Reparations to Black Americans should not be a fringe debate: Richey

Why are white Americans so opposed to offering reparations to descendants of slavery when we've paid reparations to so many other groups?

Black and white Americans have sharply different attitudes about whether descendants of slavery should be repaid in some way. In a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, around three-quarters of Black adults (77%) favor reparations of some kind while only 18% of white Americans say the same. That’s why it was such a surprise in March of this year when the local chapter of the NAACP in San Francisco opposed a proposal for the city to pay reparations to Black residents. Instead, it proposed allocating those funds to other areas such as education, jobs, healthcare and housing.

Straight Arrow News contributor Rashad Richey examines our country’s history of paying reparations to different groups of Americans.

Okay, I want to have a real conversation with you about the word “reparations” and what it means. Listen, don’t judge it before you hear this part.

The American government is not against reparations. As a matter of fact, you are likely not against reparations. Understand, reparations is simply a word that means “repair.” And in order to repair something, you have to acknowledge it is broken. Once you can acknowledge that it is broken, you must then acknowledge it needs to be fixed. Once these dynamics are established, you then look for the responsible party. In the case of reparations for the descendants of slaves, or reparations for Black people in the United States of America at large, the party who broke it is the American government. We can all agree to that.

Let’s talk about America’s fascination with reparations. As a country, we have given reparations to Native Americans, not to the tune they deserved, but it is a form of reparations or repair. We’ve also given reparations to other groups, such as the Japanese, and family members to those who were connected to those killed in the Holocaust. We did that recently. We gave governmental money and benefit because we thought it was worthy of repair — and rightfully so.

You see, here’s the thing. Reparations is not actually opposed by the United States government. It’s not opposed by lawmakers, because this country has voted routinely to grant reparations to various groups that they have deemed to be worthy of this, due to government action or even government inaction.

They are, however, seemingly against reparations for Black people. That’s different.

Okay, I want to have a real conversation with you about the word reparations and what it means. Listen, don’t judge it before you hear this part, the American government is not against reparations. As a matter of fact, you are likely not against reparations. Understand, reparations is simply a word that means repair. And in order to repair something, you have to acknowledge it is broken. Once you can acknowledge that it is broken, you must then acknowledge it needs to be fixed. Once these dynamics are established, you then look for the responsible party. In the case of reparations for the descendants of slaves, or reparations for black people in the United States of America at large, the party who broke it is the American government. We can all agree to that.

Let’s talk about America’s fascination with reparations. As a country, we have given reparations to Native Americans, not to the tune they deserved, but it is a form of reparations or repair. We’ve also given reparations to other groups, such as the Japanese, and members, family members, who were connected to those killed in the Holocaust. We did that recently. We gave governmental money and benefit because we thought it was worthy of repair — and rightfully so.

You see, here’s the thing. Reparations is not actually opposed by the United States government. It’s not opposed by lawmakers. Because this country has voted routinely to grant reparations to various groups that they have deemed to be worthy of this due to government action or even government inaction.

They are, however, seemingly against reparations for Black people. That’s different. Let me take you to a conversation that Dr. Phil had on his program not too long ago. And I want to I want you to understand why it’s offensive to many Black people in America. Dr, Phil said, if you give, if you give black folks $300,000 plus, or $800,000 plus, it will be a total disaster. He talked about how this would not create generational wealth, etc. Okay. That’s his opinion. Now, he tried to clean it up by saying if you give any group that much money, and then he started naming other groups, all right. Now he left off groups, like rich people; he said poor people, but he didn’t say rich people.

Here’s the reality. Dr. Phil, you can facilitate discussions like this, but you do not bear the credentials to conclusively say what Black people should or should not receive, because it is on us to have that conversation with you and others. We lead that conversation, not you. It’s very simple. To suggest that somehow in order to qualify for reparations, Black people need to be trained how to spend money. That’s basically what Dr. Phil said. There needs to be guidance and coaching. And I’m not saying those elements should not be in place. What I am saying is that you don’t use it as a prerequisite in order to get money that you are all ready owed. Remember, reparations is not a handout. It is based on this one reality.

There was an unfair government-approved or government-led operation that made this dysfunction and we have to create a remedy for it. So reparations is not based on race. It is based on the behavior of the government toward a particular demographic. And if that particular demographic happens to be of one race, then naturally that’s where the remedy resides. You know who else received reparations? Slave owners. Look it up. DC emancipation, because of the hurt and economic harm that slave owners would receive due to the freeing of the enslaved African. They were given reparations based on the number of enslaved human beings they could no longer legally enslave. Isn’t that interesting? So let’s count the ways various groups after receive reparations, even slave masters receive reparations during that era, but no reparations for African Americans. If you believe it was broken by the government, you have to believe that the government is part of or should be part of the remedy. Reparations should not be off the table as some kind of fringe discussion. It is a normative discussion, a credible discussion and a needed discussion.