The resolution argues that the United States has a “moral and legal obligation” to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and the lasting harm it has caused millions of black people in the country.
The resolution calls for $14 trillion to be distributed to American blacks to help close the racial wealth gap. Bush stated in an interview that the only way to get closer to reparations is to put forward clear bills about what reparations could look like.
Reparations packages have been introduced in Congress since 1989 by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) and later by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), but neither passed. Bush’s resolution is also likely to face the same fate. The Washington Post reports that the political path forward for Bush’s resolution remains unclear.
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During the 2020 Democratic primary election, The Post asked candidates if they thought the federal government should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people. Nearly all leading contenders, including Joe Biden, said they supported a comprehensive study of the issue.
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While public opinion polls have shown that the number of Americans who support reparations for Black Americans has grown significantly over the last 20 years, the idea remains broadly unpopular. A 2021 Post poll found that only 28 percent of Americans supported reparations, while 65 percent opposed paying cash reparations to the descendants of enslaved Black people. While 46 percent of Democrats favored the idea, 92 percent of Republicans opposed it. Two-thirds of Black respondents supported the idea, but only 18 percent of White respondents did.
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Reparations advocate Dreisen Heath said the window of opportunity passed for such radical legislation in 2020 during the George Floyd murder crisis. “We squandered the moment during the summer of 2020 when demands were on the table including reparations,” Heath told the Post. “Three years later, people are still dying, circumstances, economically and politically, have not changed, and we’re in economic conditions eerily similar to where we were when historic civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s.”
William Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University who also consulted on Bush’s resolution, called the bill a “positive movement” forward.
Recently, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would support a cash payment of reparations to black Americans in his state after his task force recommended it. However, it is unclear how California would pay cash reparations.
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Newsom has seen a $100 billion budget surplus turn into a $32 billion deficit this year, and cities like San Francisco, which is also pursuing reparations, face similar problems. The committee’s other non-cash recommendations include overriding the will of the voters and repealing the law that prevents California from using race-based policies, such as affirmative action, in state actions.
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