A Blueprint for Reparations
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Black millennial households earn about 60% of what their white counterparts make, and it highlights just how much worse the generational wealth gap is along racial lines
Black millennials face more financial hardships than white millennials. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
They're bearing the weight of record-high student debt, struggling to buy homes, facing soaring living costs, and are now staring down their second recession.
Consequently, the net worth of Americans aged 18 to 35 has decreased by 34% since 1996, a 2019 Deloitte study found. Millennials' average net worth of less than $8,000 makes them "dramatically financially worse off" than older generations.
A report by think tank New America and a paper by the Brookings Institution, both released in 2019, seconded a dismal generational wealth gap: Millennials are earning 20% less than baby boomers did at their age and median household wealth was roughly 25% lower for those ages 20 to 35 in 2016 than it was for the same age group in 2007.
But what's often glossed over in the conversation about the generational wealth gap is race — and Black millennials are faring worst of all.
"Like all millennials, Black millennials have to deal with a host of economic challenges," writes Reniqua Allen, a Black writer, for The New Republic. "But though Black millennials have much in common with their white peers, there are important distinctions."
She continued: "In almost all areas of life, the deck is stacked even higher against us, in part due to historical discrimination and in part because of inequities unique to the millennial era."
Black millennial households earn way less
Millennials are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations. That Black Americans are paid less — and thus have less money to build wealth — might partially explain why millennials are so financially behind compared to previous generations.
The median white millennial household earns $60,800 annually and has a net worth of $35,200, per St. Louis Fed data. The median Black millennial household only earns $37,300 annually, with a net worth of $17,000.
Those differences begin with a socioeconomic divide that places Black millennials at a lower rung on the mobility ladder early on. Minority households have typically accumulated less wealth than whites in the past, a gulf that has grown between Blacks and whites over time.
There's also a marked difference in dynastic wealth between races. White millennials are more likely to receive financial help from their parents, propelling social mobility. For Black Americans, sociologist Tom Shapiro tells Mel Jones of The Atlantic, it's often the opposite: Black parents expect their children to provide financial support later on in life.
Black Americans are five times less likely to receive an inheritance than white Americans, Jones reported, citing the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. Even when Black Americans do get an inheritance, white Americans received ten times as much.
Black millennials take on more student debt
Education is seen as a path to upward mobility. But when Black Americans attend college to close the socioeconomic gap, they still end up saddled with more student debt than their white peers.
Black students are more likely to need to take on debt to afford school — 86.6% of Black students borrow federal loans to attend four-year colleges, compared to 59.9% of white students, according to Student Loan Hero.
Black students with bachelor's degrees owe $7,400 more student debt on average upon graduation than white grads. The gap widens over time: After four years, Black grads hold $53,000 in debt — almost twice as much in student debt as their white counterparts.
And post-graduation, they have a harder time finding a job: Black graduates are twice as likely as all other graduates to be unemployed, according to a 2014 survey of Black graduates between the ages of 22 and 27.
Even if they do find a job, there's still an economic gap. Cathy Cohen, political science professor at the University of Chicago and author of a report called "Gen Forward" said in a Marketplace Morning Report podcast that Black millennials — and Hispanic millennials — are less likely to receive employer benefits such as health care, dental care, or retirement matches.
It's no wonder Black millennial households are earning so much less than white millennial households — and it might explain why Black graduates are also nearly five times more likely to default on their loans than their white peers.
Systemic racism has created the racial millennial wealth gap
This racial millennial wealth gap is a product of the systemic racism that has plagued America for the past 400 years. Limited opportunities and economic inequalities for Black Americans have made it difficult for them to progress financially.
Such racial disparities came to a head in 2020, starting with the pandemic. Black Americans are at highest-risk for the virus because they've lacked supportive economic infrastructure, such as health care. And Black millennials in particular were among the minority groups financially hit hardest by job loss when the pandemic first began.
The Black Lives Matter movement, which originated in July 2013, hit full momentum in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, waking America up to the effects of institutionalized racism.
Addressing the struggles of the Black millennial — and Black Americans in general — begins with tackling the root of the problem: racism. And solving racism begins with dismantling America's persistent economic inequality, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said in Time Magazine's TIME 100 Talks series.
"We are going to have to recognize that equity demands that we prioritize the needs and aspirations of those communities who have historically been left out," he said.
Some billionaire philanthropists have pledged solidarity on social media or donated to anti-racist organizations, reported Business Insider's Taylor Rogers. But Evan Spiegel, who pledged to donate part of his $4.1 billion fortune to anti-racist organizations, said philanthropy needs to be accompanied by policy change.
"Private philanthropy can patch holes, or accelerate progress, but it alone cannot cross the deep and wide chasm of injustice," Spiegel wrote. "We must cross that chasm together as a united nation. United in the striving for freedom, equality, and justice for all."
www.businessinsider.com
Black millennials face more financial hardships than white millennials. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
- Millennials are facing an economic plight, but Black millennials are struggling the most.
- The typical white millennial household earns $60,800 annually; the typical black millennial household earns $37,300.
- Black millennials take on more student debt and have a harder time finding a job post-graduation, only to be paid less than their white peers once they enter the workforce.
- This racial millennial wealth gap is a product of systemic racism.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
They're bearing the weight of record-high student debt, struggling to buy homes, facing soaring living costs, and are now staring down their second recession.
Consequently, the net worth of Americans aged 18 to 35 has decreased by 34% since 1996, a 2019 Deloitte study found. Millennials' average net worth of less than $8,000 makes them "dramatically financially worse off" than older generations.
A report by think tank New America and a paper by the Brookings Institution, both released in 2019, seconded a dismal generational wealth gap: Millennials are earning 20% less than baby boomers did at their age and median household wealth was roughly 25% lower for those ages 20 to 35 in 2016 than it was for the same age group in 2007.
But what's often glossed over in the conversation about the generational wealth gap is race — and Black millennials are faring worst of all.
"Like all millennials, Black millennials have to deal with a host of economic challenges," writes Reniqua Allen, a Black writer, for The New Republic. "But though Black millennials have much in common with their white peers, there are important distinctions."
She continued: "In almost all areas of life, the deck is stacked even higher against us, in part due to historical discrimination and in part because of inequities unique to the millennial era."
Black millennial households earn way less
Millennials are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations. That Black Americans are paid less — and thus have less money to build wealth — might partially explain why millennials are so financially behind compared to previous generations.
The median white millennial household earns $60,800 annually and has a net worth of $35,200, per St. Louis Fed data. The median Black millennial household only earns $37,300 annually, with a net worth of $17,000.
Those differences begin with a socioeconomic divide that places Black millennials at a lower rung on the mobility ladder early on. Minority households have typically accumulated less wealth than whites in the past, a gulf that has grown between Blacks and whites over time.
There's also a marked difference in dynastic wealth between races. White millennials are more likely to receive financial help from their parents, propelling social mobility. For Black Americans, sociologist Tom Shapiro tells Mel Jones of The Atlantic, it's often the opposite: Black parents expect their children to provide financial support later on in life.
Black Americans are five times less likely to receive an inheritance than white Americans, Jones reported, citing the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. Even when Black Americans do get an inheritance, white Americans received ten times as much.
Black millennials take on more student debt
Education is seen as a path to upward mobility. But when Black Americans attend college to close the socioeconomic gap, they still end up saddled with more student debt than their white peers.
Black students are more likely to need to take on debt to afford school — 86.6% of Black students borrow federal loans to attend four-year colleges, compared to 59.9% of white students, according to Student Loan Hero.
Black students with bachelor's degrees owe $7,400 more student debt on average upon graduation than white grads. The gap widens over time: After four years, Black grads hold $53,000 in debt — almost twice as much in student debt as their white counterparts.
And post-graduation, they have a harder time finding a job: Black graduates are twice as likely as all other graduates to be unemployed, according to a 2014 survey of Black graduates between the ages of 22 and 27.
Even if they do find a job, there's still an economic gap. Cathy Cohen, political science professor at the University of Chicago and author of a report called "Gen Forward" said in a Marketplace Morning Report podcast that Black millennials — and Hispanic millennials — are less likely to receive employer benefits such as health care, dental care, or retirement matches.
It's no wonder Black millennial households are earning so much less than white millennial households — and it might explain why Black graduates are also nearly five times more likely to default on their loans than their white peers.
Systemic racism has created the racial millennial wealth gap
This racial millennial wealth gap is a product of the systemic racism that has plagued America for the past 400 years. Limited opportunities and economic inequalities for Black Americans have made it difficult for them to progress financially.
Such racial disparities came to a head in 2020, starting with the pandemic. Black Americans are at highest-risk for the virus because they've lacked supportive economic infrastructure, such as health care. And Black millennials in particular were among the minority groups financially hit hardest by job loss when the pandemic first began.
The Black Lives Matter movement, which originated in July 2013, hit full momentum in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, waking America up to the effects of institutionalized racism.
Addressing the struggles of the Black millennial — and Black Americans in general — begins with tackling the root of the problem: racism. And solving racism begins with dismantling America's persistent economic inequality, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said in Time Magazine's TIME 100 Talks series.
"We are going to have to recognize that equity demands that we prioritize the needs and aspirations of those communities who have historically been left out," he said.
Some billionaire philanthropists have pledged solidarity on social media or donated to anti-racist organizations, reported Business Insider's Taylor Rogers. But Evan Spiegel, who pledged to donate part of his $4.1 billion fortune to anti-racist organizations, said philanthropy needs to be accompanied by policy change.
"Private philanthropy can patch holes, or accelerate progress, but it alone cannot cross the deep and wide chasm of injustice," Spiegel wrote. "We must cross that chasm together as a united nation. United in the striving for freedom, equality, and justice for all."
Black millennial households earn about 60% of what their white counterparts make, and it highlights just how much worse the generational wealth gap is along racial lines
Black millennials take on more student debt and have a harder time finding a job post-graduation, only to be paid less than their white peers.
www.businessinsider.com
I imagine he's a cool dude, as long you don't threaten his position of being the only negro in the room.
I still want to know how him and Larry Elder got picked to discuss this instead an economist like Darity or Anderson....
Certain posters magically never make it to these threads, but claim they "Black"
And so the grift begins!!
justthenews.com
Reparations commissioners slated for top federal pay grade that hasn’t existed since 1978
Commissioners — charged with considering a national apology and reparations for slavery — are to be paid under the bill at GS-18 level, the top pay grade for federal workers until passage of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act.
justthenews.com
And so the grift begins!!
Reparations commissioners slated for top federal pay grade that hasn’t existed since 1978
Commissioners — charged with considering a national apology and reparations for slavery — are to be paid under the bill at GS-18 level, the top pay grade for federal workers until passage of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act.
They gon pay themselves to study our reparations.
They gon pay themselves to study our reparations.
The fix is in - and they're BOTH(the right - AND the left) in on it.
Man, just mention reparations and these type negroes come crawling out the wood work...
They are the lowest form of a “professional” in society. And these fools on nBGOL worship them like idols.They gon pay themselves to study our reparations.
a pro-white globalist even made a pinned thread about Jim Crow “Beijing” Biden that is still pinned. Why? Last I checked the selections were over.
Obama didn’t even get a pinned threads months after the selections. nBGOL loves the caveman
Top Organizations Across US Launch NinetyToZero To Combat Racial Wealth Gap
Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Lead Research Partner The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, Robin Hood foundation, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ACLU, McKinsey & Company, Lord Abbett, and Children's Defense Fund join together to combat the racial wealth gap
NEWS PROVIDED BY
NinetyToZero
Apr 06, 2021, 06:30 ET
NEW YORK, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An inaugural group of leading national CEOs and organizations from across business, nonprofit, philanthropy, and academia have come together to combat the racial wealth gap with the launch of NinetyToZero. Driven by the goal to transform the economic landscape that has led to a 90% racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans, NinetyToZero seeks to bring deliberate, collective action to counteract centuries of discrimination, segregation, and financial exploitation -- so that all Americans have the opportunity to thrive. Closing the racial wealth gap could increase the U.S. GDP by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years.
NinetyToZero provides a roadmap for companies and organizations to drive change now and acts as an engine for continued collaborative learning and growth. Partner organizations commit to a set of seven expert-driven, needle-moving actions to advance racial equity by growing Black talent and investing in Black businesses. NinetyToZero also supplies ongoing guidance and research on best practices, in collaboration with lead research partner The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, to drive exponential impact for years to come.
The inaugural NinetyToZero partner companies and organizations who have assembled to meet this challenge include:
"More than 20 years of building our investment in Black communities have taught us that the way to narrow the wealth gap is to widen the door of opportunity," said David M. Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. "We've also learned that while setting long-term goals is helpful, it's in meeting concrete, short-term goals that progress is made, and now, with our incredible partner organizations, we're excited to get to work."
"Every business has a responsibility—and can influence others—to advance racial equity, create opportunities for others and strengthen the communities it serves. Starbucks believes in using our scale for good and we will address the systemic barriers which keep Americans from reaching their full potential. We are committed to continuing our work to pursue greater inclusion, diversity and equity at Starbucks. We support this coalition in our quest to eliminate the racial wealth gap in America," said Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and ceo.
"We have to get comfortable talking about challenging issues like the racial wealth gap," said Erika James, Dean of The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania and Lead NinetyToZero Research Partner. "Data-driven research plays a crucial role in taking the emotion out of difficult conversations and developing solutions to create a more equitable world. We are honored to partner with NinetyToZero on this critically important work. When everyone in our community is able to participate in the economy in meaningful ways, our entire society benefits."
"Closing the racial wealth gap is more than a zero-sum game. When Black families have economic security and agency, everyone benefits," said Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood foundation. "Now is the time to be reflective, bold, and transparent. And we urge and encourage companies and organizations across the country to join us and ensure Black Americans obtain equitable access to wealth, permanently transforming the country's economic landscape for the better."
"The key to narrowing the racial health gap is to narrow the racial wealth gap," said Michelle Williams, Dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "The two go hand in hand, and we will all be the beneficiaries of a more equitable and just society."
"The ACLU has fought racial discrimination in voting and in the criminal justice system, but we also understand that poverty and economic injustice compound the challenges of systemic racism. What we've been doing has been important, but insufficient – and that's true for all American society. That's why we partnered with NinetyToZero to double down and make concrete commitments that will have tangible effects in breaking down the discriminatory systems and closing the racial wealth gap," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "Externally, we are going to grow our southern state offices, where a majority of Black Americans live. We plan to up our game in the South and have the heft and vigor in those states that we do in states like New York or California. We have also called on President Biden to redouble his efforts, lead America through a final reconstruction, and implement a systemic equality agenda for the country. Internally, we will ensure that Black people, businesses and vendors, are hired, promoted, elevated and are more prominent across the organization. Our internal walk has to match our external talk."
"McKinsey is committed to doing our part to ensure that Black lives are spoken for and valued, both inside our firm and beyond," said Liz Hilton Segel, North America Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company. "Recognizing that one company's actions won't be enough to solve this problem, we are pleased to be a founding part of the NinetyToZero coalition to catalyze greater racial equity across the private sector."
"Our society and our economy work best when all its members have the opportunity to succeed," said Doug Sieg, CEO of Lord Abbett. "Lord Abbett is proud to support NinetyToZero in its efforts to find solutions that promote Black wealth and equal opportunity for all."
"Racial wealth inequity is a threat to child well-being and America's future," said The Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson, President and CEO, Children's Defense Fund. "Institutions committed to the promise of Black children and families must push beyond public statements to concrete action to close the wealth gap."
"The racial wealth gap is the most pernicious distillation of systemic racism in our society. For centuries, Black Americans have been persistently denied access to the economy they helped build," said Josh Isay, CEO of SKDK. "It will take collective action to dismantle the deep-rooted oppression that Black Americans have endured for generations. We are proud to be an inaugural member of the NinetyToZero coalition and deepen our work to make our country more equitable and just."
NinetyToZero's actions were developed with key experts and will continue to be guided by an Advisory Council, including:
Advisory Council
SOURCE NinetyToZero
Related Links
http://ninetytozero.org/
Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Lead Research Partner The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, Robin Hood foundation, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ACLU, McKinsey & Company, Lord Abbett, and Children's Defense Fund join together to combat the racial wealth gap
NEWS PROVIDED BY
NinetyToZero
Apr 06, 2021, 06:30 ET
NEW YORK, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An inaugural group of leading national CEOs and organizations from across business, nonprofit, philanthropy, and academia have come together to combat the racial wealth gap with the launch of NinetyToZero. Driven by the goal to transform the economic landscape that has led to a 90% racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans, NinetyToZero seeks to bring deliberate, collective action to counteract centuries of discrimination, segregation, and financial exploitation -- so that all Americans have the opportunity to thrive. Closing the racial wealth gap could increase the U.S. GDP by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years.
NinetyToZero provides a roadmap for companies and organizations to drive change now and acts as an engine for continued collaborative learning and growth. Partner organizations commit to a set of seven expert-driven, needle-moving actions to advance racial equity by growing Black talent and investing in Black businesses. NinetyToZero also supplies ongoing guidance and research on best practices, in collaboration with lead research partner The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, to drive exponential impact for years to come.
The inaugural NinetyToZero partner companies and organizations who have assembled to meet this challenge include:
- ACLU, Anthony Romero, Executive Director
- Children's Defense Fund, The Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson, President and CEO
- Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, CEO and Chairman
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Michelle Williams, Dean
- Lord Abbett, Doug Sieg, CEO
- McKinsey & Company, Liz Hilton Segel, Managing Partner, North America
- Robin Hood foundation, Wes Moore, CEO
- Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, president and ceo
- SKDKnickerbocker, Josh Isay, CEO
- The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, Lead Research Partner, Erika James, Dean
"More than 20 years of building our investment in Black communities have taught us that the way to narrow the wealth gap is to widen the door of opportunity," said David M. Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. "We've also learned that while setting long-term goals is helpful, it's in meeting concrete, short-term goals that progress is made, and now, with our incredible partner organizations, we're excited to get to work."
"Every business has a responsibility—and can influence others—to advance racial equity, create opportunities for others and strengthen the communities it serves. Starbucks believes in using our scale for good and we will address the systemic barriers which keep Americans from reaching their full potential. We are committed to continuing our work to pursue greater inclusion, diversity and equity at Starbucks. We support this coalition in our quest to eliminate the racial wealth gap in America," said Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and ceo.
"We have to get comfortable talking about challenging issues like the racial wealth gap," said Erika James, Dean of The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania and Lead NinetyToZero Research Partner. "Data-driven research plays a crucial role in taking the emotion out of difficult conversations and developing solutions to create a more equitable world. We are honored to partner with NinetyToZero on this critically important work. When everyone in our community is able to participate in the economy in meaningful ways, our entire society benefits."
"Closing the racial wealth gap is more than a zero-sum game. When Black families have economic security and agency, everyone benefits," said Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood foundation. "Now is the time to be reflective, bold, and transparent. And we urge and encourage companies and organizations across the country to join us and ensure Black Americans obtain equitable access to wealth, permanently transforming the country's economic landscape for the better."
"The key to narrowing the racial health gap is to narrow the racial wealth gap," said Michelle Williams, Dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "The two go hand in hand, and we will all be the beneficiaries of a more equitable and just society."
"The ACLU has fought racial discrimination in voting and in the criminal justice system, but we also understand that poverty and economic injustice compound the challenges of systemic racism. What we've been doing has been important, but insufficient – and that's true for all American society. That's why we partnered with NinetyToZero to double down and make concrete commitments that will have tangible effects in breaking down the discriminatory systems and closing the racial wealth gap," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "Externally, we are going to grow our southern state offices, where a majority of Black Americans live. We plan to up our game in the South and have the heft and vigor in those states that we do in states like New York or California. We have also called on President Biden to redouble his efforts, lead America through a final reconstruction, and implement a systemic equality agenda for the country. Internally, we will ensure that Black people, businesses and vendors, are hired, promoted, elevated and are more prominent across the organization. Our internal walk has to match our external talk."
"McKinsey is committed to doing our part to ensure that Black lives are spoken for and valued, both inside our firm and beyond," said Liz Hilton Segel, North America Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company. "Recognizing that one company's actions won't be enough to solve this problem, we are pleased to be a founding part of the NinetyToZero coalition to catalyze greater racial equity across the private sector."
"Our society and our economy work best when all its members have the opportunity to succeed," said Doug Sieg, CEO of Lord Abbett. "Lord Abbett is proud to support NinetyToZero in its efforts to find solutions that promote Black wealth and equal opportunity for all."
"Racial wealth inequity is a threat to child well-being and America's future," said The Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson, President and CEO, Children's Defense Fund. "Institutions committed to the promise of Black children and families must push beyond public statements to concrete action to close the wealth gap."
"The racial wealth gap is the most pernicious distillation of systemic racism in our society. For centuries, Black Americans have been persistently denied access to the economy they helped build," said Josh Isay, CEO of SKDK. "It will take collective action to dismantle the deep-rooted oppression that Black Americans have endured for generations. We are proud to be an inaugural member of the NinetyToZero coalition and deepen our work to make our country more equitable and just."
NinetyToZero's actions were developed with key experts and will continue to be guided by an Advisory Council, including:
Advisory Council
- Mehrsa Baradaran, University of California, Irvine, Law Professor; Author of "The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap"
- Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink, Founder in Residence
- Danielle Bozarth, McKinsey & Company, Senior Partner
- David Clunie, Black Economic Alliance, Executive Director
- Wole Coaxum, MoCaFi, Founder and CEO
- Darrick Hamilton, University Professor, the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy Institute for the Study of Race and Political Economy at The New School, Founding Director
- Anthony Jenkins, Coppin State University, President
- Derrick Johnson, NAACP, President and CEO
- Michael McAfee, PolicyLink, President and CEO
- Wes Moore, Robin Hood, CEO
- Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Co-Founder and Executive Director
- Dan Porterfield, Aspen Institute, President and CEO
- john powell, Othering & Belonging Institute at U.C. Berkeley, Director
- Anne Price, Insight Center, President
- Michelle Williams, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dean
- Establishing internal goals and measuring progress for hiring Black talent.
- Establishing employee resource groups with C-suite equivalent champions.
- Incorporating efforts to promote inclusion into executive accountability.
- Improving access to asset building tools for employees.
- Establishing internal goals and measuring progress for both relationships and money spent with Black-owned businesses.
- Working with Black-owned banks, minority depository institutions, community development financial institutions, or other Black-owned financial institutions.
- Establishing internal goals for investments managed by Black-owned or Black-led asset management companies.
SOURCE NinetyToZero
Related Links
http://ninetytozero.org/
Bill that could lead to slavery reparations proposals may be nearing consideration on House floor
The bill was reintroduced at the beginning of this year after the committee held a high-profile hearing on it in 2019, on Juneteenth, the day many celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Witnesses included actor Danny Glover, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
"As a nation, we have yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country's founding and continues to cause persistent and deep racial disparities and inequality," Booker testified.
He recently re-introduced a resolution for a congressional commission on truth, racial healing and transformation to address systemic racism.
Last month, the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois became the first city in the nation to establish a reparations program. Aimed at redressing past discriminatory housing practices, eligible Black residents can receive up to $25,000 in grants to purchase or repair a home. Reparations initiatives are also being considered in several other cities as well as the state of California.
Rev. Robert Turner of the historic Vernon A.M.E. Church-- the only structure to survive the Tulsa Race Massacre-- says prayers are being answered as momentum is picking up for reparations.
His church is a plaintiff in the recent lawsuit suing the city of Tulsa and other local government entities for the damages suffered from the Massacre when a white mob destroyed the Greenwood District, once known as "Black Wall Street," on May 31st, 1921.
"Being at the eve of the centennial of the 1921 Race Massacre, we welcome H.R 40," Turner told CBS News. "It can help lend further voice to the needs for justice, and as it will happen for the country, it can also happen for Tulsa."
The House bill has 175 sponsors - more than double the number in 2019. It has never advanced out of committee but is expected to this time since Democrats outnumber Republicans on the panel.
"Seeing this type of movement after so many years of being dormant, it's extremely significant and represents a unique time not only socially but politically," said Driesen Heath, a researcher and racial justice advocate at Human Rights Watch, who testified at a sub-committee hearing on the bill earlier this year.
During that hearing, critics charged reparations were counterproductive and divisive.
"Reparation teaches separation," former NFL player Herschel Walker said in an opening statement. "It will only create division with the different races which I feel continue to tell us we are African-American rather than just an American."
Rep. Jackson Lee argues the reparations bill is warranted and hopes it can be voted on by the House by this summer.
While its course could be more difficult in the Senate, the White House has said President Biden supports the study of reparations.
"The timing is great," Jackson Lee told CBS News. "We are now, unfortunately, seemingly going back -- massive voter oppression and suppression with legislation across America, the tragedies against black men as it relates to the encounters in law enforcement certainly needs to be repaired and the disparities in wealth is very stark, even today. The time for H.R. 40 is now."
The "40" in H.R.40 refers to 40 acres and a mule, a broken Civil War-era promise that was made by the government to newly freed slaves after emancipation.
www.cbsnews.com
The bill was reintroduced at the beginning of this year after the committee held a high-profile hearing on it in 2019, on Juneteenth, the day many celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Witnesses included actor Danny Glover, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
"As a nation, we have yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country's founding and continues to cause persistent and deep racial disparities and inequality," Booker testified.
He recently re-introduced a resolution for a congressional commission on truth, racial healing and transformation to address systemic racism.
Last month, the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois became the first city in the nation to establish a reparations program. Aimed at redressing past discriminatory housing practices, eligible Black residents can receive up to $25,000 in grants to purchase or repair a home. Reparations initiatives are also being considered in several other cities as well as the state of California.
Rev. Robert Turner of the historic Vernon A.M.E. Church-- the only structure to survive the Tulsa Race Massacre-- says prayers are being answered as momentum is picking up for reparations.
His church is a plaintiff in the recent lawsuit suing the city of Tulsa and other local government entities for the damages suffered from the Massacre when a white mob destroyed the Greenwood District, once known as "Black Wall Street," on May 31st, 1921.
"Being at the eve of the centennial of the 1921 Race Massacre, we welcome H.R 40," Turner told CBS News. "It can help lend further voice to the needs for justice, and as it will happen for the country, it can also happen for Tulsa."
The House bill has 175 sponsors - more than double the number in 2019. It has never advanced out of committee but is expected to this time since Democrats outnumber Republicans on the panel.
"Seeing this type of movement after so many years of being dormant, it's extremely significant and represents a unique time not only socially but politically," said Driesen Heath, a researcher and racial justice advocate at Human Rights Watch, who testified at a sub-committee hearing on the bill earlier this year.
During that hearing, critics charged reparations were counterproductive and divisive.
"Reparation teaches separation," former NFL player Herschel Walker said in an opening statement. "It will only create division with the different races which I feel continue to tell us we are African-American rather than just an American."
Rep. Jackson Lee argues the reparations bill is warranted and hopes it can be voted on by the House by this summer.
While its course could be more difficult in the Senate, the White House has said President Biden supports the study of reparations.
"The timing is great," Jackson Lee told CBS News. "We are now, unfortunately, seemingly going back -- massive voter oppression and suppression with legislation across America, the tragedies against black men as it relates to the encounters in law enforcement certainly needs to be repaired and the disparities in wealth is very stark, even today. The time for H.R. 40 is now."
The "40" in H.R.40 refers to 40 acres and a mule, a broken Civil War-era promise that was made by the government to newly freed slaves after emancipation.
Bill that could lead to slavery reparations proposals may be nearing consideration on House floor
The House Judiciary Committee plans to prepare and vote on the measure first proposed by the late Congressman John Conyers in 1989.
www.cbsnews.com
We'll seeBill that could lead to slavery reparations proposals may be nearing consideration on House floor
The bill was reintroduced at the beginning of this year after the committee held a high-profile hearing on it in 2019, on Juneteenth, the day many celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Witnesses included actor Danny Glover, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
"As a nation, we have yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country's founding and continues to cause persistent and deep racial disparities and inequality," Booker testified.
He recently re-introduced a resolution for a congressional commission on truth, racial healing and transformation to address systemic racism.
Last month, the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois became the first city in the nation to establish a reparations program. Aimed at redressing past discriminatory housing practices, eligible Black residents can receive up to $25,000 in grants to purchase or repair a home. Reparations initiatives are also being considered in several other cities as well as the state of California.
Rev. Robert Turner of the historic Vernon A.M.E. Church-- the only structure to survive the Tulsa Race Massacre-- says prayers are being answered as momentum is picking up for reparations.
His church is a plaintiff in the recent lawsuit suing the city of Tulsa and other local government entities for the damages suffered from the Massacre when a white mob destroyed the Greenwood District, once known as "Black Wall Street," on May 31st, 1921.
"Being at the eve of the centennial of the 1921 Race Massacre, we welcome H.R 40," Turner told CBS News. "It can help lend further voice to the needs for justice, and as it will happen for the country, it can also happen for Tulsa."
The House bill has 175 sponsors - more than double the number in 2019. It has never advanced out of committee but is expected to this time since Democrats outnumber Republicans on the panel.
"Seeing this type of movement after so many years of being dormant, it's extremely significant and represents a unique time not only socially but politically," said Driesen Heath, a researcher and racial justice advocate at Human Rights Watch, who testified at a sub-committee hearing on the bill earlier this year.
During that hearing, critics charged reparations were counterproductive and divisive.
"Reparation teaches separation," former NFL player Herschel Walker said in an opening statement. "It will only create division with the different races which I feel continue to tell us we are African-American rather than just an American."
Rep. Jackson Lee argues the reparations bill is warranted and hopes it can be voted on by the House by this summer.
While its course could be more difficult in the Senate, the White House has said President Biden supports the study of reparations.
"The timing is great," Jackson Lee told CBS News. "We are now, unfortunately, seemingly going back -- massive voter oppression and suppression with legislation across America, the tragedies against black men as it relates to the encounters in law enforcement certainly needs to be repaired and the disparities in wealth is very stark, even today. The time for H.R. 40 is now."
The "40" in H.R.40 refers to 40 acres and a mule, a broken Civil War-era promise that was made by the government to newly freed slaves after emancipation.
Bill that could lead to slavery reparations proposals may be nearing consideration on House floor
The House Judiciary Committee plans to prepare and vote on the measure first proposed by the late Congressman John Conyers in 1989.
Reparations would shake up American capitalism – and that’s a good thing
Paying compensation to the descendants of slaves would not just right a historic wrong, it would transform the US economy for the better
Aaron White
25 May 2021, 12.00am
When I was a child, I used to visit my Viennese grandmother in the rent-controlled apartment on New York’s Upper West Side that she had been living in for nearly 50 years. I remember the intoxicating smells of sizzling schnitzel and her warm greeting in a thick Austrian accent.
My grandmother escaped the Nazi takeover of Vienna in 1938 underneath a sack of potatoes in the back of a truck. She managed to reach the UK, and later New York, where she joined a community of Austrian and German Jewish refugees.
She never taught her children German and refused to ever set foot on European soil again. She was incapable of watching films on the Holocaust, and never spoke about it with me.
When I was ten years old she passed away. Among my memories, a few stand out. I remember seeing monthly reparations checks on her dining room table for $150 – issued by Germany and disbursed through an Austrian bank. Since 1952, the German government has paid out more than $80bn to victims of the Holocaust.
This money was just a fraction of what had been stolen from her family: apartments, furniture, jewelry, paintings and lives. It wasn’t enough to alter her modest livelihood, but it was a constant acknowledgment that she was owed.
Demands on the streets
Over the past year I’ve spent time talking to many Black Lives Matter activists across the US, asking them what they’re demanding from the new political leadership in Washington. The answer is strikingly consistent: reparations.
One of these activists is Antonio Brown, a 35-year-old Black man who has lived in Louisville, Kentucky for nearly his entire life.
Antonio has been campaigning for justice for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old hospital worker who was killed by Louisville police in March 2020. Like many activists I’ve spoken with, he cites historic examples of reparations that have been paid to other dispossessed communities in the US.
“It’s crazy people these days still don’t believe that we should get reparations. The Indians got them, the Asians got them, but we can’t,” Antonio told me.
In 1946, Congress passed the Indian Claims Commission which disbursed $1.3bn to Native Americans. In 1987, the US government paid $20,000 to each Japanese American who was interned during the Second World War.
Over the past year, the US has witnessed the rise of the largest racial justice movement in its history. Following the recent police killings of Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Adam Toledo, the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t appear to be fading anytime soon.
Although many institutions across civil society have publicly endorsed Black Lives Matter, and the demands for police accountability remain broadly popular, the idea of reparations is met with discomfort amongst the more liberal end of the elite – and a significant majority of the US population.
But in the wake of last summer’s protests and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected non-white communities, support for reparations is gaining momentum.
In a 2002 CNN poll, only 6% of white respondents were in favor of reparations. Yet between 2019 and 2020, white support increased from 23% to 39%.
For young Americans, the policy is even more popular. Polling last month by UMass Amherst suggested that nearly 60% of young Americans aged 18-29 supported reparations.
This increasing support has also entered the political arena. During last year’s Democratic presidential primary, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris endorsed varying forms of reparations policy – while spiritual leader Marianne Williamson campaigned on a $500bn reparations program.
HR 40, a bill that would establish a commission to study reparations, was reintroduced in Congress by Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee with 184 co-sponsors. The bill was approved in committee, and might advance to the floor for a full vote this legislative cycle.
Across the US, local governments from Evanston, Illinois to private institutions such as Georgetown University, have enacted reparations policies. Even Barack Obama, who opposed reparations while in office, recently said they could be “justified”.
At the same time, there continues to be a dearth of serious engagement with the question of what reparations would mean in practice.
Who should pay for reparations? What form should they take? How much would it cost? Who would be eligible? And what would the socio-economic and political implications be?
I’ve been asking people this question for the last month – from Black activists to prominent economists – and it turns out the answer is reasonably simple.
‘What happened to our 40 acres and a mule, fool?’
In 1865, in the wake of the Civil War, General Sherman announced Special Field Order Number 15, which declared that former slaves would be allocated 40 acres and mule in former Confederate land, along 400,000 acres of the south west stretching from South Carolina to northern Florida.
The order read: “The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.”
Many accounts suggest that this promise resulted from a discussion between General Sherman and 20 leaders of the Black community in Savannah, Georgia. Garrison Frazier, a former slave and Baptist minister, told Sherman that “the way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.”
Later that year, however, Lincoln was assassinated. Andrew Johnson, his successor, annulled the order to appease the southern states.
By contrast, just a few years earlier, many white families were granted acres of land by the federal government following the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act. As Kirsten Mullen, the co-author of ‘From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century’ explained to me:
“The Homestead Act was right there in time with the failed promise of 40-acre land grants to the newly emancipated people. So you have white Americans, including recent immigrants receiving 160-acre land grants, and Black people being promised 40 acres but receiving zero.”
Following the brief period of Reconstruction – whereby many former slaves achieved significant political and economic gains – racial exploitation took on a new form.
In order to survive, former slaves had to sell their labor back to the racist society which had enslaved them. They went from being someone’s property to living in desperate poverty. Following decades of terror, discrimination and destitution, large numbers of Black families migrated to Northern cities, in a period that became known as the Great Migration.
Between 1915 and 1930, over six million Black people relocated from the South to the North. In cities such as Detroit, New York and Philadelphia – the Black population more than tripled.
After the Great Depression, and the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New Deal was enacted. Yet Black people were excluded from these regeneration policies through measures such as redlining and racist covenants, whereby Black people were denied government-backed mortgages or the ability to purchase homes in majority-white neighborhoods.
In 1947 Mississippi, only two of 3,200 government-backed mortgages in 13 cities went to Black borrowers.
Black people were also disproportionately affected by post-war policies such as the Federal Highways Act of 1944, which devastated Black urban residential communities.
Even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, racialized social and economic inequality remained pervasive, enforced through predatory debts and the slashing of social welfare programs.
In an analysis of the racial wealth gap over the past 70 years, economists Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick and Ulrike I. Steins reveal that there has been no progress in “reducing income and wealth inequalities between Black and white households over the past 70 years.”
According to the Urban Institute, between 1983 and 2016 the median Black family’s wealth grew from $13,324 to $17,409. Meanwhile, over that same period a typical white family’s wealth grew from $105,369 to $171,000.
Instead, mass incarceration has skyrocketed by 700% since 1970, with Black people imprisoned at five times the rates of white people. And Black people who represent 13% of the general population account for 39% of people experiencing homelessness.
While many white communities may have forgotten Sherman’s promise, Black activists and artists haven’t. From the Commodores’ 1975 song ‘Gimme My Mule’ to 2Pac’s 1999 hit ‘Letter to a President’, and Spike Lee’s production company, ‘40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks’, the pledge has re-emerged in Black popular culture.
Since the 1960s there has been a revitalization of the demand for reparations. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) was founded in 1987 by a consortium of Black leaders; the Movement for Black Lives launched in 2015 following the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice endorses reparations; and the #ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves) online movement has gained momentum in recent years amongst activists and young elected politicians advocating for reparations.
These calls are being echoed on the streets across America. As Carmen Jones, a 24-year-old homeless Black Lives Matter activist who has travelled the country protesting against the police killings of Black people, told me: “Every system has done us bad: healthcare, housing, education, policing, the law.”
“I need a check, my kids need a check. We need checks going back 600 years – y’all can’t pay the ancestors, so you have to pay the descendants.”
Reparations in practice
To find out what reparations might mean in practice, I spoke to William Darity, an economist at Duke University, and his wife Kirsten Mullen, a folklorist, who are co-authors of the book ‘Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century’. I asked them what a comprehensive reparations agenda in the US might look like, starting with the question of who should pay for them.
In contrast to recent reparations delivered by local governments and private institutions, Darity and Mullen assert that the invoice for reparations must go to the federal government, which bears responsibility “for sanctioning, maintaining and enabling slavery, legal segregation, and continued racial inequality”.
From the failure to grant 40 acres and a mule while many white families received Homestead grants, to the exclusion of Black people from the New Deal and GI bill, Darity explained that “it’s federal policy that has created the racial wealth difference that we observe in the US, and so we argue that it’s the federal government that has to close the gap.”
On what scale should reparations be paid, and how much would they cost?
Darity and Mullen consider the racial wealth gap to be the “most robust indicator of the cumulative economic effects of white supremacy in the US.” As a result, they say that reparations should aim to eliminate the racial wealth gap between Black and white families in the US.
According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, the average household wealth gap is around $840,000. Eliminating this gap, and bringing the Black share of wealth into conformity with the Black descendants of US slavery share of the population (13%) would cost around $11 trillion.
What forms should reparations take? For Darity and Mullen, reparations can take several forms including: direct payouts allocated over 10 years, public trust funds that give out grants for asset building projects (such as homeownership, education, self employment, purchase of financial assets), or funds to assist in developing endowments of historically Black colleges and universities.
Direct payments are a critical part of the proposal. As Mullen put it, “we absolutely think that it’s important for both symbolic and substantive reasons for a significant amount of funds to be distributed to Black American descendants of slaves as direct payments or cash payments.”
Mullen emphasized that these payments can be made in less liquid forms, to avoid runaway inflation, and can stretch out over a decade. “For individuals who have not yet reached the age of maturity, those funds could be put into savings accounts, which would slow down these expenditures to some extent”, she said.
Who should be eligible for reparations? For Darity and Mullen, there are two main criteria. The first is that recipients must have at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the US. The second is that recipients must be able to prove that they self identified as 'Black,’ ‘negro’, ‘Afro-American,’ or ‘African-American’ at least twelve years before the enactment of the reparations program.
For many, an obvious question is: ‘can we really afford this?’ As proponents of Modern Monetary Theory, Darity and Mullen believe that the Federal Reserve can easily manage an annual outlay of $1 to $1.5 trillion if directed by Congress without raising taxes.
I asked Darity whether a reparations agenda should be financed not only by public deficit spending, but also through higher taxation rates on the wealthy. He sharply disagreed.
“The question of financing the project is not one that has to be constrained by tax revenue of any type. The combination of the funding for the CARES Acts, for the American Rescue Plan, the response to the Great Recession: all were instances in which the federal government generated very large sums of money overnight, without relying upon additional taxation,” he said.
The only constraint, according to Darity, is inflation. He emphasizes that the inflation risk will be dependent on the extent to which the new resources will stimulate more employment and production within the economy.
“We’re talking about a substantial change in Black American descendants of US slavery’s economic well-being and opportunity,” Mullen said. “An opportunity to purchase a higher amenity home, to send your children to higher quality schools, an opportunity to invest in a business. When they receive something on the order of $840,000 per household, that’s not trivial.”
Breaking American capitalism
Many prominent commentators and economists have endorsed the idea of reparations, but have held back from embracing practical proposals.
Paul Krugman has stated that the policy is “certainly just, but I find it hard to believe it’s going to happen.” David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, has written that “reparations are a drastic policy and hard to execute, but the very act of talking about and designing them heals a wound and opens a new story.”
Ethically it’s the right thing to do, but reparations are not necessarily good economic policy or even practically possible, the argument goes. It would be better to institute universal social welfare programs that disproportionately benefit the descendants of slaves, without the difficult national conversations and impossible targeted bureaucratic procedures.
However as historical precedents have demonstrated, it’s by no means impossible. If reparations are ethically right and economically feasible, then what’s the justification for not implementing them?
A comprehensive reparations agenda would entail a massive transfer of wealth at an unprecedented scale, eliminate vast inequalities, rectify hundreds of years of racialization and exploitation, and perhaps most significantly, shatter the meritocratic mythology of American capitalism: that anyone can make it with enough ambition and hard work.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates explains in ‘The Case for Reparations’, “the idea of reparations is frightening not simply because we might lack the ability to pay. The idea of reparations threatens something much deeper – America’s heritage, history and standing the world.”
Slaves built the White House and the Capitol. And as Darity and Mullen told me, many of the US’s largest financial institutions from Lehman Brothers, to New York Life amassed phenomenal profits lending money to and insuring the slave trade and cotton empire.
The monthly reparations checks that my grandmother received helped her financially, but most importantly they represented Germany’s acknowledgment of the atrocities that occurred under the Nazi regime.
Slavery in the US ended in 1865. But still the US government refuses to acknowledge their culpability by paying reparations to descendants of slaves.
Reparations may well break the foundations of American capitalism. And that’s not a bad thing.
www.opendemocracy.net
Paying compensation to the descendants of slaves would not just right a historic wrong, it would transform the US economy for the better
Aaron White
25 May 2021, 12.00am
When I was a child, I used to visit my Viennese grandmother in the rent-controlled apartment on New York’s Upper West Side that she had been living in for nearly 50 years. I remember the intoxicating smells of sizzling schnitzel and her warm greeting in a thick Austrian accent.
My grandmother escaped the Nazi takeover of Vienna in 1938 underneath a sack of potatoes in the back of a truck. She managed to reach the UK, and later New York, where she joined a community of Austrian and German Jewish refugees.
She never taught her children German and refused to ever set foot on European soil again. She was incapable of watching films on the Holocaust, and never spoke about it with me.
When I was ten years old she passed away. Among my memories, a few stand out. I remember seeing monthly reparations checks on her dining room table for $150 – issued by Germany and disbursed through an Austrian bank. Since 1952, the German government has paid out more than $80bn to victims of the Holocaust.
This money was just a fraction of what had been stolen from her family: apartments, furniture, jewelry, paintings and lives. It wasn’t enough to alter her modest livelihood, but it was a constant acknowledgment that she was owed.
Demands on the streets
Over the past year I’ve spent time talking to many Black Lives Matter activists across the US, asking them what they’re demanding from the new political leadership in Washington. The answer is strikingly consistent: reparations.
One of these activists is Antonio Brown, a 35-year-old Black man who has lived in Louisville, Kentucky for nearly his entire life.
Antonio has been campaigning for justice for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old hospital worker who was killed by Louisville police in March 2020. Like many activists I’ve spoken with, he cites historic examples of reparations that have been paid to other dispossessed communities in the US.
“It’s crazy people these days still don’t believe that we should get reparations. The Indians got them, the Asians got them, but we can’t,” Antonio told me.
In 1946, Congress passed the Indian Claims Commission which disbursed $1.3bn to Native Americans. In 1987, the US government paid $20,000 to each Japanese American who was interned during the Second World War.
Over the past year, the US has witnessed the rise of the largest racial justice movement in its history. Following the recent police killings of Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Adam Toledo, the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t appear to be fading anytime soon.
Although many institutions across civil society have publicly endorsed Black Lives Matter, and the demands for police accountability remain broadly popular, the idea of reparations is met with discomfort amongst the more liberal end of the elite – and a significant majority of the US population.
But in the wake of last summer’s protests and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected non-white communities, support for reparations is gaining momentum.
In a 2002 CNN poll, only 6% of white respondents were in favor of reparations. Yet between 2019 and 2020, white support increased from 23% to 39%.
For young Americans, the policy is even more popular. Polling last month by UMass Amherst suggested that nearly 60% of young Americans aged 18-29 supported reparations.
This increasing support has also entered the political arena. During last year’s Democratic presidential primary, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris endorsed varying forms of reparations policy – while spiritual leader Marianne Williamson campaigned on a $500bn reparations program.
HR 40, a bill that would establish a commission to study reparations, was reintroduced in Congress by Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee with 184 co-sponsors. The bill was approved in committee, and might advance to the floor for a full vote this legislative cycle.
Across the US, local governments from Evanston, Illinois to private institutions such as Georgetown University, have enacted reparations policies. Even Barack Obama, who opposed reparations while in office, recently said they could be “justified”.
At the same time, there continues to be a dearth of serious engagement with the question of what reparations would mean in practice.
Who should pay for reparations? What form should they take? How much would it cost? Who would be eligible? And what would the socio-economic and political implications be?
I’ve been asking people this question for the last month – from Black activists to prominent economists – and it turns out the answer is reasonably simple.
‘What happened to our 40 acres and a mule, fool?’
In 1865, in the wake of the Civil War, General Sherman announced Special Field Order Number 15, which declared that former slaves would be allocated 40 acres and mule in former Confederate land, along 400,000 acres of the south west stretching from South Carolina to northern Florida.
The order read: “The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.”
Many accounts suggest that this promise resulted from a discussion between General Sherman and 20 leaders of the Black community in Savannah, Georgia. Garrison Frazier, a former slave and Baptist minister, told Sherman that “the way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.”
Later that year, however, Lincoln was assassinated. Andrew Johnson, his successor, annulled the order to appease the southern states.
By contrast, just a few years earlier, many white families were granted acres of land by the federal government following the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act. As Kirsten Mullen, the co-author of ‘From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century’ explained to me:
“The Homestead Act was right there in time with the failed promise of 40-acre land grants to the newly emancipated people. So you have white Americans, including recent immigrants receiving 160-acre land grants, and Black people being promised 40 acres but receiving zero.”
Following the brief period of Reconstruction – whereby many former slaves achieved significant political and economic gains – racial exploitation took on a new form.
In order to survive, former slaves had to sell their labor back to the racist society which had enslaved them. They went from being someone’s property to living in desperate poverty. Following decades of terror, discrimination and destitution, large numbers of Black families migrated to Northern cities, in a period that became known as the Great Migration.
Between 1915 and 1930, over six million Black people relocated from the South to the North. In cities such as Detroit, New York and Philadelphia – the Black population more than tripled.
After the Great Depression, and the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New Deal was enacted. Yet Black people were excluded from these regeneration policies through measures such as redlining and racist covenants, whereby Black people were denied government-backed mortgages or the ability to purchase homes in majority-white neighborhoods.
In 1947 Mississippi, only two of 3,200 government-backed mortgages in 13 cities went to Black borrowers.
Black people were also disproportionately affected by post-war policies such as the Federal Highways Act of 1944, which devastated Black urban residential communities.
Even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, racialized social and economic inequality remained pervasive, enforced through predatory debts and the slashing of social welfare programs.
In an analysis of the racial wealth gap over the past 70 years, economists Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick and Ulrike I. Steins reveal that there has been no progress in “reducing income and wealth inequalities between Black and white households over the past 70 years.”
According to the Urban Institute, between 1983 and 2016 the median Black family’s wealth grew from $13,324 to $17,409. Meanwhile, over that same period a typical white family’s wealth grew from $105,369 to $171,000.
Instead, mass incarceration has skyrocketed by 700% since 1970, with Black people imprisoned at five times the rates of white people. And Black people who represent 13% of the general population account for 39% of people experiencing homelessness.
While many white communities may have forgotten Sherman’s promise, Black activists and artists haven’t. From the Commodores’ 1975 song ‘Gimme My Mule’ to 2Pac’s 1999 hit ‘Letter to a President’, and Spike Lee’s production company, ‘40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks’, the pledge has re-emerged in Black popular culture.
Since the 1960s there has been a revitalization of the demand for reparations. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) was founded in 1987 by a consortium of Black leaders; the Movement for Black Lives launched in 2015 following the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice endorses reparations; and the #ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves) online movement has gained momentum in recent years amongst activists and young elected politicians advocating for reparations.
These calls are being echoed on the streets across America. As Carmen Jones, a 24-year-old homeless Black Lives Matter activist who has travelled the country protesting against the police killings of Black people, told me: “Every system has done us bad: healthcare, housing, education, policing, the law.”
“I need a check, my kids need a check. We need checks going back 600 years – y’all can’t pay the ancestors, so you have to pay the descendants.”
Reparations in practice
To find out what reparations might mean in practice, I spoke to William Darity, an economist at Duke University, and his wife Kirsten Mullen, a folklorist, who are co-authors of the book ‘Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century’. I asked them what a comprehensive reparations agenda in the US might look like, starting with the question of who should pay for them.
In contrast to recent reparations delivered by local governments and private institutions, Darity and Mullen assert that the invoice for reparations must go to the federal government, which bears responsibility “for sanctioning, maintaining and enabling slavery, legal segregation, and continued racial inequality”.
From the failure to grant 40 acres and a mule while many white families received Homestead grants, to the exclusion of Black people from the New Deal and GI bill, Darity explained that “it’s federal policy that has created the racial wealth difference that we observe in the US, and so we argue that it’s the federal government that has to close the gap.”
On what scale should reparations be paid, and how much would they cost?
Darity and Mullen consider the racial wealth gap to be the “most robust indicator of the cumulative economic effects of white supremacy in the US.” As a result, they say that reparations should aim to eliminate the racial wealth gap between Black and white families in the US.
According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, the average household wealth gap is around $840,000. Eliminating this gap, and bringing the Black share of wealth into conformity with the Black descendants of US slavery share of the population (13%) would cost around $11 trillion.
What forms should reparations take? For Darity and Mullen, reparations can take several forms including: direct payouts allocated over 10 years, public trust funds that give out grants for asset building projects (such as homeownership, education, self employment, purchase of financial assets), or funds to assist in developing endowments of historically Black colleges and universities.
Direct payments are a critical part of the proposal. As Mullen put it, “we absolutely think that it’s important for both symbolic and substantive reasons for a significant amount of funds to be distributed to Black American descendants of slaves as direct payments or cash payments.”
Mullen emphasized that these payments can be made in less liquid forms, to avoid runaway inflation, and can stretch out over a decade. “For individuals who have not yet reached the age of maturity, those funds could be put into savings accounts, which would slow down these expenditures to some extent”, she said.
Who should be eligible for reparations? For Darity and Mullen, there are two main criteria. The first is that recipients must have at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the US. The second is that recipients must be able to prove that they self identified as 'Black,’ ‘negro’, ‘Afro-American,’ or ‘African-American’ at least twelve years before the enactment of the reparations program.
For many, an obvious question is: ‘can we really afford this?’ As proponents of Modern Monetary Theory, Darity and Mullen believe that the Federal Reserve can easily manage an annual outlay of $1 to $1.5 trillion if directed by Congress without raising taxes.
I asked Darity whether a reparations agenda should be financed not only by public deficit spending, but also through higher taxation rates on the wealthy. He sharply disagreed.
“The question of financing the project is not one that has to be constrained by tax revenue of any type. The combination of the funding for the CARES Acts, for the American Rescue Plan, the response to the Great Recession: all were instances in which the federal government generated very large sums of money overnight, without relying upon additional taxation,” he said.
The only constraint, according to Darity, is inflation. He emphasizes that the inflation risk will be dependent on the extent to which the new resources will stimulate more employment and production within the economy.
“We’re talking about a substantial change in Black American descendants of US slavery’s economic well-being and opportunity,” Mullen said. “An opportunity to purchase a higher amenity home, to send your children to higher quality schools, an opportunity to invest in a business. When they receive something on the order of $840,000 per household, that’s not trivial.”
Breaking American capitalism
Many prominent commentators and economists have endorsed the idea of reparations, but have held back from embracing practical proposals.
Paul Krugman has stated that the policy is “certainly just, but I find it hard to believe it’s going to happen.” David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, has written that “reparations are a drastic policy and hard to execute, but the very act of talking about and designing them heals a wound and opens a new story.”
Ethically it’s the right thing to do, but reparations are not necessarily good economic policy or even practically possible, the argument goes. It would be better to institute universal social welfare programs that disproportionately benefit the descendants of slaves, without the difficult national conversations and impossible targeted bureaucratic procedures.
However as historical precedents have demonstrated, it’s by no means impossible. If reparations are ethically right and economically feasible, then what’s the justification for not implementing them?
A comprehensive reparations agenda would entail a massive transfer of wealth at an unprecedented scale, eliminate vast inequalities, rectify hundreds of years of racialization and exploitation, and perhaps most significantly, shatter the meritocratic mythology of American capitalism: that anyone can make it with enough ambition and hard work.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates explains in ‘The Case for Reparations’, “the idea of reparations is frightening not simply because we might lack the ability to pay. The idea of reparations threatens something much deeper – America’s heritage, history and standing the world.”
Slaves built the White House and the Capitol. And as Darity and Mullen told me, many of the US’s largest financial institutions from Lehman Brothers, to New York Life amassed phenomenal profits lending money to and insuring the slave trade and cotton empire.
The monthly reparations checks that my grandmother received helped her financially, but most importantly they represented Germany’s acknowledgment of the atrocities that occurred under the Nazi regime.
Slavery in the US ended in 1865. But still the US government refuses to acknowledge their culpability by paying reparations to descendants of slaves.
Reparations may well break the foundations of American capitalism. And that’s not a bad thing.
Reparations would shake up American capitalism – and that’s a good thing
Paying compensation to the descendants of slaves would not just right a historic wrong, it would transform the US economy for the better
www.opendemocracy.net
Long shadows: The Black-white gap in multigenerational poverty
Issues of Black-white inequality and racial injustice have taken center stage over the past year to a degree not seen for a generation. These issues cover a wide range of topics, touching on policing and criminal justice, labor market discrimination, gaps in educational opportunity, social capital inequalities, and the racial wealth gap.
Understanding the ways in which these inequalities have been reproduced across generations is an important first step in creating a more equitable society where upward social mobility and economic opportunities are accessible to all. In our new paper, “Long Shadows: The Black-White Gap in Multigenerational Poverty,” we take a multigenerational perspective on economic inequality by race, showing the persistence of unequal economic opportunity for Black Americans across time. Recent work has highlighted stark disparities in social mobility across two generations for Black and white Americans, but we know relatively little about Black-white gaps in the experience of multigenerational mobility and poverty across more than two generations.
We estimate the Black-white gap in multigenerational poverty across three generations using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), which began tracking families in 1968. The PSID allows us to link the incomes of adults today in their 30s with the incomes of their parents and—dating back to the Civil Rights Era—their grandparents. For each generation, we define “poverty” as being in the bottom quintile of the income distribution. Our headline finding is that three-generation poverty is over 16 times higher among Black adults than white adults (21.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). In other words, one in five Black Americans are experiencing poverty for the third generation in a row, compared to just one in a hundred white Americans.
BLACK FAMILIES EXPERIENCE HIGHER RATES OF POVERTY, LESS UPWARD MOBILITY, AND MORE DOWNWARD MOBILITY
There are three mechanisms that could potentially give rise to racial gaps in poverty across multiple generations. First, if the initial poverty rates of earlier generations are sufficiently large, then even if Black and white Americans escape poverty at similar rates, Black poverty would remain more common over time. Second, even if Black Americans did not have higher poverty rates in earlier generations, racial gaps in poverty might persist or widen if Black upward mobility out of poverty is lower than mobility among white Americans. Third, even if Black Americans did not have higher initial poverty rates or less upward mobility, racial gaps might show up if downward mobility rates into poverty are higher for Blacks than for whites. In our analysis, we find that all three factors contribute to today’s income gap; Black Americans experience higher initial poverty rates, less upward mobility, and more downward mobility.
We first observe the income earned by the grandparents of today’s adults around 1970. While only nine percent of today’s white adults in their 30s had a grandparent in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, that was true of 59 percent of today’s Black adults in their 30s. Put another way, of today’s Black and white adults in their 30s, two-thirds (65 percent) of those with a poor grandparent are Black. Clearly, then, initial poverty rates are higher for Black families. If we go back just one generation instead of two and observe the incomes of the parents of today’s adults, we find a similar picture. Among Black adults today, 55 percent had parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, compared with just 12 percent of white adults.
But Black families are not only more concentrated at the bottom of the income distribution; they are also less likely to experience upward mobility out of the bottom quintile. Conditional on being raised by a grandparent in the bottom fifth, 66 percent of white parents escaped the bottom fifth as adults. That is only true of 37 percent of Black parents. Among today’s adults in their 30s raised in the bottom fifth, 56 percent of whites and only 42 percent of Blacks have risen out of the bottom.
On top of that, Black adults who were not raised in the bottom fifth are much more likely to fall into poverty than white adults. Among the parents of today’s adults that were raised in the middle fifth of the income distribution, half of Black parents (51 percent) fell into the bottom fifth, compared with just 14 percent of white parents. For today’s adults raised in the middle fifth, a third (33 percent) of Blacks and 13 percent of whites are now in poverty.
THREE GENERATIONS OF POVERTY IS ALMOST UNIQUELY A BLACK EXPERIENCE
For the last two generations, we see higher starting poverty rates, lower upward mobility rates, and higher downward mobility rates for Black families. When we put these findings together, we see stark racial divides in the persistence of multigenerational poverty. Figure 1 shows the percent of Black and white families who experience poverty across one, two, and three generations. In the most recent generation, 42 percent of Black adults in our sample live in poverty compared to 15 percent of white adults. Just five percent of white adults were in the bottom fifth after having parents in the bottom fifth, but that was true of 32 percent of Black adults. Across three generations, just 1.2 percent of white adults, or around one in a hundred, were in the bottom fifth after having grown up with parents and grandparents in the bottom fifth as well. The rate for Black adults, however, is considerably higher, at 21.3 percent.
In other words, experiencing poverty for three generations straight is almost uniquely a Black experience. Black adults in their 30s are over 16 times more likely than white adults to be in the third generation of poverty in a row. In fact, Black Americans are 41 percent more likely to be in third-generation poverty than white Americans are to be poor.
Of those Black and white Americans who experience one, two, and three generations of poverty, Figure 2 shows what share are Black. Once again, the findings are stark. Black Americans make up 44 percent of those experiencing one generation of poverty (even though poverty rates are higher among Black families, they make up a smaller share of the overall population). For two and three generations of poverty, the shares rise to 64 and 83 percent, respectively.
We find that half of Black adults in the bottom fifth today (51 percent) had both a parent and a grandparent in the bottom fifth, but only eight percent of white adults in the bottom fifth had poor parents and grandparents. Multigenerational analyses help us form a more complete picture of the inequalities we see today. By just comparing differences in Black and white income levels today, or mobility rates across just one generation, we understate the extent of racial inequality and obscure the socioeconomic context that gave rise to those gaps.
MOBILITY POLICY MUST FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK AMERICANS
These descriptive results put the differences in opportunities that Black and white Americans have experienced front and center. These trends are indicative of societal barriers that have persistently inhibited Black upward mobility. While increasing mobility for all is a laudable and broadly popular goal, our results point to the need to focus specifically on Black mobility, or its absence, in the formulation of policy.
www.brookings.edu
Issues of Black-white inequality and racial injustice have taken center stage over the past year to a degree not seen for a generation. These issues cover a wide range of topics, touching on policing and criminal justice, labor market discrimination, gaps in educational opportunity, social capital inequalities, and the racial wealth gap.
Understanding the ways in which these inequalities have been reproduced across generations is an important first step in creating a more equitable society where upward social mobility and economic opportunities are accessible to all. In our new paper, “Long Shadows: The Black-White Gap in Multigenerational Poverty,” we take a multigenerational perspective on economic inequality by race, showing the persistence of unequal economic opportunity for Black Americans across time. Recent work has highlighted stark disparities in social mobility across two generations for Black and white Americans, but we know relatively little about Black-white gaps in the experience of multigenerational mobility and poverty across more than two generations.
We estimate the Black-white gap in multigenerational poverty across three generations using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), which began tracking families in 1968. The PSID allows us to link the incomes of adults today in their 30s with the incomes of their parents and—dating back to the Civil Rights Era—their grandparents. For each generation, we define “poverty” as being in the bottom quintile of the income distribution. Our headline finding is that three-generation poverty is over 16 times higher among Black adults than white adults (21.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). In other words, one in five Black Americans are experiencing poverty for the third generation in a row, compared to just one in a hundred white Americans.
BLACK FAMILIES EXPERIENCE HIGHER RATES OF POVERTY, LESS UPWARD MOBILITY, AND MORE DOWNWARD MOBILITY
There are three mechanisms that could potentially give rise to racial gaps in poverty across multiple generations. First, if the initial poverty rates of earlier generations are sufficiently large, then even if Black and white Americans escape poverty at similar rates, Black poverty would remain more common over time. Second, even if Black Americans did not have higher poverty rates in earlier generations, racial gaps in poverty might persist or widen if Black upward mobility out of poverty is lower than mobility among white Americans. Third, even if Black Americans did not have higher initial poverty rates or less upward mobility, racial gaps might show up if downward mobility rates into poverty are higher for Blacks than for whites. In our analysis, we find that all three factors contribute to today’s income gap; Black Americans experience higher initial poverty rates, less upward mobility, and more downward mobility.
We first observe the income earned by the grandparents of today’s adults around 1970. While only nine percent of today’s white adults in their 30s had a grandparent in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, that was true of 59 percent of today’s Black adults in their 30s. Put another way, of today’s Black and white adults in their 30s, two-thirds (65 percent) of those with a poor grandparent are Black. Clearly, then, initial poverty rates are higher for Black families. If we go back just one generation instead of two and observe the incomes of the parents of today’s adults, we find a similar picture. Among Black adults today, 55 percent had parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, compared with just 12 percent of white adults.
But Black families are not only more concentrated at the bottom of the income distribution; they are also less likely to experience upward mobility out of the bottom quintile. Conditional on being raised by a grandparent in the bottom fifth, 66 percent of white parents escaped the bottom fifth as adults. That is only true of 37 percent of Black parents. Among today’s adults in their 30s raised in the bottom fifth, 56 percent of whites and only 42 percent of Blacks have risen out of the bottom.
On top of that, Black adults who were not raised in the bottom fifth are much more likely to fall into poverty than white adults. Among the parents of today’s adults that were raised in the middle fifth of the income distribution, half of Black parents (51 percent) fell into the bottom fifth, compared with just 14 percent of white parents. For today’s adults raised in the middle fifth, a third (33 percent) of Blacks and 13 percent of whites are now in poverty.
THREE GENERATIONS OF POVERTY IS ALMOST UNIQUELY A BLACK EXPERIENCE
For the last two generations, we see higher starting poverty rates, lower upward mobility rates, and higher downward mobility rates for Black families. When we put these findings together, we see stark racial divides in the persistence of multigenerational poverty. Figure 1 shows the percent of Black and white families who experience poverty across one, two, and three generations. In the most recent generation, 42 percent of Black adults in our sample live in poverty compared to 15 percent of white adults. Just five percent of white adults were in the bottom fifth after having parents in the bottom fifth, but that was true of 32 percent of Black adults. Across three generations, just 1.2 percent of white adults, or around one in a hundred, were in the bottom fifth after having grown up with parents and grandparents in the bottom fifth as well. The rate for Black adults, however, is considerably higher, at 21.3 percent.
In other words, experiencing poverty for three generations straight is almost uniquely a Black experience. Black adults in their 30s are over 16 times more likely than white adults to be in the third generation of poverty in a row. In fact, Black Americans are 41 percent more likely to be in third-generation poverty than white Americans are to be poor.
Of those Black and white Americans who experience one, two, and three generations of poverty, Figure 2 shows what share are Black. Once again, the findings are stark. Black Americans make up 44 percent of those experiencing one generation of poverty (even though poverty rates are higher among Black families, they make up a smaller share of the overall population). For two and three generations of poverty, the shares rise to 64 and 83 percent, respectively.
We find that half of Black adults in the bottom fifth today (51 percent) had both a parent and a grandparent in the bottom fifth, but only eight percent of white adults in the bottom fifth had poor parents and grandparents. Multigenerational analyses help us form a more complete picture of the inequalities we see today. By just comparing differences in Black and white income levels today, or mobility rates across just one generation, we understate the extent of racial inequality and obscure the socioeconomic context that gave rise to those gaps.
MOBILITY POLICY MUST FOCUS ON OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK AMERICANS
These descriptive results put the differences in opportunities that Black and white Americans have experienced front and center. These trends are indicative of societal barriers that have persistently inhibited Black upward mobility. While increasing mobility for all is a laudable and broadly popular goal, our results point to the need to focus specifically on Black mobility, or its absence, in the formulation of policy.
The authors did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. They are currently not an officer, director, or board member of any organization with an interest in this article.
Long shadows: The Black-white gap in multigenerational poverty | Brookings
A multigenerational analysis finds that three generations of poverty is almost uniquely a Black experience. While increasing mobility for all is a laudable and broadly popular goal, the results point to the need to focus specifically on Black mobility, or its absence, in the formulation of policy.
www.brookings.edu
Tracking Homeownership Wealth Gaps
This data tool and accompanying report explore cities’ aggregate housing wealth to uncover the drivers of racial and ethnic housing gaps.
Ill say this and Ill keep saying it, this corporation, europe and rome and the rest of their corporations dont have ENOUGH money to repay the copper color people of this colony!! Money isnt enough, we want our LAND and all our RESOURCES back!!! I forgot, these pilgrims wouldnt give us money and then the next day say were going to a different form of money!! Because they love us so damn much,, HUH??? Always remember, everything you think they wont do!! Is everything they will do!!!
@VAiz4hustlaz have you listening to any of the Twitter spaces that they held on reparations these last few weeks?
I have not. Generally speaking, I hate those live Clubhouse and Twitter discussions. But have there been any of note that you can recommend?
Tariq Nasheed is killing his rooms when they try to get slick and talk shit.
On a more national level, USA today had one that was a total farce. Really disgusting and led by people who want hugs from the govt in place of monetary benefits.
Hear ya go
Thanks. I'll give this a listen, or at least as much as I can take. If it's as bad as you say, "...a total farce. Really disgusting and led by people who want hugs from the govt in place of monetary benefits...." I can come to BGOL for that kind of shit!
Thanks. I'll give this a listen, or at least as much as I can take. If it's as bad as you say, "...a total farce. Really disgusting and led by people who want hugs from the govt in place of monetary benefits...." I can come to BGOL for that kind of shit!
That’s why I’m against the pro-whites and grifters. They want that pat on the head for approval so bad they are willing to throw away any leverage. It is a sick relationship, like Eddie Brock and Venom but the Neanderthal has taken everything from us.
