"The cumulative damages inflicted on black Americans who were enslaved and their descendants of course include slavery, but they also encompass almost 100 years of Jim Crow legal segregation and persistent racism in the post-Civil Rights era continuing to the present. The latter is manifest in mass incarceration, police executions of unarmed blacks (de facto lynchings), discrimination in employment, and, significantly, the enormous racial wealth divide between black and white Americans. Monetary restitution has been a centerpiece of virtually all other cases of reparations, both at home and abroad. While some commentators are concerned that money is “not enough,” money is precisely what is required to eliminate the most glaring indicator of racial injustice, the racial wealth divide. Respect for black American citizenship will be signaled by monetary compensation. Payment of the debt is, as Charles Henry puts it, “long overdue.” H.R. 40 provides an opportunity to begin the process of fulfilling the long-standing national obligation."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
How reparations for American descendants of slavery could narrow the racial wealth divide, NBC News William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, (20 June 2019)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H.R._40_-_Commission_to_Study_and_Develop_Reparation_Proposals_for_African-Americans_Act
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
H.R. 40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act
Related Quotes
"H.R. 40 - Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act is a United States House of …"
"(a) Findings.—The Congress finds that— (1) approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in th…"
"Purpose.—The purpose of this Act is to establish a commission to study and develop Reparation proposals for African-A…"
"Years ago, during a meeting with The Record editorial board, I recall then-Mayor Cory Booker almost tearing up as he …"
"Booker, a Democrat and one of just three African Americans in the U.S. Senate... is a prime sponsor of the reparation…"
"I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are respons…"
"And in terms of poverty and race in this country, again, you know, one of the things that I really, really wanted to …"
"Members of the Project 21 black leadership network said that the legislative proposal to study giving reparations to …"
"Those who can't see the importance of Wednesday's congressional hearing and the H.R. 40 bill, usually argue that slav…"
"A Bill To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and t…"