Reparations time. Pay what you owe!!

[bigjavi973]

Whether we get it or not it's not going to stop us.we still out there kicking butt.but if we get it that's cool to.this country want be were it is today if it wasn't for the hard work my people's put in.and one thing for all you African American who read this just also no your history didn't begin with enslavement.before that you were king and queens some of the first people to rule this planet at the very beginning.you are the birth givers to all human kind the originaters.all races come from us.so know we're your history really began.peace have a blessed day

[bigjavi973]

Transcript below:

Editor’s note: Coleman Hughes delivered the following testimony at a United States House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Bill H.R. 40 on June 19, 2019. If passed, the bill would establish a commission for reparations.

Thank you Chairman Cohen, ranking member Johnson, and members of the committee. It’s an honor to testify on a topic as important as this one.

Nothing I’m about to say is meant to minimize the horror and brutality of slavery and Jim Crow. Racism is a bloody stain on this country’s history, and I consider our failure to pay reparations directly to freed slaves after the Civil War to be one of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated by the U.S. government.


But I worry that our desire to fix the past compromises our ability to fix the present. Think about what we’re doing today. We’re spending our time debating a bill that mentions slavery 25 times but incarceration only once, in an era with zero black slaves but nearly a million black prisoners—a bill that doesn’t mention homicide once, at a time when the Center for Disease Control reports homicide as the number one cause of death for young black men. I’m not saying that acknowledging history doesn’t matter. It does. I’m saying there’s a difference between acknowledging history and allowing history to distract us from the problems we face today.

In 2008, the House of Representatives formally apologized for slavery and Jim Crow. In 2009, the Senate did the same. Black people don’t need another apology. We need safer neighborhoods and better schools. We need a less punitive criminal justice system. We need affordable health care. And none of these things can be achieved through reparations for slavery.

Nearly everyone close to me told me not to testify today. They said that even though I’ve only ever voted for Democrats, I’d be perceived as a Republican—and therefore hated by half the country. Others told me that distancing myself from Republicans would end up angering the other half of the country. And the sad truth is that they were both right. That’s how suspicious we’ve become of one another. That’s how divided we are as a nation.

If we were to pay reparations today, we would only divide the country further, making it harder to build the political coalitions required to solve the problems facing black people today; we would insult many black Americans by putting a price on the suffering of their ancestors; and we would turn the relationship between black Americans and white Americans from a coalition into a transaction—from a union between citizens into a lawsuit between plaintiffs and defendants.

What we should do is pay reparations to black Americans who actually grew up under Jim Crow and were directly harmed by second-class citizenship—people like my Grandparents.

But paying reparations to all descendants of slaves is a mistake. Take me for example. I was born three decades after Jim Crow ended into a privileged household in the suburbs. I attend an Ivy League school. Yet I’m also descended from slaves who worked on Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. So reparations for slavery would allocate federal resources to me but not to an American with the wrong ancestry—even if that person is living paycheck to paycheck and working multiple jobs to support a family. You might call that justice. I call it justice for the dead at the price of justice for the living.

I understand that reparations are about what people are owed, regardless of how well they’re doing. But the people who were owed for slavery are no longer here, and we’re not entitled to collect on their debts. Reparations, by definition, are only given to victims. So the moment you give me reparations, you’ve made me into a victim without my consent. Not just that: you’ve made one-third of black Americans—who consistently poll against reparations—into victims without their consent, and black Americans have fought too long for the right to define themselves to be spoken for in such a condescending manner.

The question is not what America owes me by virtue of my ancestry; the question is what all Americans owe each other by virtue of being citizens of the same nation. And the obligation of citizenship is not transactional. It’s not contingent on ancestry, it never expires, and it can’t be paid off. For all these reasons bill H.R. 40 is a moral and political mistake. Thank you.

good stuff thanks

[The Big Dunn]

really?

what else would they want it for then?

Like he said, apologies have already been done and technically with the definition he provided no one right now (unless you are of a certain age) has been affected by jim crow laws and slavery etc (please argue if you want as I said before black judges, black lawyers, black millionaire businessmen, this kid in ivy league college black president of the USA)

again... unless you can explain to me why some want reparations.

The impact has been generational. yes there are black lawyers and millionaires today. That doesn't erase the systemic problems going back 100 years.

While I agree with him it will divide the country further-I see that as a necessary evil. I disagree that the moment you give reparations you make him a victim. If he sees it that way, ok. Many others disagree.

edit: some want reparations because a "I'm sorry" isn't enough in a society like ours built. Even with black millionaires and billionaires the racial wealth gap is staggering in the US.

This is in part a direct result of lack of reparations hundreds of years ago. While wealth can be created. true wealth is passed on from genration to generation. For hundreds of years black families were not able to do this because of the fallout from Jim Crow, slavery and the systems of racism that blocked access to education.

while he makes solid points, there is another aspect he is not discussing.

[Zaroku]

I agree with this guy 100% and HES A DEMOCRAT!




I agree with all of his points. Try to argue against it really but he makes solid sense.

imo the ones booing are the ones that are just looking at free money

I was so impressed with this guy, smart, articulate, doesn’t rhyme like Jesse Jackson..

He’s got presidential class written all over him.

He’d destroy that horse face barista..... don’t get me wrong Javier...I’d drill Alexandra Ocasio.... but... she’s not working with a full deck.

[AllBoxingAD]

I agree with this guy 100% and HES A DEMOCRAT!




I agree with all of his points. Try to argue against it really but he makes solid sense.

imo the ones booing are the ones that are just looking at free money

Im for reperations and I wouldnt get a penny.

The idea that you can oppress a people for generations upon generations and then tell their descendants that they have not been affected by said oppression in any way is ridiculous to say the least.

Alot of the descendants have done well. Its not about that to me. To me its about right and wrong and what about paying what was owed.

[travestyny]

I agree with this guy 100% and HES A DEMOCRAT!




I agree with all of his points. Try to argue against it really but he makes solid sense.

imo the ones booing are the ones that are just looking at free money

Watch the entire hearing. They did argue against him as much as they were allowed. And quite well.

You can tell that certain members would have loved to have an all out go at him. Rep. Jackson even invited him for further discussion thereafter to teach the young man a thing or two.

[Gentblue]

Damn you Andrew Johnson....

[THEFRESHBRAWLER]

Lol that dude was exposed he’s not black his name isn’t Coleman Hughes either it’s coleman Cruzes

[Luilun]

Public Housing, Welfare Government jobs with lowest qualification and College entrance with lowest scores is enough

[Scipio2009]

I agree with this guy 100% and HES A DEMOCRAT!




I agree with all of his points. Try to argue against it really but he makes solid sense.

imo the ones booing are the ones that are just looking at free money

***looks up Coleman Hughes***

23-year old undergraduate student at Columbia, with no writings of note, whose only referenced contribution is as a colomnist for Quillette, a barely 4-year old online magazine with it's own clear issues with free press and "mainstream media".

C'mon Javi, what in the ****?
It's clear that you didn't expect anyone to actually look beyond the heading, but this is ridiculous.