Nearly 180 years ago, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved persons to save the institution from insolvency. In a non-binding referendum earlier this month, the university’s undergraduate students voted to impose a student fee of $27.20 per semester to fund reparations for the descendants of those slaves.
Small potatoes? Well, when the slavery reparations idea catches fire outside of a student body, the dollar amounts talked about expand beyond mere double digits.
Which can be awkward. The leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), complains that slavery reparations are often “used . . . to ridicule African-Americans, as if what black people are interested in is a check.”
Nonetheless, White House aspirant Rep. Julián Castro (D-Tex.) reminds Democrats that “when it comes to Medicare for All” as well as “tuition-free or debt-free college, the answer has been, ‘We need to write a big check.’” Castro contends Uncle Sam ought not skimp on “compensating the descendants of slaves.”
The slicker Democratic contenders for the 2020 presidential race have conveniently embraced legislation introduced in the House by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) to establish a commission to study the idea — allowing presidential aspirants to talk up the proposal to black audiences while assuring less enthusiastic audiences that they are merely committed to studying it.
One lesser known candidate, author Marianne Williamson, didn’t get the memo, however. She proposed “a $100 billion plan of reparations to be paid over 10 years,” to be disbursed for purposes of “economic and educational revitalization to be achieved within the black community.”
By federal spending standards, a tiny figure. But even at ten times that figure, check-propelled revitalization seems unlikely.
Students of politics take note.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “The Cost of Reparations”
Interested in s comparative study on the economic comparison of the average slave descendants versus the average non-slavery descendants still in Africa..
What happens if the slave descendants are better off?
A practical thought which will gain no traction. The purpose of the exercise is to political, to show the concern of the supporting candidates and to force any logical person and the opposition to be heartless for rejecting the concept of penalizing an individual that did not transgress in order to pay individuals who were not harmed.
Clearly, the student body either needs more education or have really smartened up and have adopted congressional logic and therefore will they will ay this additional fee with student loans that they will never repay.
I can trace my family history in North America back to 1652, (so far)
None of them ever owned slaves. In fact some of them were pretty much indentured servants back then.
So no. I don’t owe anyone anything.
DEMOCRATS OWNED SLAVES AND BLACKS OWNED SLAVES. REPUBLICANS DID NOT.. REPUBLICANS FREES SLAVES AND ELIMINATED DISCRIMINATION, NOT DEMOCRATS. IF REPARATIONS ARE TO BE PAID, THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD PAY THEM NOT THE GOVERNMENT OR REPUBLICANS!!!