Booker introduces bill to create commission on slavery reparations

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Sometimes it seems like Democrats are trying to lose.

[Cassandra]

Socialism would be a far easier sell, practical advantages aside.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Spartacus is desperate, so he tries with controversial issues to getting press/momentum. Likely quite smart strategy when you're in 6th-7th place.

[GoTfan]

I fail to see how anyone not personally involved in the act of enslaving someone should be forced to pay reparations.

[RINO Tom]

I am so excited about this.

I can hardly wait to hand over large checks to every black player in the NBA, the NFL, and the MLB.

Let's pause the inane reparations "conversation" that the worst people on both sides of the aisle have pushed on us and pause to appreciate this post as an apt reminder that Trump is no more racist than the #NeverTrump remnant that he pushed out of the party.

So the Democratic Party recently got more racist??  Or was it simply a zero sum racists swap? 

[James Monroe]

I fail to see how anyone not personally involved in the act of enslaving someone should be forced to pay reparations.

https://medium.com/@marcushjohnson/heres-what-a-reparations-plan-could-look-like-b48e940a67b5

[RINO Tom]

I fail to see how anyone not personally involved in the act of enslaving someone should be forced to pay reparations.

https://medium.com/@marcushjohnson/heres-what-a-reparations-plan-could-look-like-b48e940a67b5

I can't open that link on my work computer, so I apologize if it addresses this question: to what future date will the reparations go?  My above example of Italians owing anything to Germans is not some outrageous comparison; hundreds of years vs. thousands of years really aren't that big of a relevant difference when it comes to relevance to the actions/guilt of people alive in 2019.  No one is expecting modern Italians to pay the price for the action of Ancient Romans, no one is expecting modern Mongolians to pay reparations to Eastern Europeans, no one is expecting modern Arabs in North Africa to pay reparations to Berbers, etc.  At least they shouldn't be.

[GP270watch]

 This country is way too racist towards Black people to pass reparations, so Black people might as well go for it because what will change if they don't?

 The idea that reparations is what will hand Trump the election, when White people were the only group that supported Trump by a majority anyways is ridiculous. It's also racist to say Black people shouldn't seek the social justice that they are owed because it might upset white voters, who cares about your feelings(isn't this what conservatives are always spouting).

 The case for reparations is sound, legal, and just. If you rob people of their labor and humanity and then go on to deny them resources and instead give them second class citizenry, yes that should be redressed.

 I'm skeptical of Booker's conviction on this issue. He's not the guy to lead this. This has to be lead by black American citizens on the grassroots level and basically hand whatever politician is in charge their plan.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Basically any reparations campaign launched by Kamala or Booker or the Democratic Party will end up with the worst of all worlds: it will be reheated "black capitalism" (that old Nixonian wheeze) that disproportionately benefits the black middle class, who (in economic terms) are at virtual parity with white middle class people (look up: “Closing the Race Gap: Alleviating Young African American Unemployment Through Education”) and do zilch for the poor AAs, just lumbered with a massively unpalatable name that will destroy the Democratic coalition (and I'm not doing the "muh white West Virginia miners" routine). It will be about as successful in the long run as France's demand for WW1 reparations.

I mean, if you really wanted to be consistent here, you probably should call for the US to provide reparations for Vietnam etc.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Is he actively trying to get a Trump second term?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He is setting himself apart from the rest of the pack by doing this.  When the Dems do get the trifecta back, unlike in 2010, they won't have a gentleman's agreement with the GOP and forego their ideological means by help pass legislation by compromising on the filibuster.

He is the forth candidate to do so, aside from Beto, Warren, and Harris.  A discussion, just like on DC and PR statehood need to be debated in Congress.

[GP270watch]

I mean, if you really wanted to be consistent here, you probably should call for the US to provide reparations for Vietnam etc.

 Whenever Black Americans and the people who believe the wrongs committed against them should be redressed state so, there's always someone like you coming up with excuses, distractions, and mentioning other groups whose claims have nothing to do with the African American case for reparations.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I mean, if you really wanted to be consistent here, you probably should call for the US to provide reparations for Vietnam etc.

 Whenever Black Americans and the people who believe the wrongs committed against them should be redressed state so, there's always someone like you coming up with excuses, distractions, and mentioning other groups whose claims have nothing to do with the African American case for reparations.

No deflections here: the Global South has just as much justification to be compensated for years of hucksterism, pillage and stacked trade deals as anyone else.

[GP270watch]

I mean, if you really wanted to be consistent here, you probably should call for the US to provide reparations for Vietnam etc.

 Whenever Black Americans and the people who believe the wrongs committed against them should be redressed state so, there's always someone like you coming up with excuses, distractions, and mentioning other groups whose claims have nothing to do with the African American case for reparations.

No deflections here: the Global South has just as much justification to be compensated for years of hucksterism, pillage and stacked trade deals as anyone else.

 I agree but I was talking about African Americans case for reparations from the United States government and the fact is you want to dismiss it and say well why shouldn't so and so, blah blah blah...

[Mr. Morden]

A rundown of where the candidates stand on reparations:

https://newsone.com/playlist/2020-presidential-candidates-reparations/item/2

[Arturo Belano]

Basically any reparations campaign launched by Kamala or Booker or the Democratic Party will end up with the worst of all worlds: it will be reheated "black capitalism" (that old Nixonian wheeze) that disproportionately benefits the black middle class, who (in economic terms) are at virtual parity with white middle class people (look up: “Closing the Race Gap: Alleviating Young African American Unemployment Through Education”) and do zilch for the poor AAs, just lumbered with a massively unpalatable name that will destroy the Democratic coalition (and I'm not doing the "muh white West Virginia miners" routine). It will be about as successful in the long run as France's demand for WW1 reparations.

I mean, if you really wanted to be consistent here, you probably should call for the US to provide reparations for Vietnam etc.

Pretty much this. Any sort of reparations scheme done by middle class liberals will inevitably be botched. Cash payments, education programs, job training, greater access to credit, will do little (if anything) to poor and working class black folk trying to survive in a market society. It's a rehashing of the same old, same old. The Democratic Party's vision for reparations is one constrained within the tepid limits of technocratic market liberalism- away from talking about labor rights, the plundering of surplus value, and the de-commodifying housing, healthcare, and other human needs.

To solve the reparations issue, one needs to look at class and race together. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that those in charge of the Democratic Party are willing to do that. So, what you'll get in the end is an ineffective reparations scheme that will fail at solving the racial wealth gap and one that alienates a huge chunk of the white population. But at least woke Twitter will get to pat themselves on the back despite engendering the Democratic Party's political suicide.

[GoTfan]

I fail to see how anyone not personally involved in the act of enslaving someone should be forced to pay reparations.

https://medium.com/@marcushjohnson/heres-what-a-reparations-plan-could-look-like-b48e940a67b5

That doesn't address anything I said.