predeceased death benefit to spouses or children, and estate transfers of the full value for anyone who dies during the funding period. Enslavement ancestry would not need positive proof; it will be presumed from an absence of evidence of post-Emancipation arrival.
Monthly Income program, (20 years of funding): $500 per adult, $250 per child (again with death benefits).
Housing & Education program (20 years of funding): like the GI Bill, giving significant education (all levels) and housing subsidies.
For perspective, the Wealth and Income programs amount to an annual $321B for the first ten years, and $217B for the second ten years, based on the 2010 black population of 41M. The grand total for restitution is $5.3T over 20 years. $321B is less than half what was spent on defense in the 2019 federal budget. The Housing & Education program might be another $75B annually based on the GI Bill.
For reparations, which I consider to be a very different thing, I think the USA needs to establish and fund an Black Truth and Reconciliation Council to handle at least three things:
national consolidated digital archive for black history, including another round of freshly recorded oral and written narratives of the black experience.
cultural revisions board, to research, recommend, and implement changes that correct historical and cultural erasures. For example, the nationalization of black historical sites into a department at the NPS; conversion of all publicly held plantations into true historical sites (no rentals); oversight of thorough public school curriculum revisions; etc.
claims review board, to settle civil suits against businesses and individuals whose wealth has roots in enslavement.
** I fully support reparations for descendants and survivors of indigenous genocide and oppression as well. Any indigenous reparations would also need to include land claims. I support universal health care and other nationwide programs, which is why there might seem to be components missing from my proposal.