1 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:08,879 Speaker 1: I'm Erica Alexander and I'm Whitney Dow. Welcome to Reparations 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 1: The Big Payback, a production of Color Farm Media, I 3 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: Heart Radio and The Black Effect Podcast Network Day. Whitney, 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: we're halfway through this journey now, how are you feeling 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: about it? Man? Well, it's been quite a ride, you know. 6 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: I did not expect to find myself here, you know. 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: And it's also been an education. As you know, I 8 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 1: came into this thing. I believe in reparations. I believe 9 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: in the necessity of reparations, and I also knew it 10 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: was a really complicated subject as well. How do you 11 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: go about it? Who gets them? And actually what does 12 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: it mean when American society decides to do something like this? Yeah, 13 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: and what if we don't, you know, right, because it's 14 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: not just a financial issue, it's a moral issue, and 15 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: it's also a practical issue. How do you do this? 16 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: I think if something Tony Morrison said to Charlie Rose 17 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: that growing up she always felt superior, morally, superior to 18 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: white people. Part of at is about the dead old, 19 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: the unpaid debt, white America or America in quotes, Oh 20 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: and are those the same thing? Yeah? Well, I don't know. 21 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: I mean, wait, but until that debt is paid, as 22 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: Seeley says in the Color Purple, until you do right 23 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,319 Speaker 1: by me, and you're gonna be amazed. I can finish this. 24 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: Everything you think about is going to crumble, or maybe 25 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,960 Speaker 1: everything you believe about yourself is gonna crumble. This is 26 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: a serious warning to America. Let's call it America for now, 27 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: the debtor or the indebted entity. Well, now that we 28 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: bring it up, I've always felt that sense of superiority. Really, yeah, 29 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: I did shown up growing up. I certainly didn't need 30 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: to oppress somebody to feel a sense of self worth. Well, 31 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: you know, growing up a sort of a quote normal 32 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 1: white guy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You know, we talked a 33 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 1: lot about that in my house. I grew up in 34 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: a very liberal house. This idea of discrimination against black people. 35 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: I grew up in the seventies during the bussing era, 36 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: so it was like really apparent all around us. But 37 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: there wasn't a sense that we were oppressing anybody. Yeah, 38 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: which is freaky because especially when Europe in Massachusetts, you know, 39 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: that's all they did, that's what that was their hobby. 40 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: But you know, that's the thing you hear from white 41 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 1: people time after time. I didn't have any slaves. Are 42 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: you looking at me? Yeah? But in terms of awareness 43 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:21,120 Speaker 1: of white privilege and that language of white privilege wasn't 44 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: even around then, I think that it was something that 45 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:24,400 Speaker 1: was sort of like way out there. I think that 46 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: the people that I knew and the people that believed 47 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: they were doing good saw themselves as acting against a structure. 48 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: They didn't actually see themselves as part of the structure. Yes, 49 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: but they were already complicit in a moral crime. And 50 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: I think that that's one of the things about this 51 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: debate on reparations, talking about complicity in a way white 52 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: people have not heard before, in a way they can 53 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: hear it, and black people too. You know, there should 54 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: be a book how to talk to your white friends 55 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:50,959 Speaker 1: when you're talking about their moral complicity in an ongoing 56 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: monstrous crime. For Dumming, Is this something we're going to 57 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: write together? Erica? Every day, we write the book with 58 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 1: me every day, And I think some days the book 59 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:02,680 Speaker 1: seems to write itself. I think, what do they say, 60 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: history repeats itself the first time as a tragedy, the 61 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: second time as what a prize fight? Prize fight? Mm 62 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: tonight our main event, the heavyweight bout. We've all been 63 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,120 Speaker 1: waiting for the epic battle between the Case for Reparations 64 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:32,800 Speaker 1: and the Case against Reparations. I'm your host, Erica Alexander, 65 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: here in historic Madison Square Garden to bring you all 66 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: the thrilling round by round action in this colossal matchup. 67 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: Joining me at ringside is color man Whitney. Dow Whitney. 68 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say we're about to witness history. 69 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: That's right, Erica, and what a thrill to be here 70 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: to see it tonight. Fair is the name of the game, 71 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 1: and history is in the ring tonight. You can say 72 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: that again, History is in the ring tonight. Okay, all right, 73 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: sat The stakes in this fight couldn't be higher. Black 74 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: people in America's stand to gain a kind of reckoning, 75 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: both moral and financial, for the crime of slavery and 76 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: the deprivations that follow. Is it an idea whose time 77 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: has come? Well, it's certainly been gaining traction lately. The 78 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: question is would Black America's gain be White America's loss. 79 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,159 Speaker 1: No one likes to face up to ugly truth's and 80 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 1: no one likes to give up money. Let's talk about 81 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:32,880 Speaker 1: tonight's contenders. The reigning chip is the case against reparations 82 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: coming to the ring, weighing in at over four hundred years. 83 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,239 Speaker 1: The case against reparation says, what more do you people want? 84 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,800 Speaker 1: Slavery and all that bad stuff was a long time ago. 85 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: Enough is enough, That was then, this is now, Get 86 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: over it, get on with it. Fair is fair, sort 87 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,919 Speaker 1: of a series of one two punches. Exactly Sorry, I 88 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: got a little carried away. And tonight's challenger, our challenger. 89 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: Tonight is the case four reparations coming to the ring, 90 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,719 Speaker 1: also weighing in it over four hundred years. That case 91 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: for reparation says, are you kidding? The forced, unpaid labor 92 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,840 Speaker 1: of millions of black people built this country and its 93 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: wealth under slavery, which Lincoln said, if slavery is not wrong, 94 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,720 Speaker 1: nothing is wrong. So slavery and Jim Crow and their 95 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: cruel consequences are moral crimes against a group of people 96 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: that need to be redressed. But there's also the practical, 97 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,679 Speaker 1: the economic issue of helping to level the playing field 98 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: for slaveries still disenfranchised modern day legal ties. I'm sorry, 99 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: I thought you just said legal tease, I said, legatees 100 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: Airs descendants inheritors in a sense, we're all inheritors. You've 101 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: been doing your homework, color man. Well, when you're a 102 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:55,600 Speaker 1: white color man, you gotta try harder. That's the bell 103 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:57,839 Speaker 1: for a round one. Leading off the case for reparations 104 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,400 Speaker 1: will be the Evanston, Illinois alder women who may history, 105 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: which he passed the first local reparations bill. She's fast. 106 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: You won't see her coming, but she gets the job done. 107 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: Give it up for Robin Rules, Simmons. Reparations are due 108 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 1: because it's an unsettled debt in this nation. We have 109 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: over four hundred years of various forms of enslavery, and 110 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: we know that chadow enslavement has been outlawed, but this 111 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: nation was built on kidnapping Africans, torturing them, enslaving us, 112 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: and later transitioning it into lynching and jim crowing. And 113 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: then you know redlining and over policing and racial terra 114 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: and predatory lending practices and micro and macro aggressions and 115 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: all forms of oppression and crimes against our humanity as 116 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: a black nation, and we have not been able to overcome. 117 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: We have not been able to enjoy the same livability 118 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: as our white friends and neighbors in this nation. We 119 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:07,039 Speaker 1: have not met the standard of the values that we 120 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: say of liberty and justice for all in this nation. 121 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: For black folks, we still are excluded from the American 122 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: dream and the liberties that we have earned and are 123 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 1: worthy of. So reparations are in order because it is 124 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: the only way to right the wrong of this nation 125 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: that continues today. Reparations are in order, their overdue because 126 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: it is the only legislative process or tool to respond 127 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: in a way of redress and repair for damages and 128 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: egregious actions and crimes against the humanity of black people. 129 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: Reparations are in order because of the wealth gap, the 130 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: achievement gap over policing. Just look at look at the 131 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: public lynching of George Floyd. Look at the outcomes and 132 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: the impact of the COVID pandemic and the disparate conditions 133 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: of the black community, and how it impacted our health 134 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: with underlying health conditions, and how it financially further crippled us. 135 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: And we have not yet overcome from the financial crisis 136 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: of two thousand and eight. And reparations are overdue, but 137 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: more tangibly because a moral argument hasn't been enough. It 138 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: will lift up all of America, increase the tax base. 139 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: It will increase home ownership rates that will make safer neighborhoods. 140 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: It will provide more college degrees which would create more 141 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:31,920 Speaker 1: high paying career paths, and more black businesses would be 142 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: launched and more black folks would be employed because we 143 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: hire black people. It would begin to heal this nation 144 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: in a way that we have not addressed. A moral 145 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,200 Speaker 1: document in this nation is our budget. And until we 146 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: put funding behind our actions and a action plan that 147 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: is viable and forward moving, we will not get to 148 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: the healing that we say we all want to experience 149 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: here in this nation. In two thousand and nineteen, our city, 150 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,600 Speaker 1: after an extensive community process, says passed the nation's first 151 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: reparation that's funded by adult use cannabis sales tax. We 152 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: said yes to reparations are in order. We said yes 153 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: to putting action and funding behind our commitment to black 154 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 1: lives matter and the things that we value. We took 155 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: a huge jump beyond apology and ceremony into action towards repair. 156 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: And so what happened is we said yes to giving 157 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,319 Speaker 1: a twenty dollar direct benefit to qualify black residents in 158 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: Evanson or their direct descendants because of our city's practice 159 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: of enforcing anti black housing policies that stripped away. Well, 160 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: it's important for our city because now we have proven 161 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: that we have the will and the heart to advance 162 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: something for the black community, specifically, we have proven that 163 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: we are committed to reparatory justice, and we can now 164 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:58,720 Speaker 1: continue to do more programming. We can expand that fund, 165 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:02,760 Speaker 1: we could look at other areas within our purview of 166 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,280 Speaker 1: damages to the Black community, and now we can hold 167 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:10,280 Speaker 1: our institutional partners that were accomplices to our conditions in 168 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:16,240 Speaker 1: the black community accountable to their role. That's including universities, corporations, 169 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 1: family foundations, other government agencies like the state, and of 170 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:24,079 Speaker 1: course HR forty. So it was significant for Evanston because 171 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: it's our road to repair. We're on our way. But 172 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: I believe that it was a significant action for this 173 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: nation because it shows what is possible through a legislative 174 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,800 Speaker 1: process when the leaders and the community have the heart 175 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: and the will to advance something tangible and measurable. It 176 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,920 Speaker 1: shows what is possible, and I believe that all other 177 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: cities are feeling an accountability to their Black communities to 178 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: do something similar and appropriate for their cities. One thing 179 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:57,280 Speaker 1: that I have learned about this reparation movement and that 180 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:02,320 Speaker 1: I remain in awe of, is the foundation of the movement, 181 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: and I'll start within Cobra. They were able to work 182 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:11,960 Speaker 1: with John Conyers to advance reparations thirty two years ago. 183 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:16,160 Speaker 1: They were fighting the fight that we fight today. They 184 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,400 Speaker 1: are responsible for the progress that we have today. They 185 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:25,120 Speaker 1: made Evanston's victory possible. They're making HR forties momentum victory 186 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,480 Speaker 1: possible because they've got us to this point in two 187 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,560 Speaker 1: thousand and twenty one where we're advancing and passing a 188 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: local initiative and where we're very close to advancing HR 189 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: forty through legislative process. Stepping into the squared circle here 190 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: to represent the case against reparations as a nationally known 191 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: conservative talk show host, and he's a veteran puncher and 192 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: counter puncher, Larry Elder. Black people have overcome to the 193 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 1: point now where only of black people are below the 194 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 1: federally defined level of poverty. Still too high, but in 195 00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: nineteen forty that number was eighty seven percent, and twenty 196 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: years later that number had been reduced to forty seven percent, 197 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: a forty point drop in twenty years. That is the 198 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,560 Speaker 1: greatest twenty year period of economic expansion for the history 199 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: of black Americans. And notably, they came before the Brown 200 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: Versus Board of Education decision, that came before the Civil 201 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,720 Speaker 1: Rights of bills of nineteen sixty four nineteen sixty five. 202 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: Despite all of this racism, all of this prejudice black 203 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: people still overcame. In nineteen sixty four, Martin Duviking gave 204 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: an interview to the BBC and he said he was 205 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,320 Speaker 1: surprised at the changes that have taken place in America 206 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 1: in recent years, and he believed that a black person 207 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:47,040 Speaker 1: could become president in forty years time or maybe even less. 208 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: That's roughly around the time when Obama became president. And 209 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,559 Speaker 1: Martin Luther King did not say, we will know when 210 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:55,839 Speaker 1: we've arrived at the Promised Land when there's a black 211 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:58,679 Speaker 1: coach of Notre Dame, which has happened. When there is 212 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,680 Speaker 1: a black female who's the president of an Ivy League university, 213 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 1: which has happened. When blacks are mayors of all the 214 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: major cities in America, which has happened. When blacks are 215 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:10,440 Speaker 1: police chiefs of the major cities in America, When they 216 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,440 Speaker 1: are superintendents of schools of America, or mayors of America, 217 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: sometimes all three at the same time. He did not 218 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: say that. He did not say when black people become 219 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:21,280 Speaker 1: millionaires and billionaires, which has happened. He said, when a 220 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 1: black person becomes president. That's one will know. We've reached 221 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: a point where people are being evaluated based on the 222 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,200 Speaker 1: content of their character to the extent that it is 223 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:34,960 Speaker 1: reasonable to expect. And the idea that slavery built America 224 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: is belied by the fact that at one time Virginia 225 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,880 Speaker 1: was the most populous and wealthiest state in the Union, 226 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: but within a couple of generations it had fallen behind 227 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:47,080 Speaker 1: states in the North because the South dependent upon slavery, 228 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 1: which impoverished the South relative to the North, which is 229 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,840 Speaker 1: primarily why the North won the election. No one could 230 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: have had our very few people could have had a 231 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,440 Speaker 1: lifehearted than my father. My father was thirteen years old 232 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,960 Speaker 1: one in nineteen fifteen. He was kicked out of his 233 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: house by his mother Athens, Georgia. Jim McCrow at the 234 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,160 Speaker 1: beginning of the Great Depression. The man walked down the street, 235 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,000 Speaker 1: did whatever he could. Ultimately he became a pullman quarter 236 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,520 Speaker 1: on the trains, which is the largest private employer of 237 00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:15,920 Speaker 1: blacks in those days travel all the world. Became a 238 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 1: marine was one of the first black marines, it told 239 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,680 Speaker 1: a Montfort Court Marine. And my dad always told my 240 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: brothers and be the following, hard work wins you get 241 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:26,560 Speaker 1: out of life. Would you put into it? You cannot 242 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: control the outcome, but you are in control of the effort. 243 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: And before you complain about what other people did to you, 244 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:34,560 Speaker 1: go to the nearest mirror and say to yourself, what 245 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 1: could I have done to change the outcome? And my 246 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:39,200 Speaker 1: dad always told us this, no matter how hard you work, 247 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 1: no matter how good you are student or later, bad 248 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:43,480 Speaker 1: things will happen to you. How you respond to those 249 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:45,840 Speaker 1: bad things will tell your mother and me if we 250 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,640 Speaker 1: raised a man. And my father always said this about 251 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,800 Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. They want to give you something for nothing, 252 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:53,600 Speaker 1: and when you're trying to get something for nothing, you 253 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: almost always end up getting nothing for something. To them, 254 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: I would say, I'll take your share, pass it along. 255 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 1: It's been mentioned a couple of times that America has 256 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,360 Speaker 1: yet to atone for sleep. Well, remember that Lyndon Johnson 257 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: launched the so called War on Poverty in nineteen sixty five, 258 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: he specifically talked about the need to redress past the 259 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: grievances for blacks. Since then, we've spent over twenty two 260 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,480 Speaker 1: trillion dollars in payments to fite the so called war 261 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 1: on poverty. The War on poverty and various government programming 262 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: that was for a economically disadvantaged community did not target 263 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: the repair needed in the black community. And we have 264 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: seen a overwhelming participation from the non black community, the 265 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: white community, accessing those resources. That's about personal responsibility. They 266 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 1: are think tanks on the left, like the Brookings Institution, 267 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,080 Speaker 1: and think tanks on the right like the American Enterprise 268 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: ines too. And they agree that the way to escape 269 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 1: parvertys to do a handful of things. Number one, finished 270 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: high school. Number two, don't have a kid until you 271 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: get married. Number three, get a job, keep a job, 272 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: and don't put that job to get another job in 273 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:58,280 Speaker 1: Number four, avoid the criminal justice system. And they don't 274 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 1: say that this formula only applies to you with your wife, 275 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:03,520 Speaker 1: just the form place to anybody. We are going to 276 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: have reparations. It needs to be specific and targeted to 277 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 1: the black community in response to the egregious conditions in 278 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: which we have singularly been exposed to in this nation 279 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: as intentional and as radical and as robust as Jim 280 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: crowing and all other forms of discrimination and black oppression 281 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: that we have experienced in this nation. Wow, that was 282 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: a tough first round, Whitney, I'd say both sides came 283 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: out swinging aerica, and both sides landed some very solid blows. Now, 284 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: the case against has the weight of habit and custom 285 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: on its side. Down South, they call it tradition, and 286 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: it's always been this way, so why shouldn't it stay 287 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:51,440 Speaker 1: this way? Right? But the case for reparations is scrappy, 288 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: and they have to be to sort of jiu jitsu 289 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 1: their way around that way and try for a knockout. Ah. 290 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: They don't call it the sweet science for nothing. But 291 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: neither side here is pulling any punches. I'd make that 292 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: round just about even on points, wouldn't you, Whitney, I'd say, 293 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: so this is shaping up to be a hell of 294 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,120 Speaker 1: a fight. Who's ahead and the count? Are these punches landing? 295 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:14,399 Speaker 1: Which side looks like a winner? To find out, we 296 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: asked the man in the street, which man's figure speech 297 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:19,760 Speaker 1: could be? The woman in the street, Oh, got it, 298 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: but why are they in the street just listen. Reparations 299 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,480 Speaker 1: I'm not sure on that issue. I'm like conflicted right now. 300 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:32,399 Speaker 1: You know what I mean. If it's going back to 301 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:37,199 Speaker 1: the communities to help education, more community centers, I'm for it, 302 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: you know what I mean, But it got to show 303 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:40,680 Speaker 1: you know what I mean, don't just say it. Show it. 304 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: They've been older, I mean, work hard. You're living in providing, 305 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,639 Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Just for me, for instance, 306 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: I live in the projects. It took advantage of us. Yeah, 307 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:51,919 Speaker 1: so this day is still going on. What you call 308 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:54,879 Speaker 1: it right now is just organized slavery. You know what 309 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:56,680 Speaker 1: I mean. You don't see it, but it's there. It's 310 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,120 Speaker 1: got to be some changes. That's why I say I'm conflicted, 311 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:01,400 Speaker 1: because you got something that's out there that really help 312 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,400 Speaker 1: you out, that's willing to help you out. But it's 313 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 1: hard to tell of good from the bad nowadays. I'm 314 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: definitely four reparations. I believe that reparations would allow African 315 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:14,760 Speaker 1: American people to level up to what we've missed over 316 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,639 Speaker 1: the years, kind of get on a level playing field 317 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: with everybody else and keep pushing from there. So I 318 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:25,000 Speaker 1: definitely am before and made the best man win. I'm 319 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: pretty sure I'm in favor of it because if you 320 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 1: go back far enough, while my ancestors are able to 321 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:32,400 Speaker 1: actually trace back my timeline as a white person in America, 322 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:34,520 Speaker 1: and I can see financially where I was even come 323 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: from a while other people who were taken from different 324 00:18:37,119 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: countries and continents, they don't have that ability. Their financial 325 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: liberty was stripped from them before they even got to 326 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 1: this country. So I feel it's only right. The fact 327 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: that they had to work was at twelve generations that 328 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,080 Speaker 1: we forced slaves to work in this country before the 329 00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: Emancipation Procommission went through. That's fall generations of lost financial 330 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,960 Speaker 1: income right there. And while that's twelve generations of financial income, 331 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,120 Speaker 1: other people will been able to character. So I think 332 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: it's about time we're able the touchback cop or was 333 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: it the donkey and a and like a personage of 334 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: land and Abraham Winkeld promised I would like my forty 335 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: acres in the view, which is more than was offered. Now. 336 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:16,160 Speaker 1: Forty acres is a pretty good money and for reparations 337 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 1: because black people in this country had an unfair start, 338 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:22,080 Speaker 1: and there were systems in place that did not allow 339 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,360 Speaker 1: black people in America to live free. And so if 340 00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:30,719 Speaker 1: those systems which continue to exist and perpetuate violence against 341 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,160 Speaker 1: black people and black bodies in this country, action has 342 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: to be taken, and it's on us. It's on our 343 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:41,560 Speaker 1: government to support the people who built this country. Money 344 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:46,200 Speaker 1: is power. If we don't have access to money, then 345 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:51,280 Speaker 1: we don't have access to move forward. So reparations is 346 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: a start to have us have the power so we 347 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,000 Speaker 1: can move forward to do something that we want to 348 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 1: do with the money. But no amount of money will 349 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: make up for the deliberate, harmful practices that our family 350 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: and our ancestors have had to endure. This crowd came 351 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:18,560 Speaker 1: to see a fight, and they're getting a fight. There's 352 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,680 Speaker 1: the bell for round two. Who do we have carrying 353 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: on the case for reparations and coming to the center 354 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:27,680 Speaker 1: of the ring. You know her, you love her? Now 355 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 1: serving her four term as a Democrat in Congress representing 356 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: the great City of Houston, Texas, including Beyonce Noels Carter 357 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 1: and a proud champion of HR forty, the reparations phil 358 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: here is US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. HR forty is 359 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 1: in fact the response of the United States of America 360 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 1: long overdue. Slavery is the original sin. Slavery has never 361 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,919 Speaker 1: received an apology. The number of Africans who died in 362 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 1: the New Passage over two million. Number of enslaves who 363 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,680 Speaker 1: died during slavery, first, second and third generation over two 364 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,880 Speaker 1: point five million. Who has a history like that. Reparations 365 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: should be welcomed by all Americans, for we are not 366 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: asking one American to give one payment. What we're saying 367 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,159 Speaker 1: is it's the only way that slavery ended was a 368 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: governmental action of the thirteenth Amendment. Governmental action and reconstruction 369 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: failed after twelve years because it was imploded by governmental people, 370 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:38,680 Speaker 1: and after reconstruction, a reign of terror that had never 371 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:43,199 Speaker 1: been seen, the hanging fruit, the lynching, the oppression of voting, 372 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: the tearing away of land, and the amazing concept of 373 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 1: the continuing de jure and de facto impact of slavery. Today, 374 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: one million African Americans are incarcerated. That is a continuing 375 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: impact of Black children live in poverty compared to eleven 376 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 1: percent of white children. The national averages eighteen percent would 377 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: suggest the percentage of black children living in poverty is 378 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,960 Speaker 1: more than a hundred and fifty even In spite of 379 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:15,840 Speaker 1: the glorious overcoming of the talent that is part of 380 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:19,520 Speaker 1: our community, the scrapping together of making sure our children 381 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:23,600 Speaker 1: received education, the putting together something out of nothing, we 382 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,399 Speaker 1: still have been impacted. Black people in America are the 383 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,600 Speaker 1: descendants of Africans kidnapped and transported to the United States 384 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:34,199 Speaker 1: with the explicit complicity of the U. S. Government and 385 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,240 Speaker 1: every arm of the United States lawmaking and law enforcement infrastructure, 386 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 1: and dehumanizing and atrocities of slavery were not isolated occurrences, 387 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,920 Speaker 1: but mandated by federal laws that were codified and enshrined 388 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,480 Speaker 1: in the constitution. Role of the federal government and supporting 389 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination erected against blacks 390 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: is an injustice that must be formally acknowledged and addressed. 391 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: I just simply asked, why not and why not now? 392 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,719 Speaker 1: If not all of us, then who God bless us 393 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: as we pursue the final justice for those who lived 394 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:11,639 Speaker 1: in slavery for two hundred and fifty years in the 395 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: United States of America. Please support HR forty well. She 396 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:23,400 Speaker 1: certainly got her shots in Now all greased and gloved 397 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,880 Speaker 1: and ready to rumble is another US representative, a Republican 398 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:32,879 Speaker 1: repping Louisiana's proud fourth Congressional district. He's a lawyer and 399 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,919 Speaker 1: a former radio talk show host, so you know he 400 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 1: can bring it. Making the case against reparations. Here's Congressman 401 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:50,159 Speaker 1: Mike Johnson. Just consider this, Okay. There are tens of 402 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: millions of today's non African Americans who are descended from 403 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: people who arrived in the country, of course after slavery ended, 404 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: and therefore they can't be held responsible for its legacy. Indeed, 405 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 1: only a small percentage of the total American population were 406 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 1: slave owners. For the aforementioned reasons and many others, such 407 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,159 Speaker 1: an approach has been widely unpopular, at least in our 408 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:13,120 Speaker 1: recent history. In the nineteen seventies, civil rights organizations openly 409 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,280 Speaker 1: rejected the idea of reparations, which the double a CPS 410 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: assistant director himself called quote an the iological, diversionary and 411 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 1: paltry way out for guilt ridden whites unquote. See. The 412 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: legal question is the federal government can't constitutionally provide compensation 413 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:32,000 Speaker 1: today to a specific racial group because other members of 414 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: that group, maybe several generations ago, were discriminated against and 415 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: treated in humanely. According to the U. S. Supreme Court, 416 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: they would refer to that as an unconstitutional racial preference, 417 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,200 Speaker 1: and the federal government is not allowed to provide race 418 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: based remedies that are quote ageless in their reach into 419 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: the past and timeless in their ability to affect the 420 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: future unquote. Now listen, I get it. I've read the scholarship. 421 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: I know that some proponents of this legislation believe that 422 00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: the very discussion of reparations itself would be cathartic for 423 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 1: oig nation. But we have to ask if discussions can 424 00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:07,200 Speaker 1: result in justice today, they certainly probably won't provide consensus. Instead, 425 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,679 Speaker 1: many people have good conscience believe they'll distract from the 426 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: many persistent causes of current racial disparities. They certainly exist. 427 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: The despicable racism of America's past is part of that, 428 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: but so are other social and cultural dynamics, which are 429 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:24,920 Speaker 1: themselves often negatively influenced by well intended government policies. When 430 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:26,880 Speaker 1: you are behind in a foot race, the Reverend Martin 431 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. Said in nineteen sixty three, the only 432 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:31,159 Speaker 1: way to get ahead is to run faster than the 433 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,879 Speaker 1: man in front of you. So Dr King's words reflect 434 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: an important tradition of self reliance that has had eloquent 435 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 1: advocates in the African American community. Frederick Douglass, book or T. Washington, W. E. B. Dubois, 436 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,240 Speaker 1: and many others. All them we're saying, in their different 437 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,400 Speaker 1: ways that African Americans were not powerless to better their 438 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: lives until America owned up to its historical sins and 439 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,040 Speaker 1: offered them a generous financial settlement. The point is as 440 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:56,040 Speaker 1: important today as ever. Those great leaders encourage people to 441 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,639 Speaker 1: take control of and responsibility for their own lives, because 442 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,800 Speaker 1: that gives every human being a greater sense of meaning, purpose, 443 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,720 Speaker 1: and satisfaction. The premise of HR forty and similar legislation, however, 444 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:10,280 Speaker 1: well did they They may be risks communicating the opposite message. 445 00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:14,000 Speaker 1: Would it propagator worldview that says external forces from a 446 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: century and a half ago were directing the fate of 447 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,560 Speaker 1: Black Americans today? I mean, it's an honest question, some 448 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,159 Speaker 1: people ask. I think people who areheartedly agree that our 449 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: nation is still in the process of healing from its 450 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,080 Speaker 1: reprehensible sins of the past can ask that question. Some 451 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,560 Speaker 1: aren't you, Well, you weren't there. It's in and so 452 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 1: the reason why people afraid of reparation because they don't 453 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,919 Speaker 1: know their history. They don't study anything. People who are 454 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 1: victimized for no other reason for who they were. They 455 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:41,919 Speaker 1: are Rustin, who organized the nineteen sixty three March on 456 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,159 Speaker 1: Washington and was one of Martin Luther King Jr's closest advisers, 457 00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:48,919 Speaker 1: described the concept as quote a ridiculous idea unquote. Barack 458 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,880 Speaker 1: Obama opposed reparations when he ran for president in two 459 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,320 Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders did 460 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,720 Speaker 1: as well eight years later. This is now an accelerated 461 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:02,520 Speaker 1: or updated civil rights era. We need catastrophic change in 462 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,040 Speaker 1: the embedded disparities. Let's try to look it in the 463 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:10,000 Speaker 1: eye and address it as Americans together. There's no doubt 464 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,080 Speaker 1: that prejudice exists in our society, just as it has 465 00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: in every society since the fall of Man in the garden. 466 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: The question, the honest question we have, is what do 467 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 1: we do about it? WHOA? That was a surprisingly strong 468 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 1: round for the case against reparations. They had the other 469 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: side on the ropes. And now wait, wait, the case 470 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:39,240 Speaker 1: for reparations is down for the count WHOA, Yes, Erica, 471 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,679 Speaker 1: just because the case against reparations. Defending the status quo 472 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,600 Speaker 1: doesn't mean they didn't come ready to fight. They got 473 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,240 Speaker 1: in some serious botty blows in that round. You could 474 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: feel them from here. Oh oh, is not looking good, Whitney. 475 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: Oh no, it's not the case for reparations. Had better 476 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 1: get up quick next time on reparations. The big payback. 477 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,160 Speaker 1: The match between the case four reparations and the case 478 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: against reparations continues. If non blacks are forced to pay 479 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,160 Speaker 1: for compensation or something from which they do not feel responsible, 480 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,160 Speaker 1: that is not going to help race relations at all. 481 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: In fact, the attitude that most non blacks would take 482 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 1: they're being shaken down for something that's not their fault. 483 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,160 Speaker 1: This is not about taking from you because you ain't 484 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 1: the government. You don't have enough money to pay us. 485 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: This is not about taking from you because you're not 486 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,840 Speaker 1: the private corporations they have profited from us being a 487 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 1: stock and a bunt. The federal government never owned a 488 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:50,240 Speaker 1: single slave. Slavery was a private practice. If private individuals 489 00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,400 Speaker 1: the United States think that black people owed some sort 490 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 1: of conversation, then by all means reach into their own 491 00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: pockets and make those payments. But somehow to punish all 492 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,200 Speaker 1: taxpayers or something from which they had absolutely no responsibility 493 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: to me is completely wrong. Now people outside the Afriman 494 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,600 Speaker 1: community that say, well I wasn't a slave on them, 495 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,480 Speaker 1: or I was in nowhere there you benefit from what 496 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: your grandparents got. If we finally get out, just do 497 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 1: it's actually beneficially used because finally you'll get an opportunity 498 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: to not be seeing it is somehow we're weight around 499 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 1: your neck while you're trying to swim. We'll be free 500 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: to do what we need to do. The idea that 501 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: blacks are somehow, hundreds of years later mentally shackled by 502 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,959 Speaker 1: the fact that they came as enslaved people makes no 503 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: sense at all. I would like to tell white people 504 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: on the other side of this. At some point you 505 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: have to say to yourself, I have benefited. So when 506 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,440 Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell say that was a hundred fifty years ago, 507 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 1: mit you seventy five. That was two minches ago. So 508 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,240 Speaker 1: you could die, come back live again. And that's how 509 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: cooch slavery is meet. So not only a reparations to 510 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: cash payout, they need to be long term. As a 511 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: d me purposeful systems and organizations set up that puts 512 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,320 Speaker 1: Black people who were brought in here his beast in 513 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,840 Speaker 1: shadow on a pathway to having their full rights and 514 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,120 Speaker 1: prible to just recognized and enjoyed. And I guarantee you, 515 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,160 Speaker 1: the better the economy is in the African American community, 516 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 1: the better the overall econom legal. This podcast is produced 517 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: by Eric Alexander bennar Non and Whitney Dow. The executive 518 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: producers are Charlemagne the God and Dolly s. Bishop. The 519 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: Supervising Producer is Nicole Childers and the lead producer is 520 00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: Devin Maddock Robins. The producer writer is Serice Castle, and 521 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 1: the Associate producer is Kevin Fan with additional research support 522 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: provided by Nile Bliss. This episode was written by Tony Purrier. 523 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: Sound designed by Chelsea Daniel. Original music by dj D 524 00:30:50,760 --> 00:31:00,880 Speaker 1: t P Reparations. The Big Payback is a production of 525 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: color Farm Media, I Heart Radio and The Black Effect 526 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: Podcast Network in association with Best Case Studios. For more 527 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:12,320 Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 528 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,640 Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.