As we reported earlier, Rep. Cori Bush on Monday introduced her Reparations NOW resolution, saying that the country owes a debt "not just for slavery, but for what followed, like Black Codes, red lining, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration." I wrote last May that she introduced a similar resolution with similar language. I haven't read the Reparations NOW resolution, so I don't know how much it will cost.
Bush estimated that reparations would cost $14 trillion. The entire U.S. GDP was $25 trillion in 2022. The Daily Mail reported how Bush arrived at that amount: "The $14 trillion figure is in line with the findings of Duke University professor and economist William ‘Sandy’ Darity, who estimates the wealth gap is in excess of $300,000 per person and there are roughly 40 million black people whose ancestors were enslaved in the U.S."
How would the U.S. pay for it? Bush suggested cutting back on the military and foreign aid. Yeah, that would do it. She's just going to keep reintroducing this resolution. The reparations movement is gaining steam, though. As I reported, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last month created a commission on reparations. San Francisco last summer approved $50 million just to set up an Office of Reparations.
No matter what Bush says, I don't feel I owe anyone anything. My lineage goes back to the Netherlands, and my ancestors settled in Sleepy Hollow. They didn't own slaves. But that doesn't matter to Bush, because as a white person, I benefit every day from white privilege.
What about all of the people who immigrated to the United States after slavery was abolished? Why do they owe anyone anything?
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And wouldn't the $14 trillion come out of black taxpayers' pocketbooks too?
Newsbusters reports on a PBS documentary that shows clips of "far-right" figures like Ben Shapiro arguing against reparations — but that argument is driven by fear and mistrust.
A PBS documentary says anyone opposed to the "sacred mission" of reparations is driven by "fear," "mistrust...an unwillingness to face the truth of history," "underestimate the value of the privilege of being white," and is implied an admirer of the Confederacy pic.twitter.com/FGtBQHSyme
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 9, 2024
It's telling that PBS put the white privilege quote from a white guy after the clip of the black critic. Also, nice subtle Stalin-Yezhov reference. Great use of public funds | @PBS: Oppose 'Sacred' Reparations And You Have White Privilege https://t.co/p08NWdt90V
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 9, 2024
Alex Christy writes:
PBS released a new America Reframed documentary on Monday about reparations and the taxpayer-funded network went all in with the bad faith smears, strawmen burning, and stereotyping of those who oppose such measures.
They even found Father Brian Paulson of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States to claim that reparations are something “sacred.” Paulson was shown asking, “What are we up against as we undertake this sacred mission?”
A montage of reparations critics intermingled with reparations supporters to add what the critics really mean then began with Sen. Mitch McConnell claiming, “Yeah, I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea.”
Sarah Eisner, a descendant of slave owners and currently of the Reparations Project, claimed it is actually, “Fear. ‘What are you going to take from me?’"
No, Mitch McConnell had it right. Just no on reparations.
And stop funding PBS.
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