Late Wednesday night the House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to study the issue of awarding reparations to the descendants of American slaves. The bill seeks to create a 13 person commission “to study the legacy of American slavery, racist laws and how they affected formerly enslaved people and their descendants.” The legislation advises the commission to consider a “national apology” and recommend “appropriate remedies to Congress. During the late-night vote, 25 Democrats supported advancing the bill, and 17 Republicans opposed it.
According to Gazettextra:
“The goal of this historical commission and its investigations is to bring American society to the new reckoning with how our past affects the current conditions of African Americans and to make America a better place to help and truly study the disadvantage,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who introduced the current version of the bill in January.
The renewed debate over reparations comes amid a national reckoning over racial injustice, as Americans watch the proceedings in a white former police officer’s trial in George Floyd’s death and learn details of the case of another young Black man shot and killed by an officer in the Minneapolis area. It also comes as Black Americans continue to struggle disproportionately amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jackson Lee has said the measure could help “confront the stark societal disparities occurring in the African American community today,” and during the bill’s markup hearing, she referenced a study that found reparations would help address the health inequities that have persisted throughout the pandemic.
…
Polling has shown broad resistance in the general public to awarding reparations to people descended from slaves. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in June found that although Americans are increasingly becoming conscious of inequality in the U.S., only 1 in 5 respondents said the United States should use “taxpayer money to pay damages to the descendants of American slaves.”
Similar bills have been introduced to Congress before but have never gained much support. In 1989, the late Rep. John Conyers introduced a similar measure to create a committee to study the topic of reparations but the bill never moved forward.
Representative Burgess Owens (R-Utah) who is black, responded to the bill describing reparations as a “falsehood.”
“Slavery was and still is evil,” said Owens, who is Black. But reparations suggest “Black people are a hapless, hopeless race who never did anything but wait for white people to show up and help us,” he added.
HE IS RIGHT.
No one alive today had anything to do with slavery. Therefore, no one alive today should be required to pay for the sins of others.
And, no one alive today has been a slave in the USA and therefore is NOT due any reparations.
I read the bill, and altho I am not a politician it loos like 4 million blacks will get about 1 dollar… That’s after all of the “committee” workers get paid to implement the program..
It would not surprise me in the least as I have watched the Dems pay lip service to minorities for decades and never deliver. In fact, the only thing that they ever deliver on is something that makes them rich behind the scenes, which fits with the 2nd part of your comment.
That will get their foot in the door…show me a government program that didn’t get bigger and bigger. Once it gets started it will never end. Look at our emigration program. It’s all about votes!
Another make my friends wealthy sceme by politicians.
And MOST families in the USA have NEVER owned slaves and neither do their descendants. Most came to the USA AFTER slavery was abolished. If anything reparations should come from the families and businesses who made money off slavery. If you give reparations to the descendants of slaves then you need to give equal amounts to the descendants of people who fought to free the slaves. This is just another ploy of the DEMONrats to string along the blacks until the next election as they DEMONrats have done for over 200 years. They make promises and gain their votes, and then forget about it.
Also, other than recent migrants from Africa (who shouldn’t qualify for reparations anyway) most black Americans are of mixed race … there’s a lot of white descendants of slave owners that intermarried with black descendants of slaves.
I would bet your average black American has more slave-owner DNA than the average white American (and that doesn’t even take into account people like me that descended from abolitionists that not only didn’t have slaves, but fought to end slavery in the first place).
You are 100% right on that
What about the families who had members that lost their lives to free slavery which by the way WAS STARTED BY AFRICAN AMERICANS THEMSELVES. I agree totally that it was horrible but come on. MOVE ON. We all have things and relatives who suffered from horrible practices, laws maybe In the day, and or many other things. Than the Lord we have been blessed many times over also.
yup. My Italian ancestors didn’t get here until the early 1900s, so that is a point that I have always brought up, as well.
The fact that your people didn’t arrive here until well after slavery ended is irrelevant. They (and subsequently you) benefited from that ubiquitous “white privilege,” even though many of the white people already here did not consider Italians to be white, especially if they were from southern Italy or Sicily. No matter what privations your ancestors (or you) may have suffered, it would have been worse if you were black, so you owe them. You obviously have a condition common among white people: Guiltus Insufficientus. It can only be cured by abolishing the current government and installing Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson-Lee as co-dictators.
My ancestor came here in 1621 from Wales. I had my ancestry done and I am probably related to at least 1/4 of America. To many of them knew to much about the family. some as far back as the 13th century. Most were farmers, Baptist Preachers or businessmen. No slavery. Their children carried on.
There you go again, undermining left wing collectivism.
You are so right, this is BS..
The American Taxpayer is and has been a slave to the welfare state that pays for their upkeep!
These people were gathered up by their own people in those countries for sale to slave traders to be taken into other countries. The black race were not the only ones sold into slavery. Blacks were sold to plantation owners for use on farms. Asians were sold to build roads and railroads and etc. Sense most farming was done in the south that’s where most blacks were taken. All photos of railroad construction as well as other building construction show only Asians. Plantation owners used fellow people as slaves by calling them share croppers. Same conditions So speaking of reparations a rough estimate is 75 to 80% of the US are connected in some manner to slavery. Are they all going to receive reparations? Just a thought !
Reparations were given after the Civil War! I think they may have each been given a hundred arcres of land, not my fault if they were not smart enough to hang on to the land.
A Union General said “40 acres and a mule” for the ex-slaves.
He was a General NOT a member of Congress. That statement never came up in either House of Congress.
Reparations should be given to the Native Americans! We slathered them, stole their land and destroyed their world. My great grandmother was Apache.
Hey, Y’all – it was demorats in the South who owned slaves. It was demo prez LBJ who famously laughed he would “have niggers voting democrat for the next 100 yrs” as he kicked off his War On Poverty. It has been dems keeping blacks in their place by doling out “benefits” from time to time. It is once again dems passing a law to fool black people into staying on the white democrat plantation by convincing them that the GOP is their enemy. Talk about racial stupidity!!!!!
“Obama did make one truthful statement that a reparations bill, which would pay trillions of dollars to black Americans over 150 years after slavery ended and confiscate money from White and American-Asians that never owned slaves and aren’t relate to anyone that owned slaves, would be politically toxic and destroy the Democrat Party’s electoral prospects.” “All that made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent, meaningful reparations program struck me as, politically, not only a nonstarter but potentially counterproductive.” Obama said. DEMs know but do you think they will stop?
The sad part what the Demonrats do to keep the black community under their thumb and control is as bad as slavery. They purposely keep them down so that they remain dependent on them and keep voting for them!
hey if a man can gender identify as a woman or vice versa, then I identify as a black male and I want my reparations for slavery too. So I want in when they pay up.
This is stupid. Hundreds of thousands of WHITE northerners died to release all the slaves and now we are supposed to pay for what the Democrats did to their Black “Property”? NO.
See the movie Hillary’s America. The first part is, I believe, on YouTube. Excellent explanation of slavery.
The Irish were slaves also. Are they gonna get reparations also. ? Let’s stop this dam nonsense. Get a job. Go to work an stop looking to give away money this country ca not afford. We are indebt
My heritage is Mohawk. Where’s my money?
You deserve money. You were here before we were.
You are correct, many native americans were pushed into slavery but I don’t see them whining about reparations. My family immigrated to the US from Russia around 1900. Are my taxes going to pay for reparations? That’s discrimination and is protected under the constitution. (not that it means anything to a democrat)
This is just another democrat ploy to buy the votes of black people, just like the “Obama phone” was.
New info. Six villages found on the East Coast. The tools , etc. were found to be 26,000 – 19,000 years old AND were only found in France and Spain. There are two tribes in America one speaks a language not known anywhere in Asia and the other has DNA that is not found in Asia. Book “Across Atlantic Ice”. Native Americans came here over the Bering Straights from Siberia. Also some of the South Americans have Pacific Islander DNA. Surprising what people can do.
How about us Norwegians, Erik the Red treated us bad, need some reparations too. This us ridiculous!
I’m all for reparations to anyone who was a slave,to be paid by those who owned them!
That will never fly because the majority of slave owners in the South were black.
It sounds like the demonrats will spend endless hours trying to come up with ways to waste tax dollars, but refuse to do a damn thing for the good of the country. They ONLY want to do what helps to keep them in power. They are the definition of TREASON!!!!
You show me ANYONE who was alive during the time of slavery or even the children of parents that were alive during slavery and we can talk about the slave owners, or the children of slave owners that had ANY benefit from owning slaves.
We The People Will start a movement to withhold our tax dollars to keep it out of the hands of politicians that want to waste OUR money on STUPID and RIDICULOUS ideas like this!
Ok, fine, lets have your little reparations (as though 600,000 dead white men and the total economic devastation of the South wasn’t payment enough) but only under the understanding that you’re not allowed to EVER complain about racism again. EVER. You’ll have been “repaired”, you’ve been “made whole” so no more whining about race and racism.
Blacks that cry racism after reparations either go straight to prison, are deported to the African country of their choice or have to pay back the reparations money (with interest).
I AGREE WITH MARLANE. WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED A BILL TO STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD NOW AND FOREVER. WITH SANCTIONS AND LARGE FINES FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO DO. PERIOD!
TO START WITH I THANK GOD FOR WHAT I HAVE AND MAYBE A LOT OF YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME.
If they pay anyone the Irish should be at the front of the line.
Yep. Makes perfect sense. Penalize people who never owned a slave and give the result to those who were never slaves. The reality is that the Democrats have created and expand the new slavery by consistently adopting policies to make and keep people dependent on government instead of becoming strong, independent, productive citizens who don’t need the politician. The Democrats know that people dependent on them are reliable votes, so they buy the liberty of gullible fools with taxpayer money. Jackson-Lee is typical. Those dependent on someone else are never free.
My 7GGF arrived from England as an “indentured servant” (a pretty set of words for SLAVE) on 16 May 1634 in the area of today’s Norfolk, VA. Every aspect of his life was controlled by three English “Gentlemen”. He could not own land or any fixed property – could not marry – lived in a log hut – worked 3,000+ acres of tobacco fields, under a quota near today’s NASA Langley and Langley AFB.
I WANT MY REPARATIONS…..
Britain sent indentured servants to America under the East India Tea ? An indentured servant worked for 7 years and then received 50 acres of land. John Casor came to America as an indentured servant. The Tea company changed the rules and and the man he was indentured to, Anthony Johnson, became his owner, The case went to court in Virginia in 1654. Casor lost. The court also noted that Johnson was black. Johnson had come to America from Gibraltar as an indentured servant and had got his 50 acres. He indentured his 4 sons and they each got 50 acres. Johnson ended up with 600 acres of the best tobacco growing ground in Virginia. How many slaves did it take to work 600 acres?
Reparations? To Blacks only? Using democrat definitions, wouldn’t that be a form of Black supremacy? What about the Irish, many of whom were not allowed in white cemeteries and directed to Black cemeteries? Every nation on earth has practiced its own version of discrimination. Some were brutal and murderous. Most have taken positive steps to cure their problems. American Blacks seem to believe they deserve more. Seems freedom isn’t enough for this generation.
another way to put our country in deeper debt, stupid Demonrats.
“Reparations” for a bunch that have never been enslaved. What a crock!
Reparation to people who never were slaves by people who never owned slaves?
We are headed for a race war. It’s time to make Democrat politicians an endangered species.
The Taxpayers have been paying reparations since the 60’s! how has that worked, this is nothing more than a racist scheme for more Gov’t money.
Rep.Owens is right on..this bill is awful.
I self identify as a black and a descendant of slaves. I want my money from Biden’s stash!
Has anyone noticed how the democrats greed shows up to steal peoples money at every opportunity? They also want to keep people they consider of supposed lesser value down. All Americans today have the ability to succeed if they put forth the efforts needed to do so. Race does not matter. There have been many examples historically of individuals of all ethnicities being successful by their own efforts. Democrat propaganda keeps trying to make us believe this is not so. The racist party is the democrat party.
What about the Irish slaves in America. You know the ones the government forced into the war right off the boat. What about all the Irish child slaves that were here long before black slaves and were treated far worse. This whole thing is nothing but horseshit, they will never be happy. They are the true racists
Let the light now show on the damage done to minorities by the huge program of LBJ to set back all the gains minorities had made over the previous decades. The “Oh poor me” BS the CP (used to be the DNC) uses to entrap minorities is wearing thin.
Welfare, Food Stamps, Affirmative Action, Free Health Care, Free Cell Phones are not “reparations” enough? Ignorant, thieving Democrats!
This slavery reparation idea is very sound…..as long as you can prove that you have once been a slave.
Why should we pay for something that we were not even around for? This is absurd!! Seriously?? We are not responsible,and the black community is not entitled.There has to be some way to stop Biden.He is suppose to work for our Country, instead he is going to bury us
The Right D.D.C Pollitichons Knock The Left Out Of D. C. Or The People Of America Will And It Wont Take Guns America Isv Pissed of At the Left Communist Tack Over. I Want Them Wiped Out.
Not my hard earned or any other persons money and you are giving it away. Ask us first !
Everyone is dead that lived thru slavery . No one should get anything and people that’s living today,
why would they get anything. Just plain crazy! You people in government use your brains!
I Am Part Sioux Indian Whose Ancesters Were Allmost Wiped out My Grandmother Was Borne On A Reservation The Left Tried To Turn America Into Dictator Nation Then. Left Get Out of America You Don,t Belong Here.
Please Dems enough. You control the Presidency. You control the House. You control the Senate. Why if you are in control of all three are you still looking for ways to divide and destroy America. ENOUGH!!!
We, as a Country, have many poor people that have little or no education. It matters not your color, it maters whether you get up and work or you set and wait for someone else to take care of you. Our Government, wants all of us to be dependent and servitude to their will. We must fight daily to prevent this from happening ,if we are to remain free. This is just another step towards socialism, where our government can say and do as they think is best of each and everyone. We must get active, call or email your representative and Congress person. Let them know how you feel about paying for something that happened 200+ years ago. So, what your 5th granddad was a slave, it has nothing to do with YOU.
Be sure to include collection of money made by African tribes who conquered their neighboring tribes and sold them to the Dutch . Everyone along the line of profits needs to pay .
Well then its time to work on reparations for the Americans that fought and died for the freedom of the slaves..
It may turn into another war if the politicians continue. Maybe Trump was right, If we want our Country back, we will have to fight for it.. Clean out the SWAMP..
My Ancesters fought and died to free the Slaves.. Where’s my Money..???????
THE GREAT ” EXTORTION ” NOW BEING DEBATED IN PIGLOSI’S PIG PEN! FFOR REPORATIONS YOU FIRST TO HAVE BEEN A SLAVE YOUR SELF, NOT ANY DISTANT RELATIVE FROM THE PAST! SECOND YOU ARE NOTHING BUT FROM THE WELFARE SECTION AND WANT MORE OF THE GOODIES INSTEAD OF WORKING FOR YOUR BREAD! SICK BUNCH OF PHONIES HERE!
They do this and there will be a civil war. But then again the government is treating all people, other than the elites, like they are slaves.
Just another example of how Negroes in the United States view themselves – “the white man’s burden”. Negroes can’t make it by themselves, without help from a predominately white society. And to boot, Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), shows herself to be a hard-over socialist/Communist, in that all Negroes are to be treated as equivalent and all Whites are to be treated as equivalent. This is PURE socialism. And even worse, the slimey woman makes modern White Americans guilty of something done by other Whites – two centuries ago. And the immoral piece of black trash further doesn’t even condemn the black African chiefs who sold the helpless Negro slaves to the European slave traders, for shipment across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere.
Democrats are simply “no damn good”
I KNOW THAT SLAVERY WAS WRONG BUT HOW DO YOU SEPARATE THE DECENDENTS OF THOSE WHO WONED SLAVES AND……THOSE WHO ARE DECENDENTS OF THE MANY MANY WHO FOUGHT TO FREE SLAVES AND DIED FOR THEIR FREEDOM. THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN JUSTIFY REPARATIONS. YOU CANNOT CHARGE THOSE WHOSE PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR THE FREEDOM OF SLAVES WITH THEIR LIVES. OUR COUNTRY NEEDS TO MOVE FORWARD. OUR CREATOR MADE US ALL EQUAL. HE MADE US NOT TO SEE COLOR! HE LOVES US ALL EQUALLY!!
Henry You are so right. Sounds as though I said that. Why is it the ones talking about slavery so much were never slaves and have no idea what it was like. Look at the condition they were taken from then and look at the condition here now. Had they rather be back then?
I am totally and vehemently against any reparations due to slavery. I do the genealogy in my family and can state the none of my ancestor’s had anything to do with or supporting slavery. In fact in most cases the Irish coming to America, escaping the slave like conditions in Ireland under control of the British, were treated worst that the black slaves in early years of this nation. My great grandfather who came to the U.S. A. in 1854 dug ditches in Wisconsin in order to stay alive and feed his family. His son worked his way up to being the “paper” boy in an office to deliver mail to the various departments. My father worked his ass off moving heavy trays of type in a newspaper company to become a chief proofreader for that newspaper. When he died he left all he had, $1000.00, to his 4 children. I after working from the age of 10 in many fields to include picking farm products in the fields worked myself up to a level which allowed me to compete and obtain entry to West Point which after graduation I repaid this country with 30 years of service in and out of combat. Show me where I should have to pay someone else my hard earned money because some of the ancestor’s might have been slaves. If they haven’t had the incentive, drive and desire to better themselves why should I pay any money to them? Especially to people like the co-founder of BLM who just bought her 4th home at 1.4 million. This bill is just a hugh scam and the politician who vote for it should be put in jail for fraud.
Remember the first slave owner in what is now the United States was a black man. Andrew Johnson, tobacco farmer.
And were sold into slavery by their own race.
I would say that first before anyone gets any money for reparations they must first pay the Government for all the Welfare they received.
This is all smoke and mirrors. None of reparation money will ever be handed out to them It is all going into a dumercrat slush fund along with all the other trillions of dollars dumercrats have passed to help people. It will all be used for themselves.
Burgess Owens is right. Reparations suggest that “Black people are a hapless, hopeless race who never did anything but wait for white people to show up and help us.” I’ve always said that whatever or whomever you are indebted to, you are a slave to them. So, by that definition, this is nothing but a perpetuation of slavery and it is diminutive, as it makes the person(s) being taken care of 2nd class citizens. Isn’t that just what people who support reparations are complaining about in the first place??
The union soldiers gave reparation in the civil war with their lives! End of story!!
Do not apologize for me! I had nothing to do with it, and none of my forefathers owned slaves. As for reparations, my wife is black Brazilian, you going to give her reparations too? You Democrats are all f___ing idiots! Don’t take the reparations out of my taxes. Donate your salaries and all the bribe money you have taken during your years is government! The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat, but the SOBs still vote!
It would be wonderful and rewarding to send the entitled back to the 1800’s
I won’t let them waste my tax dollars. Nut Jobs…
how about the poor white southerners that the only thing they saw was the taxes that were being charged against them for buying and selling stuff and that they did not even have slaves because they did not believe in it or could not afford that just fought to live free of the pressure from the northern Me I am just talking about the history I was taught in school many years ago that you cannot find now because the democrats have rewritten so much of it
Yeah, and WHO is to define who is ‘black’ and how much black is ‘black?’ A startling percentage of Americans are ‘mulattoes’ of mixed race. Like me: I am ~6.25% Amerindian. Yet I want reparations from nobody. They want to take money from me (who never owned a slave) to gift to some person who was never a slave, and his father and grandfather were also never slaves? My mother’s first ancestor was an indentured servant: am I eligible for reparations? I would refuse them, for I’d rather work for a living. .
Us Irish were the first slave brought over to America. History seems to forget us. If the blacks are going to get paid because their ancestors were salves, than all of us slaves need to be paid. The logging and mining companies in Northern MN. never had black slaves, they were all white slaves. You were forced to live in and pay for your company housing, buy only at the company store. Every penny you worked for went back to the company. When you died or were killed on the job, your wife and children were thrown out of the company’s housing “Location” and hunted down by the company until every cent you owed the company store was paid. Every pay day we were loaded into the family car, hauled to the pay clerks office, sat out in the freezing weather or blazing sun while my parent fought for the pay my dad earned. 85 cents an hour pay was big money back then and you had to fight for every cent you worked for. This was the 1960’s white slavery in Northern MN. Whites ever never freed from slavery, only the blacks.
If there is anyone alive today that is responsible for the condition of unsuccessful black people it is the Democrat/Communist/Swamp/Education Party. These are the people who should give half of everything they are sucking from the rest of us to compensate for the damage they have done to this misdirected darker skinned human beings that live amongst us. God Bless America and they way it should be. Amen
How much of the $25 trillion spent by taxpayers is SJ Lee going to pay back in reparations to the US Treasury for the last 60 years of affirmatve action, education, busing, ruined cities, crime and BLM etc?
There is no reason we should pay for something we were never involved in. None of us owned a slave, and none of the people today have ever been a slave, so why should we have to pay you? Get real. You just want something for nothing when has been a problem for the last 150 years. We will not pay for something we didn’t do.
I will not pay any of my hard earned, honest money for this bull crap reparations. I never knew anyone who owned a slave, I never had or wanted a slave and slavery has been gone for over 200 years. If anything, the slaves were freed by the white population and therefore we do not own any reparation’s. The democratic party has shown the world how it has been socialized over the years, it is no longer the democratic party I left a long time ago, It is now the Democratic, Socialist/Marxist party.
Anyone who is a son or daughter of a former slave is entitled to free transportation back to africa.
WHY do “they” always “pass” things in the middle of the night or hidden in a tome of 1500 pages? BECAUSE “IF” the truth were known, it would NEVER fly.They will continue this charade until the American people WAKE UP & STAND UP & say, “We’re not gonna take it anymore”!
REPATRIATION IN LIEU OF REPARATIONS.
GET OFF YOUR BEHIND AND EARN EQUITY.