US elections 2020 Slavery reparations: where do Democratic 2020 candidates stand?

[sheshe2]

US elections 2020
Slavery reparations: where do Democratic 2020 candidates stand?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/21/reparations-slavery-2020-democratic-candidates

Bernie Sanders is opposed, while Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker hesitate to voice outright support

The renewed Democratic debate over how to heal the legacy of slavery

Should the US pay reparations to the descendants of slaves? The issue has been debated for years, but has now become a matter of discussion among the candidates vying for the Democratic party’s nomination for the 2020 presidential election. Here’s where they stand on the matter, so far:

Snip

Kamala Harris, California senator
Position? Noncommittal.

What she has said: “I think that the word, the term reparations, it means different things to different people. But what I mean by it is that we need to study the effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism and determine what can be done, in terms of intervention, to correct course.”

Julián Castro, former San Antonio mayor
Position? Tentative support.

What he has said: “If under the constitution we compensate people because we take their property, why wouldn’t you compensate people who actually were property.”

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The Cases For Reparations: How 2020 Presidential Candidates Address The Issue

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/03/21/reparations-slavery-democratic-presidential-candidates-democrats

Nineteenth century bilboes for a child, front, and an adult, typically found on slave ships, are displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Democratic presidential hopefuls are talking about reparations for slavery. They’re talking seriously, but with few specifics. What would a reparations policy actually look like?

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Why this discussion is so important:

The New Lynching Memorial and Legacy Museum Force Us to Bear Witness to Our Whole American Truth

https://www.theroot.com/the-new-lynching-memorial-and-museum-forces-us-to-bear-1825529717

But just as a defendant must elocute on his or her crimes before the court, we cannot reconcile our past and move forward as a country until we begin to acknowledge its basest barbarism inflicted on its citizens. Heavily influenced by Germany’s atonement after the Holocaust and South Africa’s truth-and-reconciliation endeavors after the fall of apartheid, Stevenson says that to “move past” slavery and lynchings, we must first understand it. Without that, there can be no justice.
The New Lynching Memorial and Legacy Museum Force Us to Bear Witness to Our Whole American Truth.

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Read More About it Here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128737642

[NurseJackie]

1. Thanks for posting this in the Primaries forum. Very appropriate info...

Thanks for posting this in the Primaries forum. Very appropriate info that voters can use to compare and contrast the candidates.

[Me.]

2. Glad To See This Reposted

[ucrdem]

3. This could be the issue that turns this election.

[redstateblues]

7. In what way?

[ucrdem]

11. For us. Let's say Dems settle on a $1,000 one-time reparation

to every descendant of slavery, or better to every POC. It's not really a lot of money but symbolically it would make a powerful statement. Of course Trump would campaign against it and what effect would that have? His rabid base would do what they did last time but our base would be motivated to vote in record numbers.

Anyway that's just one of several scenarios and they all break in our favor.

[redstateblues]

13. It's not a winning issue

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Good, we need to talk about this.

[still_one]

5. I think Castro's response is the most direct, but it raises a lot more questions than it answers.

For example, how do you determine the amount, and how many generations of descendants of slaves would be entitled to reparations. Would a child born today be eligible for example?

Kamala Harris I think has the most pragmatic approach, and actually was one of the objectives of Affirmative Action, which has slowly been whittled down through the years.

This will also open up a lot of similar issues, Japanese American internment, Native Americans, etc.

[marlakay]

8. Thats my question how would it actually work?

A small amount per person isn’t going to change their lives, to me a steady income of 40-50K a year would, but how could the country afford that? Lower military? I can’t see that ever happening.

Pete says the answer is to help more with buying a house but what if you can’t afford the mortgage?

I am totally for trying to figure it out but how is the question with a good part of the country still racist.

[Polybius]

9. Do you mean $40 to 50k for life?

That would be way more than we could afford. Or do you mean a one time payment of $40-50k per African American? That would be much more doable.

[still_one]

10. I don't think it can, which is why I think an Afirmative Action type solution is the best approach

[BlueFlorida]

6. Thanks for posting this

It puts the reparations in perspective and with a focus.

[Autumn]

12. Hopefully their stand matches Obama's stand

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/ta-nehisi-coates-obama-transcript-ii/511133/

Obama: Well, I thought I was, but I’m not so optimistic as to think that you would ever be able to garner a majority of an American Congress that would make those kinds of investments above and beyond the kinds of investments that could be made in a progressive program for lifting up all people. So to restate it: I have much more confidence in my ability, or any president or any leader’s ability, to mobilize the American people around a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to help every child in poverty in this country than I am in being able to mobilize the country around providing a benefit specific to African Americans as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow. Now, we can debate the justness of that. But I feel pretty confident in that assessment politically. And, you know, I think that part of my optimism comes from the belief that we as a people could actually, regardless of all the disadvantage of the past, regardless of the fact that a lot of other folks got a head start in the race, if we were able to make the race fair right now, and—

Coates: You think we could catch up?

Obama: We were able to make sure that it stayed fair for a long time and that children going forward were not encumbered by some of that same bias of the past, I think it would not take long at all, because we are a talented, resourceful people. Just play this out as a thought experiment: Imagine if you had genuine, high-quality early-childhood education for every child, and suddenly every black child in America—but also every poor white child or Latino [child], but just stick with every black child in America—is getting a really good education. And they’re graduating from high school at the same rates that whites are, and they are going to college at the same rates that whites are, and they are able to afford college at the same rates because the government has universal programs that say that you’re not going to be barred from school just because of how much money your parents have. So now they’re all graduating. And let’s also say that the Justice Department and the courts are making sure, as I’ve said in a speech before, that when Jamal sends his résumé in, he’s getting treated the same as when Johnny sends his résumé in.

ow, are we going to have suddenly the same number of CEOs, billionaires, etc., as the white community? In 10 years? Probably not, maybe not even in 20 years. But I guarantee you that we would be thriving, we would be succeeding. We wouldn’t have huge numbers of young African American men in jail. We’d have more family formation as college-graduated girls are meeting boys who are their peers, which then in turn means the next generation of kids are growing up that much better. And suddenly you’ve got a whole generation that’s in a position to start using the incredible creativity that we see in music, and sports, and frankly even on the streets, channeled into starting all kinds of businesses. I feel pretty good about our odds in that situation.

And my point has always been: We’re so far from that. Why are we even having the abstract conversation when we’ve got a big fight on our hands just to get strong, universal antipoverty programs and social programs in place, and we’re still fighting to make sure that basic antidiscrimination laws are enforced, not just at the federal level, by the way, but throughout government and throughout the private sector? And those are fights that we can win because—and this is where I do believe America has changed—the majority, not by any means 100 percent, but the majority of Americans believe in the idea of nondiscrimination. They believe in the idea that Jamal and Johnny should be treated equally. They believe in the idea that a child shouldn’t be consigned to poverty just because of circumstances of their birth. Now, in practice, in daily social interactions, etc., there may be all kinds of biases and prejudices that are unspoken, that people aren’t aware of, that affect who’s hired, and who gets loans, and how kids are treated in school. But it’s a powerful thing if you have on your side an idea that the overwhelming majority of people believe in because that’s how you can build a consensus that’s lasting. And that’s how you avoid an argument that “I’m being treated unfairly because you are treating somebody differently than me.” Everybody potentially can make the claim that we should all be treated fairly. As opposed to getting into arguments about, well, these folks have been treated fairly so now we’re going to be doing things that, very easily in the minds of a lot Americans feel like, “Now I’m being treated unfairly.”

[McCamy Taylor]

14. Where does the UK stand? They started slavery and only opposed it after the American Revolution.

Maybe Europe would like th make reparations to Africa for the way they partitioned it?

[themaguffin]

15. This discussion is important and should be addressed with the next Dem pres but

it shouldn't be a 2020 "issue."

This will not politically help Democrats. This is a political election.

[brooklynite]

16. Drop the issue...

This should have nothing to do with the Presidential Election.

[sheshe2]

17. No.