Representative Cori Bush speaks during a press conference hosted by Just Majority on May 8, 2023 in St Louis, Missouri.
Image of Dilip Vishwanat/Getty for the majority
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Representative Cori Bush speaks during a press conference hosted by Just Majority on May 8, 2023 in St Louis, Missouri.
Image of Dilip Vishwanat/Getty for the majority
Missouri Democratic Representative Cori Bush has introduced new legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations for black Americans, in an effort to get the federal government to atone for the practice of slavery in chattels and shops. hundred years of apartheid policy.
“The United States has a moral and legal obligation to compensate for the enslavement of Africans and its long-term harm,” Bush said at a news conference Wednesday attended by Congressman Barbara Lee, D-Calif. its length on the lives of millions of blacks. , and Jamaal Bowman, DN.Y., as well as other stakeholders.
“America must make reparations if we want a prosperous future for all,” Bush said.
Her resolution is the latest in a series of congressional efforts by Democrats to compensate black Americans for centuries of racial inequality. Similar language on compensation has been introduced in every legislative session since 1989.
“We know we continue to live under the ruins of slavery. We know how slavery perpetuated Jim Crow. We know the impact slavery has on everyday life. what it’s like today,” Bush said, citing racial wealth disparities, voter suppression, infant mortality and other negative health outcomes for Blacks. .
“That’s unfair and it wouldn’t happen in a fair and equal society,” she said. “It’s not a natural consequence of human society.”
“They are caused directly by our federal government’s role in the enslavement and exploitation of Africans and Negroes throughout our history.”
While the conversation around compensation has gained traction in recent years, with about a dozen California cities and states considering compensation programs, the concept remains. widely not common with Americans.
About three-quarters or more of whites oppose restitution, and so do most Latinos and Asian Americans.
Black Americans overwhelmingly support the proposal, and younger people in general are more likely to support cash payments to the descendants of enslaved people than older people. .
But more than 90% of Republicans say they oppose it, while Democrats are split by nearly 50/50 over whether descendants should receive compensation.
