(GoRealNewsNow.com) – In a move sure to outrage millions of conservative Americans, U.S. Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri and part of the group known as the “Squad” in Congress, has proposed a bill advocating for federal reparations to African Americans.
The preliminary draft of this legislation suggests that the U.S. “has a moral and legal responsibility to compensate for the enslavement of Africans and the lasting effects it has had on generations of Black Americans.” The proposal calls for $14 trillion to be allocated to African Americans in an attempt to bridge the racial wealth disparity in the country. [emphasis added]
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In an interview, Bush said, “The only way we get closer to [reparations] is if we start putting forward those bills that speak to it and are very clear about what reparations could look like.”
Reparation bills have been brought forward in Congress since 1989, first by Rep. John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan, and later by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas. Both these bills were unsuccessful. It’s unclear whether Bush’s proposal will encounter a similar fate.
During the 2020 Democratic primary, the Washington Post asked candidates if they thought the federal government should give reparations to the descendants of enslaved people. Most front-runners, including now President Joe Biden, favored a comprehensive study of the issue.
Despite a noticeable increase in support for reparations for African Americans in the last two decades, it’s still an unpopular idea among the American public. A 2021 survey by the Post revealed that only 28 percent of Americans support reparations, while 65 percent are against cash payments to the descendants of enslaved African Americans. Among the Democrats, 46 percent were in favor, compared to 92 percent of Republicans against it. Additionally, two-thirds of Black respondents supported reparations, but only 18 percent of White respondents agreed.
Dreisen Heath, a supporter of reparations, suggested that the best chance for passing such transformative legislation may have been missed during the social upheaval following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Heath told the Post, “We squandered the moment during the summer of 2020 when demands were on the table including reparations. Three years later, people are still dying, circumstances, economically and politically, have not changed, and we’re in economic conditions eerily similar to where we were when historic civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s.”
William Darity, a public policy professor at Duke University who also advised on Bush’s resolution, described the bill as a “positive movement” forward.
In related news, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom of California recently expressed his support for cash reparations to African Americans in his state, following recommendations from his task force.
Newsom’s committee also proposed additional measures, such as overriding voters and repealing a law that prevents California from applying race-based policies, like affirmative action. It is uncertain how California would fund these reparations. After seeing a budget surplus of $100 billion turn into a deficit of $32 billion this year, Newsom and cities like San Francisco, who are also considering reparations, face fiscal challenges.
