Lawmakers across the nation are revisiting the issue of reparations and hearing from members of the Black community. Meanwhile, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making a bold promise: If elected president, he pledges to allocate $5 billion in reparations to Black farmers.
“When I’m in the White House, I’m going to get rid of those people in USDA and get that money,” Kennedy said during a podcast conversation with John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association.
Kennedy said he believed this money was unjustly taken from Black farmers due to discrimination.
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However, Kennedy faces significant challenges. His chances of winning in November are slim, with former President Trump and President Biden running neck-and-neck. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows Biden at 48% support and Trump at 47%.
Moreover, courts already deemed a similar provision in Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 unconstitutional. The provision aimed to provide $5 billion to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who faced racial or ethnic prejudice. A federal judge labeled it a “race-based discriminatory program.”
Despite these obstacles, some state and local lawmakers took matters into their own hands. The California Legislative Black Caucus introduced a package of reparations bills based on recommendations from California’s Reparations Task Force. Recently, the California Senate passed three of these bills. The bills address compensation for families who lost properties in racially motivated eminent domain cases, establish a reparations fund and determine eligibility criteria.
Meanwhile, other cities and states are just beginning to explore reparations for Black Americans.
Boston and Philadelphia launched reparation task forces to develop proposals for descendants of enslaved individuals who endured racism in the United States. Illinois and New York also passed legislation to study reparations.
