When Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his run for the 2024 election, voters were intrigued. After all, he is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963. His father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated on June 6, 1968, after securing the Democratic nomination for that year’s presidential election. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself made headlines for taking an anti-covid-19 vaccine stance and for promoting conspiracy theories around the deaths of his father and uncle.

While his family has been known for being very involved in the 1960s civil rights movement and connecting with the Black community so much so that many Black homes featured two photos, one of Martin Luther King Jr., the other of President Kennedy, many wonder how Robert Jr. will approach Black voters. During one recent interview, he revealed he was not for cash reparations.

Kennedy has been making the rounds with the Black media.

The lawyer is reaching out to the Black community as part of his campaign strategy, which could be a smart move as Black voters are lukewarm about giving President Joe Biden a second term.

A poll by The Economist and YouGov showed that Kennedy was viewed favorably by 49 percent of respondents and unfavorably by just 30 percent, leaving him with a net rating of 19 points—higher than any other candidate in the poll, which surveyed 1,500 adult respondents from June 10 to 13.

In a recent one-on-one interview with the Black Press of America, Kennedy, 69, spoke about his focus on combating environmental racism, ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, and addressing the alarming racial disparities within the American medical system.

“Black Americans are going to be a principal priority for me, particularly in ending that fear of dangerous interaction with law enforcement,” Kennedy shared, according to the Sacramento Observer.

He also spoke about the healthcare gap, noting that African Americans were dying at 3.6 times the rate of whites during the pandemic.

“If you’re Black in this country, you’re getting third-world style medical care,” Kennedy insisted. “The medical system is not attuned to taking care of Black patients. Being a Black patient in this country is almost as dangerous as being a Black prisoner. You won’t get good medical care, which will be one of my priorities.”

But it was in an interview with the popular podcast My Expert Opinion that he spoke about reparations, albeit in a rambling explanation. The interview was posted to YouTube on July 30.

This was a poor & lazy example. Where the Native American tribes were & where Black Americans are today, is worth 5 minutes of your time. Something decent a white Democrat could say is “I haven’t sufficiently studied such a serious subject, to have a view. I would defer to Black… https://t.co/ji0GWpioYP

— The Moguldom Nation (@Moguldom) July 28, 2023

Kennedy, who talked about his family’s connection to civil rights, his own work as a lawyer, and even about becoming sober after a heroin addiction during his twenties, revealed he was not for cash reparations because he didn’t think they worked for Native Americans.

In a long-winded explanation that went through his work with various Native American tribes, he said that the tribes disagreed over how cash reparations should be distributed and what they would be used for. And for this reason, he said he thinks community programs would be better than cash reparations for Black America.

“I got to tell you one other thing. I spent 20 percent of my time I’m representing Indians during my career in the United States, in Latin America, and in Canada. A lot of them got into running casinos…there would be arguments fights within the tribe on how do you distribute the gambling money. The traditional Chiefs would say do not give it in cash payments because this money belongs to the entire community over the generations.”

He added the tribes decided to use the funds for community purposes such as “clinics, scholarships, business loans, microloans, building factories.” He said he thought reparations for Black Americans should be handled in a similar manner.

Robert F. Kennedy on My Expert Opinion podcast, July 30, 2023. YouTube screenshot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0XFMqHu2Ok

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