WEBVTT - 081024 Way Black History Fact - $600 Billion Stolen from Black Americans

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<v Speaker 1>Right now, it's time for the way Black History Fact.

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<v Speaker 1>In Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major

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<v Speaker 1>Threads for fashion, Fashionable, innovative sportswear. Check Major threads dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>And today we're going to share from Black Enterprise Q. Actually,

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<v Speaker 1>since it's whenever you want to take it or you

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<v Speaker 1>want to grab it, all right, I'll get from Black Enterprise.

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<v Speaker 1>A new book is set to unravel how the US

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<v Speaker 1>stole six hundred billion dollars from Black Americans. Andrew W. Carl,

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<v Speaker 1>a professor of history and African American Studies at the

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<v Speaker 1>University of Virginia, but extensive research into his new book,

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<v Speaker 1>which describes how US bureaucracies created the nation's ongoing racial

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<v Speaker 1>wealth gap by implementing a system of highly unjust municipal

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<v Speaker 1>and state taxes. Bloomberg reported the Black Tax, one hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and fifty years of theft, exploitation, and dispossession in America,

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<v Speaker 1>share statistics, studies and tales of Black Americans being cheated

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<v Speaker 1>out of land ownership and pushed into poverty by racist

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<v Speaker 1>laws and practices dating back to the Jimcrow era. The

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<v Speaker 1>book pairs personal stories with rich details about municipalities nationwide

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<v Speaker 1>that use, complex tax collection, distribution to white land and

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<v Speaker 1>property owners, and economic dynamic spanning over a century of

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<v Speaker 1>US history. Starting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,

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<v Speaker 1>unfair tactics were used to doubtedly disadvantage black landowners doubly Ooh,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry. Disadvantaged black landowners by artificially inflating property value

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<v Speaker 1>estimates for tax calculation, overcharging them for their land, and

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<v Speaker 1>exploiting their inability to pay as a means to seize

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<v Speaker 1>their properties. Examples include Anthony Fleming and JR. Rooks, two

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<v Speaker 1>black men forced off their farmland by white supremacist mobs,

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<v Speaker 1>who went on to establish a town with the goal

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<v Speaker 1>of enabling Black Americans to own land. By nineteen eleven, Edmundson, Arkansas,

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<v Speaker 1>encompassed thirty square miles of stores, a bank, a hotel,

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<v Speaker 1>and a post office for black local black homeowners. However,

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<v Speaker 1>twenty years later, the town was no more after white

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<v Speaker 1>plantation owners plotted to seize the land by imposing taxes

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<v Speaker 1>on the lots the Edmondson residents were unaware of. Once

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<v Speaker 1>the residents failed to pay the taxes, they had no

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<v Speaker 1>clue about the plantation owners seized the land. It was

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<v Speaker 1>deeded over to one of the plantation owners who had

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<v Speaker 1>concocted the scheme and demolished all the buildings in nineteen twenty, Hillary,

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<v Speaker 1>I know, I just read over that like it was

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<v Speaker 1>just a little footnote in history. But imagine how sad

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<v Speaker 1>that is. In nineteen twenty, Hillary, Thomas Stewart Senior lost

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four acres of land in a tax sill under

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<v Speaker 1>dubious circumstances after the great great grandfather of George Floyd

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<v Speaker 1>failed to pay eighteen dollars and eighty three cents in taxes.

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<v Speaker 1>Losing the land forced the Stuart family into poverty. When

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<v Speaker 1>looking at the eleven million acres of land taken away

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<v Speaker 1>from Black Americans, it equates two three hundred and twenty

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<v Speaker 1>six billion dollars in today's money, not to forget the

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<v Speaker 1>millions and taxes black Americans have overpaid for over a century.

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<v Speaker 1>From eighteen seventy to twenty twenty, black Americans were overtaxed

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<v Speaker 1>by more than two hundred and seventy five billion dollars

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty three dollars. Karl doesn't just focus on

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<v Speaker 1>the grim findings, but he does share possible solutions to

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<v Speaker 1>making up for the last century of financial oppression against

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<v Speaker 1>the black community. He suggests the establishment of a federal

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<v Speaker 1>fiscal equity program that Mara's Canada's approach, where funds are

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<v Speaker 1>allocated to local governments based on their needs. He also

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<v Speaker 1>suggests introducing a universal home tax exemption for numerous Americans,

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<v Speaker 1>especially lower income households or those residing in historically neglected areas.

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<v Speaker 1>Another option would be to impose taxes on the wealthiest

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<v Speaker 1>individuals in the US. The Black Tax one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>fifty years of Theft, Exploitation and Dispossession in America is

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<v Speaker 1>available now for thirty five dollars through the University of

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<v Speaker 1>Chicago Press. So that's also a bob Ob get that

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<v Speaker 1>book and read it.

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<v Speaker 2>Man.

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<v Speaker 1>We're not making this stuff up, all right. I just

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<v Speaker 1>don't like people in the comments say stuff like that.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's people intentionally ignore stories like this or pretend

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<v Speaker 2>they didn't happen. Part of the reason why reparations is

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<v Speaker 2>such a notorious subject is that people have to take

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<v Speaker 2>certain accountabilities to then extend those reparations, and nobody wants

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<v Speaker 2>to quote unquote feel bad, so they'd rather pretend these

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<v Speaker 2>things never happen. And