The topic of reparations for descendants of slaves is at pitch again – and as usual some of the white people in America still just don’t get it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is certainly in that number. The veteran politician said America paid for its “original sin” of slavery by electing President Barack Obama, reported Essence.
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The day before Ta-Nehesi Coates, Danny Glover and other panelists sat before the House Judiciary subcommittee to make an impassioned case for reparations, McConnell told reporters he was against compensating Black people for the hundreds of years of racial injustice they’ve endured – and still face.
“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. We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a Civil War, by passing landmark Civil Rights legislation, we’ve elected an African-American president. I think we’re always a work in progress in this country, but no one currently alive was responsible for that and I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference.
The backlash to McConnell’s ridiculous comments was immediate from a variety of people, including Coates. During the hearing for HR 40, Coates said, “For a century after the Civil War black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror, a campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority Leader McConnell.”
Like many of his peers , McConnell doesn’t have a true understanding of just how much the institution of slavery and America’s legacy of racism and white supremacy still impacts Black people’s ability to chart an upward trajectory.
The fact that Obama faced the most intense racism and bigotry of a sitting president must be lost on McConnell. Frankly, his comments are offensive and debasing to Black people. But they are not surprising.
Remember Dr. Maya Angelou’s famous quote: “When people show you who they are, believe them.
