‘No American Today Is Responsible’: Leo Terrell Explains Why Reparations For Slavery Are ‘Impossible’
'No American today can show harm'
Slavery-reparation activists demand $15 billion from Boston, perhaps $50 million more from white churches
Activists at a recent meeting demanded the City of Boston allocate billions of dollars in slavery reparations and also called for local white churches to invest millions more.
On Saturday, approximately 200 people gathered at the Bolling Building in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston to meet with members of an activist group called the Boston People's Reparations Commission. The professed purpose of the meeting was to establish community demands regarding restitution for slavery, which was effectively banned in Massachusetts before the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789.
'I'm born and raised in Boston. I couldn't stand this country for what they did to my people!'
The Boston People's Reparations Commission officially called for $15 billion from the city, ostensibly to be distributed among current black residents to atone for the beleaguered lives of slaves who died centuries ago. However, Rev. Kevin Peterson, the head of the activist commission, indicated that no amount would ever be satisfactory.
"Fifteen billion ... is not enough," he told WCVB. "Every life is incalculable. We think about tens of thousands of slaves who died in the midst of slavery in Boston. How do you put a number on that?"
Others who spoke at the meeting expressed similar ideas.
"Reparations is cash. It's land. It's education. It's these other functions that are included. It's not just money," said resident Nick Johnson.
Charles Yancey, who spent more than three decades on the Boston City Council, noted that the promises made to former slaves following the Civil War have never been realized. "That has yet to happen," Yancey insisted. "Let's set the tone for the United States of America right here in the city of Boston."
Still others took advantage of the opportunity simply to vent racial grievances. "I'm born and raised in Boston, Mass.," railed Wanda Hervey. "I couldn't stand this country [for] what they did to my people!"
Rev. Peterson claimed that his group has also been in talks with the leaders of white churches in the area to "invest" an additional $50 million in the black community. Though the current status of those talks is unclear, at least one white woman at the meeting stood in solidarity with those demanding reparations.
"We acknowledge the truth of violence perpetuated in stolen lives, stolen land, stolen labor, and make a commitment to work with you to uncover the truth and work for repair," pledged Betty Southwick of the Church of the Covenant.
Rev. Peterson seemed pleased with the statements from Southwick and others. "Part of my vision has been about a statement of atonement from this part of our community and this part of our city’s culture," he said.
Back in January, Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu established the Task Force on Reparations. The task force, made up of 10 members, has been assigned to conduct "a study on the legacy of slavery in Boston and its impact on descendants today," engage with the community to understand residents' "lived experience," and then make a list of recommendations "for reparative justice solutions for Black residents."
The Boston People's Reparations Commission is not directly affiliated with the task force, asserting on its website that "we can not (sic) rely on the city solely for justice." Still, the group certainly seems eager to contribute to the task force's work.
"Our mission is simple: to explore anti-Black histories, interrogate existing anti-Black oppression on the local level and offer viable reparations models and paradigms in the interest of universalizing social justice directed toward the Beloved Community," the website claims.
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Democrat suggests black people shouldn't have to pay taxes for a bit — but adds tax exemption still may not redress slavery
A Democrat serving her second term in the U.S. House of Representatives recently stated that temporarily exempting black people from paying taxes is not "necessarily a bad idea." However, while parsing through the idea, she determined that such an exemption from taxes still likely won't redress the centuries-old horrors of slavery or current wealth disparities between black people and other racial groups since many black people "aren’t really paying taxes in the first place."
On a recent episode of "The Black Lawyers Podcast" that was released on Tuesday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett — who represents an area around Dallas, Texas — told host J. Carter that she first got the tax-related form of slavery reparations from a celebrity whose name escaped her.
"One of the things they propose is black folk not [having] to pay taxes for a certain amount of time because, then again, that puts money back in your pocket," Crockett said.
Crockett claimed that though she wanted "to think through it a lot," she did not think the idea was "necessarily ... bad." "It may not be as objectionable to some people" as "actually giving out dollars," she noted.
Crockett insisted some form of reparations is necessary for two reasons. First, she claimed, "You owe for the labor that was stolen and killed and all the other things," though she did not clarify whom she meant by "you." Second, though slavery was banned more than 150 years ago through law and the bloodshed of more than a half a million mostly white Americans, she claimed black people are still "so far behind."
During the course of Crockett and Carter's conversation, Crockett eventually realized that the plan had a potentially fatal flaw: The "no-tax thing" won't help "people that are already, say, struggling and not paying taxes in the first place."
Such people "may want those checks like they got from COVID," Carter suggested.
"Exactly," Crockett agreed.
The entire 30-minute episode can be seen below. Carter introduces the topic of reparations around the 3:24 mark. Crockett mentions the idea of exempting black people from taxes about a minute and a half later.
Crockett has made a name for herself with melodramatic — and often rude — remarks during meetings of the House Oversight Committee. Last September, she railed that former President Donald Trump allegedly brought "national secrets" into a "s***ter" inside Mar-a-Lago. She then repeatedly talked over Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of President Joe Biden, during his testimony a few weeks ago. "I said that I am speaking, and I did not ask you a question," she snapped at one point.
She was first elected to represent the 30th District of Texas in 2020. This November, she will defend her seat against Ken Ashby, a Libertarian who does not seem to have a campaign website.
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Reparations: California activists demand MILLIONS
If you happen to be black and looking for a little extra cash, California might just be the state for you as the California Reparations Task Force, founded by Gavin Newsom, has formally recommended that the state should pay up to $1.2 million to every qualifying black resident.
While California was never a slave state, the task force called on the state to give black residents a formal apology in addition to the payments.
“Now, I want to be clear,” Lauren Chen comments, “this reparations task force, their recommendation isn’t technically binding on anything, but considering it’s California I’d say there’s actually a scarily good chance that the legislature — once they receive this recommendation — might actually do something with this.”
Chen points out that though California wasn’t a slave state, the Reparations Task Force is operating under the belief that there were many other injustices historically committed against black people.
The payments received by black residents would be broken down into different types of historical discrimination like bank redlining or policing and mass incarceration.
Chen comments that this is “a perfect display of progressive logic, or rather, lack thereof.”
“So, essentially in the progressive mind, okay, if a bunch of criminals commit crimes and therefore have to go to prison and be monitored by the police, it’s ... the state’s fault. They should be rewarded for that through reparations. Talk about incentivizing bad behavior,” she says.
The cost of reparations for the state of California, if they choose to enact this plan, could be in excess of $800 billion.
“These are leftists; these are socialists,” Chen says.
“They don’t care where the money comes from. The only thing they’re concerned about is that they get their gifts.”
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California — a state that never practiced slavery — moves forward with slavery reparations plan
California — which entered the union as a free state in 1850 — is moving forward with plans to implement slavery reparations for black Americans.
On Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind task force charged with studying the issue and developing proposals for redress convened for its inaugural meeting, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The task force is the result of a bill signed last year by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that required members to draft a formal apology to black Americans and come up with various financial remedies for the lingering effects of discriminatory practices in the country.
"As our country reckons with our painful legacy of racial injustice, California again is poised to lead the way towards a more equitable and inclusive future for all," Newsom said at the meeting.
California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added, "Although the horrors of slavery may have begun in the past, its harms are felt every single day by Black Americans in the present."
"Yes, there has been progress in this country, but it has been all too uneven, and it has not moved fast enough," he said. "We must move quickly. How much longer can we wait for justice? How much longer until we are able to truly fulfill the promise of the American dream that all are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights?"
"We have lost more than we have ever taken from this country," task force member and state Sen. Steven Bradford said. "We have given more than has ever been given to us."
The task force consists of nine members — five appointed by Newsom, two appointed by the state Senate, and two by the Assembly — and plans to meet at least 10 times before findings are due in July 2023.
The commission has drawn intense scrutiny from critics who question why Californians, who never held slaves, should have to pay for reparations in state where slavery was never officially practiced.
Republican state Rep. Tom McClintock perhaps said it best in a tweet posted following the passage of the bill last fall.
"Gavin Newsom has signed a bill to study taking the earnings of people who never owned slaves to pay people who never were slaves in a state that never practiced slavery in the first place. California and its governor are now officially [bats**t] crazy," the representative wrote.
Gavin Newsom has signed a bill to study taking the earnings of people who never owned slaves to pay people who neve… https://t.co/yz3pxpvAH7
— Tom McClintock (@tommcclintock) 1601577265.0
Biden neglects to mention slavery reparations in landmark speech on racial violence, upsetting some
President Joe Biden bitterly disappointed some activists after he neglected to mention slavery reparations in a major speech he gave this week on racial violence in America and steps his administration is taking to reduce racial inequities. Biden also privately downplayed expectations on advancing reparations for slavery for black Americans through Congress, according to a report.
On Tuesday, the president gave an address in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 100th anniversary of the race massacre where hundreds of black Americans were attacked and killed by a white mob in 1921. Biden said the senseless murder of 300 black people in Tulsa's Greenwood district was "an act of hate and domestic terrorism, with a through-line that exists today."
He announced several policy initiatives intended to reduce racial inequity, including investing in minority-owned businesses, regulating the housing market to combat racial discrimination, and urging Congress to pass his American Jobs Plan to spend more than $60 billion on programs designed to create jobs and support infrastructure in communities of color.
But the president omitted any mention of H.R. 40, a Democratic bill that would create a commission to study reparations for slavery, which surprised some Democrats. As a presidential candidate, Biden supported forming a reparations commission and promised to do so if elected president.
But according to Politico, Biden downplayed expectations for such a bill in a private meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
"He didn't disagree with what we're doing," said Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.). "He did talk about his plate [being] full with trying to get the infrastructure bill passed and that he really wanted to make sure that he could get that through before he took on anything else."
Lawrence told Politico that Biden was concerned H.R. 40 would be held up in the United States Senate, where Senate Democrats would be forced to take a tough vote on a controversial issue and Republican filibuster threats would assuredly prevent the bill from passing.
Many Democrats praised Biden's speech, even with the omission of the reparations issue.
"He called out how through the years there have been members in elected office who were very public about their association or membership with [the] KKK," Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). "He set up the scene in his speech to take us into what was happening at that time. And that was really powerful. I was so glad to hear it."
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) called Biden's speech "meaningful" for Tulsa and the country. "Most of America had absolutely zero knowledge of the greatest single atrocity to Black people in this country. For him to use his pulpit to publicize what happened to them has to have been cathartic for them."
Oklahoma state Rep. Regina Goodwin, a descendent of survivors of the Tulsa massacre, was thankful Biden came to address the anniversary of the massacre, even if he didn't mention reparations.
"Look, it was not in the speech, but he was gracious enough to be here. He was gracious enough to take the steps. He was open to the conversation. A lot more than I can say for some folks," she said.
But others expressed displeasure with the president.
"I personally would have liked to hear the word reparations. I think that he was very strategic in the words that he used. He used the word repair," Nehemiah Frank, another descendant and founder of The Black Wall Street Times in Tulsa, told Politico. "If you want to pull the people together, you can't fully help Black people. That's how I feel about it. If you want to make Black folks happy, you're going to piss a lot of Americans off."
Dreisen Heath, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Politico she stormed off immediately after Biden's speech because she was frustrated with his neglect to mention reparations.
"This was not a celebration. People are mourning. Every day counts for these survivors. And I think that people just play games with Black people's lives too much. It's not enough to just come in and say words and reiterate the truthful narrative," Heath said.
Heath authored a report last year that said reparations for survivors of the Tulsa massacre should serve as a model for any larger reparations study or program initiated by the federal government.
"This is a huge national [and] global moment. Everybody is looking here. So why not start the process for the precedent? Why not make Tulsa a precedent for reparations nationally? Why not commit to signing H.R. 40 into law? Why not commit to establishing an H.R. 40 reparations commission if the legislative avenues fail?" Heath added.
Biden's private discussion with lawmakers appears to answer Heath's questions. The president wants Congress to put together a bipartisan deal on infrastructure because there's a chance it could actually pass. Reparations are not going to pass the U.S. Senate and haven't yet come up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
Additionally, as Politico notes, results from a poll conducted earlier this year found that only 38% of U.S. voters support forming a commission to study reparations for slavery. While 60% of Democrats may support the commission, the rest of the country still views the issue skeptically and Biden, a career politician, is sensitive to political realities, especially with the upcoming 2022 congressional elections in mind.
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