Cory Booker Introduces Senate Bill on Slavery Reparations for Black People

WATCH: Michael Meyers claims call for reparations not to be taken seriously

Discussion of issuing “reparations” is the new cool thing for the Democratic Party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently called for an “agenda of reparations,” and Beto O’Rourke recently jumped on the reparations train. He was asked about the reparations bill promoted by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (which is gaining momentum in Congress, BTW), and he said “absolutely I would sign that into law.”

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Lovely.

Elizabeth Warren is for the idea, as is Kamala Harris. Go ahead and add Cory Booker to the list. He’s proud to announce that he’s introduced a bill that would explore the possibility of reparations for descendants of slaves. He said the bill is “a way of addressing head-on the persistence of racism, white supremacy, and implicit racial bias in our country.”

The measure is a Senate companion to a bill introduced in the House of Representatives in January by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, which if passed into law would set up a commission to study the impact of slavery and continued discrimination against black Americans and make recommendations on reparation proposals for the descendants of slaves. The legislation was first introduced 30 years ago by then-Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.

“It will bring together the best minds to study the issue and propose solutions that will finally begin to right the economic scales of past harms and make sure we are a country where all dignity and humanity is affirmed,” Booker said.

“Since slavery in this country, we have had overt policies fueled by white supremacy and racism that have oppressed African-Americans economically for generations,” he continued. “Many of our bedrock domestic policies that have ushered millions of Americans into the middle class have systematically excluded blacks through practices like GI Bill discrimination and redlining.”

Throwing wads of cash at people who might’ve had ancestors who were enslaved is going to “bring us together”? How so? I fail to see how giving money to people who have never been affected by slavery a day in their life will accomplish that. It raises other questions too. How do we determine who qualifies? Are we only talking about descendants of African slaves? If so, why? And why should people who have NEVER held slaves in their entire life give them money?

Questions. I have questions.

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