For decades, the subject of slavery reparations pops up year after year. There has been
A larger number of the presidential candidates are talking about reparations — either nay or yay, but they are talking. From Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris to Bernie Sanders, the 2020 Presidential election candidates have reparations on their mind.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 45: Ryan Wilson
Jamarlin talks to Ryan Wilson, founder of Atlanta’s Gathering Spot. They discuss Wilson’s plans to scale his profitable subscription and events business, and whether Kamala Harris’ candidacy will result in a civil war in Black America. They also discuss the term “people of color” and why Atlanta is one of the hottest cities for tech.
“I have a specific agenda for the American people,” said Booker on the “The Breakfast Club” radio show last month when asked about reparations.
Still, the plans for reparations widely vary. And the question remains: “how can Black Americans, first enslaved and then legally barred from participating in capitalism for the overwhelming majority of this country’s history, begin to catch up without a systemic adjustment to the system?” The Intercept reported.
According to some estimates, it will take an incredible 228 years for “Black Americans to earn as much wealth as white Americans possess today, at which point blacks still would not have drawn even, because whites would presumably have accrued more wealth during that time as well. Simply put, closing the racial wealth gap demands a systemic approach,” The Intercept reported.
Booker has offered a baby bonds plan as part of a Black-centric agenda, It “addresses all Americans,” Booker explained, “but it actually helps the racial wealth gap in a significant way,” by creating a savings account for low-income students. And he added, a criminal justice bill should be included in a reparations packages as the beneficiaries of which would be overwhelmingly African-American: “When you fix the system, you help poor white folks who get screwed by the system as well, but disproportionately, you’re gonna help those people who are most affected by an unjust criminal justice system,” he argued.
Harris has argued that the Black agenda “must include HBCUs,” and she pointed to her LIFT bill, which would give families making under $100,000 a year a monthly tax credit. She also includes criminal justice reform and maternal mortality.