Slavery reparations are still all the rage on the left – but even some Democrat politicians are tiring of one of liberals’ favorite virtue signaling schticks.
Late last week, Maryland Democrat Governor Wes Moore, the only black governor in the country, surprised many in his own party and the pundit class when he vetoed a bill that would have created a commission to study slavery reparations by 2027. “I will always protect and defend the full history of African Americans in our state and country,” Moore wrote in his veto letter. “But in light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself.”
As Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley noted, Moore “seems to understand that this sort of racial pandering is now a political loser.” Most of his Democrat colleagues, however, apparently haven’t reached the same conclusion.
Following the decision, Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus blasted the governor for “block[ing] this historic legislation that would have moved the state toward directly repairing the harm of enslavement.” Democrats have a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature and could override Moore’s veto.
But Maryland isn’t the only place where slavery reparations have received some renewed buzz lately. At the same time as Democrats were expressing their outrage over Moore’s veto, Democrats in Washington, D.C. were reintroducing a resolution to offer reparation payments to the descendants of slaves nationwide.
The bill, which was first introduced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in 2023, was sponsored by left-wing Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA). While introducing the bill, Lee laid out a long list of racial grievances, calling for reparations to ameliorate past injustices.
“Black folks are owed more than thoughts and prayers,” Lee said. “We’re owed repair, we’re owed restitution, and we’re owed justice.”
The resolution argues that the United States has not really changed at all in the past 400 years. According to the bill, America has “a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the crime of enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”
The federal government (meaning taxpayers), “must compensate descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent in the United States to account for the crimes and harms of chattel slavery, the cumulative damages of enslavement, and the epochs of legal and de facto segregation,” the resolution continues.
In other words, not just the direct descendants of slaves, but also anyone who is of African descent should get reparations. This would include Nigerians who moved here in 2019 or Angolans who moved here in 2023. (One wonders if that includes South African Elon Musk as well.)
Lee waived off any questions about costs and eligibility as a “distraction” when asked during a press conference. Asking who should be eligible is a tactic “to silence the rest of this movement,” Lee told a reporter. She also dismissed concerns about the cost of payments, saying Americans should not get “bogged down” in such details.
But who is eligible for a new government program and how much it will cost is of course central to any discussion of reparations. While Lee’s plan conveniently leaves out any real cost proposal, prior research shows that reparations would likely cost trillions of dollars.
Duke University Professor William Darity, using similar language to Lee’s resolution, suggested a reparations plan in 2021 costing $10 to $12 trillion, according to The College Fix. A 2023 report from a California task force also put the cost of reparations at $500 billion just for residents of that state “who can show they are the direct descendant of a Black enslaved person or a free Black person alive before the 20th century,” according to NPR.
Meanwhile, Howard University Professor Justin Hansford has called for $5 million payments to all descendants of African slaves, and even asked the United Nations to intervene to force the U.S. to pay out the money. Around 60 percent of black Americans, or about 20 million people, claim to be descendants of slaves, although records in many cases are unclear or unavailable. In any case, if there truly are 20 million black Americans who are descended from slaves, that would mean Hansford’s plan would cost $100 trillion dollars – nearly the GDP of the entire world.
The massive cost and underlying victimhood message is one reason some black Americans reject the idea of reparations. “Rather than teach our children that they are victims of a racist system in which they can only be made whole by making people who have done nothing wrong pay for the past sins of others, we should teach them that they are in charge of their own dignity and their own future,” Dr. Ben Carson said in 2021. The former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development was raised in poverty in Detroit by a single mom before becoming a world-renowned brain surgeon and later a Republican presidential candidate.
Ultimately, the reparations debate is indicative of a much deeper divide between Republicans and Democrats. As Dr. Carson eloquently articulated, Republicans support economic opportunity and reject the left’s racial grievance agenda, which tells minorities they cannot succeed without government handouts.
One prime example of this Republican philosophy in action are the “Opportunity Zones” established under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which incentivize investment in poor, primarily black areas. In the first two years of this program, Opportunity Zones generated $75 billion in private investment, according to Fox Business – lifting up black families without taking from the rest of America to do it.
Running on a message of opportunity is a large part of the reason why Donald Trump won a sweeping mandate in 2024. His victory included historic support from Latino men as well as significant gains in the black community.
Advocating for reparations and stoking racial tensions isn’t just nonsensical and un-American – more and more evidence suggests that it’s politically suicidal as well.
Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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