The New York City Council approved Thursday to establish a reparations task committee, which could lead to requests for billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded payments to compensate for the legacy of slavery and previous atrocities.
Gotham joins dozens of towns, including Tulsa, Okla., and Evanston, Ill., as well as three states — California, Illinois, and, most recently, New York — in pursuing race-related reparations.
The Democratic Party is pushing this notion.
Kamala Harris, too, once did.
As a contender in the Democratic presidential primary in 2019, she supported “some form of reparations,” co-sponsored a federal bill to examine race-based reparations, and assured Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network that if elected, she would sign a reparations-study bill into law.
That was then.
Harris’ campaign has declined to say where she stands.
Isn’t she saying we should be “unburdened by what has been”?
Americans agree that slavery and Jim Crow were horrible aspects of our country’s history.
However, the rapidly growing demand for racial reparations at the municipal, state, and national levels is bad news.
Instead of resolving racial tensions, it risks instilling false expectations of large payouts and provoking resentments.
Reparations for actual victims are the proper approach to right historical wrongs.
President Ronald Reagan approved $20,000 reparations for Japanese Americans held by our government during WWII – but only for those imprisoned, not their descendants.
Similarly, the German government continues to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors, but not to their descendants.
In contrast, US race-reparations discussions always involve requiring those who had no involvement in slavery to fork over money to people who were not enslaved.
New York City Councilman David Carr (R-SI), who voted against a reparations task group, stated, “No one currently living in our city had anything to do with the evils of slavery, and the vast majority of New Yorkers are descendants of immigrants who came after it was abolished.”
Reparations are polarizing – and are likely to stir genuine rage among those obliged to pay.
In America, we do not penalize people for the crimes of their forefathers.
According to Pew Research, 80% of white Americans oppose the concept, while 77% of black Americans embrace it.
“I’ll move before I pay,” declared City Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-SI). Race reparations also contravene the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment for all citizens, regardless of race.
Evanston has paid out $5 million to 203 black residents, purportedly to compensate for past housing discrimination.
Anyone who is black and lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, or has ancestors who did, is eligible — no need to prove they were wronged.
Judicial Watch, a constitutional advocacy organization, is suing on behalf of six non-Black Evanston residents. The group’s president, Tom Fitton, describes the race-based payments as “nothing more than a ploy to redistribute tax dollars to individuals based on their race.”
That’s correct.
The intention is not to pay actual victims of slavery and prejudice.
It’s social engineering — equity on steroids.
Reparations advocate Linda Bilme and Cornell William Brooks of Harvard’s Kennedy School say that these payments are necessary to reduce the income disparity between whites and blacks.
Tulsa reparations supporters demand monetary compensation to black citizens since white Tulsans have a 75% higher average family income.
Instead of confiscatory reparations, how about a work program?
Darrick Hamilton, a New School professor, appeared to be thinking about the racial wealth divide during the first meeting of New York’s Community Commission on Reparations.
“The gross inequities today are not the result of inadequate people,” he stated.
In other words, New Yorkers, hold on to your wallets.
Closing the racial wealth gap by taking from some and giving to others is not the government’s lawful job.
Furthermore, there is insufficient money in state and local treasuries.
San Francisco’s reparations task team offered a massive one-time payment of $5 million to each black person, specifically to eliminate economic inequities.
Mayor London Breed called off the absurd $223 billion effort.
Duke economist William Darity contends that Congress should do so because states and cities cannot afford the $12 trillion required to rectify the racial wealth gap nationally.
The Democratic Party platform, adopted on August 16, calls on Congress to pass legislation that would investigate government reparations payments.
Will President Kamala Harris sign a reparations bill into law?
We should know.