Shelli Neumann
From: Pat Cannon
Follow Up Flag: Followup Flag Status: Flagged
Hello again, Shelli,
Also, please share this NYTimes article on reparations with Commissioners before our May 5 meeting.
Many thanks,
Pat Cannon 243-6988
Committee Set to Advance Billon Slavery Reparations. By Nicholas Fandos. The legislation, which would create a panel to consider reparations for slavery, is being considered as President Biden works to address racial inequity. A House committee voted on Wednesday to recommend for the first time the creation ofa commission to consider providing Black Americans with reparations for slavery in the United States and a 'national apology‘ for centuries of discrimination..The vote by the House Judiciary Committee was a major milestone for proponents of reparations, who have labored for decades to build mainstream support for redressing the lingering effects of slavery. Democrats on the panel advanced the legislation establishing the commission over Republican objections, 25 to 17. The bill -« labeled HR.
40 after the unfulfilled Civil War—era promise to give former slaves '40 acres and a mule‘ —— still faces steep odds of becoming law. With opposition from some Democrats and unified Republicans, who argue that Black Americans do not need a government handout for |ong—agocrimes, neither chamber of Congress has committed to a floor vote. But as the country grapples anew with systemic racism laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd and other Black men in confrontations with the police, the measure has drawn support from the nation's most powerful Democrats, including President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader. Polling suggests that public support is growing, too, though it remains far from widespread. ‘We're asking for people to understand the pain, the violence, the brutality, the chattel—nessof what we went through,’ Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, said during a committee debate late Wednesday. ‘Andof course, we're asking for harmony, reconciliation, reason to come together as Americans. The renewed interest in reparations comes as Mr. Biden has positioned addressing racial inequities at the center of his domestic policy agenda, proposing billions ofdollars in investments in Black farmers, business owners, neighborhoods, students and the poor. The White House has said Mr. Biden's $4 trillion jobs agenda is intended, in part, to ‘tackle systemic racism and rebuild our economy and our social safety net so that every person in America can reach their full potential. The question of reparations to former slaves and their descendants has vexed and divided policymakers for generations, caught up in larger questions about the legacy of racism in America and white denial of the crippling effects of the slave economy. it presents thorny practical questions as well, like who should benefit, what form reparations might take and how to pay for them. William T. Sherman, the Union general, made the first widespread attempt in 1865 with a special battlefield order to seize 400,000 acres of costal land and award it in parcels to former slaves. But after President Abraham Lincoln died later that year, his successor, Andrew Johnson, quickly rescinded it. No subsequent plan has come close to enactment. Black representatives in Congress began rekindling the issue three decades ago when they first proposed a commission to explore it. The bill before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday would establish a body to study the effects of slavery 1 and the decades of economic and social discrimination that followed, often with government involvement, and propose possible ways to address the yawning gap in wealth and opportunity between Black and white Americans. It would also consider a ‘national apology‘ for the harm caused by slavery. Proponents of reparations from the federal government differ on what form, precisely, they should take. Some favor direct cash payments of varying sizes, others no—interest loans for prospective Blackhomeowners and free college tuition. Evanston, III.,a suburb of Chicago, pledged $10 million this year in reparations in the form of housing grants to Black residents who can prove they or their ancestors were victims of redlining or other housing discrimination. But any national program would be much larger, with costs projected to range from the billions to trillions ofdollars. Though his administration does not use the reparations label, Mr. Biden has embraced versions of many of those proposals in his far—reachingattempts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and restart the sputtering American economy. Mr. Biden's coronavirus stimulus law, the American Rescue Plan, for example, invested tens of billions of dollars in food assistance programs, direct payments to Americans and monthly support for children —— programs that applied regardless of race, but would provide significant aid to Black Americans. It also earmarked $5 billion in aid and debt relief to help Black farmers mitigate years ofdiscriminatory agricultural subsidy and lending policies. ‘We understand that we don't need a study to take action right now on systemic racism,‘ Jen Psaki,the White House press secretary, said in February. ‘So he wants to take actions within his own government in the meantime. Mr. Biden's jobs and infrastructure proposals, now at the top of Congress's agenda, would go further, earmarking hundreds of billions of dollars for Black, brown and other 'underserved communities‘ for job training, school investments, mortgage support, business loans, replacing lead pipes and cleaning up toxic waste. One proposed provision pledges $20 billion to reconnect neighborhoods, many of them historically Black, destroyed by interstate highways; another would set aside $20 billion for improving research capabilities at historically Blackcolleges and universities. Republicans have dismissed many ofthe programs as unnecessary, unpopular or too expensive, and appear to be lining up to oppose the plans outright in Congress unless Democrats agree to scale them back significantly. Even ifthey do become law, though, academics who have shaped the debate over reparations insist Mr. Biden's plans are not a substitute. William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy at Duke University who has written a book on reparations, said such proposals ‘are kind of shadow boxing at the issue. ‘Ifthis is about the full ramifications on Black wealth, about the destruction ofentire businesses or neighborhoods, or the deprivation and loss of land, then we are talking about numbers that are far beyond the reach of what are relatively small programmatic initiatives,‘ Mr. Darity said. Mr. Darity's vision of reparations primarily focuses on closing the wealth gap between African—Americansand white people, something that he estimates would take $10 trillion or more in government funds, an enormous figure that alienates lawmakers in both parties. Roy L. Brooks, a law professor at the University of San Diego who has also written on the issue, argued that the purpose of reparations should be viewed neither as primarily monetary nor as something that could be dealt with in the course of normal policymaking. ‘You miss an opportunity to really bring home to the American people the enormity of the atrocity that was visited upon African-Americans for 250 years of slavery and then another 100 years oflim Crow,‘ he said. Opponents argue that the wrongs of slavery are simply too far past and too diffuse to be practically addressed now. They question why taxpayers, many of whom came to the United States long after slavery ended, should foot a potentially large billfor payments to Black Americans —— and whether such payments would be a benefit at all. 'Reparation is divisive. It speaks to the fact that we are a hapless, hopeless race that never did anything but wait for white people to show up and help us —- and it's a falsehood,’ Representative Burgess Owens, Republican of Utah and a descendant of slaves, said during the debate on Wednesday. 'lt's demeaning to my parents‘ generation. Mr. Owens has compared the idea of reparations to a ‘redistribution of wealth or socialism,‘ arguing that what Black Americans need is for government to get out of the way as they sought to pull themselves up like generations before them. Some Democrats share those views, and others are skittish about embracing a bill they fear Republicans would weaponize against them by portraying it as a radical effort to use government to enforce a politically correct agenda.. PHOTOS: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, said on Wednesday it would be 'a step moving America forward to see us debate this issue on the floor of the House. At left, a march for reparations held last year in Atlanta. (PHOTOGRAPHSBYAMR ALFIKY/THENEW YORKTlMES; JOSHUA RASHAADMCFADDEN FORTHE NEW YORKTIMES). Shelli Neumann
From: Fat Cannon
Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Flagged
Hi Shelli,
Please share this Detroit News article on reparation with the HRC in advance of our May 5 meeting.
Thank you!
Pat Cannon 243-6988
U.S. House panel weighs reparations pushed by Conyers US. House panel weighs reparations pushed by Conyers By Melissa Nann BurkeThe Detroit News April 15, 2021 Washington The House Judiciary Committee debated legislation Wednesday to study reparations for BlackAmericans that a former Detroit congressman reintroduced in Congress for 30 years. It was the first time since the late U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. began offering the bill in 1989 that a committee planned to vote on the legislation, known as H.R. 40. Several lawmakers during Wednesday's proceeding recognized Conyers, who was a former chairman of the Judiciary panel, for his persistence and commitment to the idea of reparations. The successor to his bill would create a commission to study the history of U.S. slavery and racial discriminationsince 1619 and develop reparations proposals for African Americans. The legislation, which languished for decades with limited support even among Democrats, now has 176 co-sponsors in the House, including Michigan Democratic Reps. Brenda Lawrence of Southfield, Dan Kildeeof FlintTownship, Debbie Dingell of Dearborn, Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and Andy Levin of Bloomfield Township. And President Joe Biden reiterated to leaders of the Congressional BlackCaucus in a Tuesday White House meeting that he supports the idea of studying the issue, lawmakers said. Lawrence, who is the only Blackmember of Michigan's delegation, said the markup of H.R. 40 after so many years "signifies growth. "Unfortunately, change doesn't happen overnight. Especially when you're confronting behaviorthat people are sometimes ashamed of when others do not want public recognition oftheir wrongdoing," Lawrence said in an interview. '‘I'm just so glad that Conyers stuck with it every year reintroducing it, and that Sheila Jackson Lee has stepped up, and she's now carrying the banner forward. Lawrence was referring to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who took over sponsorship of Conyers’ bill after his resignation in 2017. Proponents of reparations argue that centuries after slavery ended, disparities persist due to systemic racial discrimination for which the country needs to atone. But critics contend reparations would be too costly and question a causal link between slavery and and segregation, and the racial inequities of today. Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, a Republican, opposes reparations, saying they would lead to redistribution of wealth or socialism. He argued Wednesday that the Black community is now living the American dream though the middle class it has developed over generations. "Slavery was and still is an evil," said Owens, who is Black. "Reparation is divisive. It speaks to the fact that we are a hapless, hopeless race that never did anything but wait for White people to show up and help us. And it's a falsehood. The bill's prospects in a narrowly divided Senate are uncertain. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously signaled opposition to the proposal, saying in 2019 that he doesn't think "reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea. H.R. 40 also calls for the commission to recommend
1 ways to educate the American public about its findings "to advance racial healing, understanding and transformation. DetroitNews .