The vice president released a plan to help Black men financially, held interviews with two Black media outlets and put out targeted ads in battleground states.
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Ms. Harris’s plan calls for providing one million loans that would forgive up to $20,000 for Black entrepreneurs and people of other races to start a business, in an effort to close the capital gap that Black people often face.
The plan calls for expanding access to affordable banking options that will allow Black men and others to tap into more capital that they often cannot access because of high fees and other barriers. The plan also promises to devise a regulatory framework for protecting cryptocurrency assets, which more than 20 percent of Black Americans own or have owned.
So reparations or bust? Completely disregard any other (actually achievable) benefit while chasing that golden goose? I understand the frustration, but unfortunately you have to take things one step at a time in modern day politics.
No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying they should push on reparations even if it’s an uphill battle in congress. Other things are appreciated, but without reparations there is no justice. It’s just patchwork.
So they are both relevant for justice but address different aspects of the wrongs that have been made.
Reparations address the historical wrongs brought on by slavery, kidnapping, etc. Even if things were otherwise perfect today and MLK's dream fully came true, this would still be something needing to be addressed.
But today we still have systematic and institutional racism. So the injustices are currently being compounded upon. The current measures Harris is promising addresses this aspect, but not the former. We need both and shouldn't settle for less - but that means we should support this too.
I'm not a big fan of the idea of reparations. The generational harm seems too great to fix with money. Besides, once there are any payments at all, you will get losers who claim that racism is over, because we paid it off.
I don't believe reparations are politically possible right now, but "we can't fix the problem so we shouldn't even try" just doesn't feel like the right move here.
Seems like the current plan is to just wipe out all generational wealth instead, for every ancestry. We've given up on a rising tide lifting all boats and instead we're draining the harbor.