Eleven U.S. Mayors Call For Paying Reparations In Their Cities
But have no idea how the money will be paid: “Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own”
The Democrat mayors of 11 U.S. cities have agreed to set up some sort of reparations payment for (some?) black residents of their cities. Apparently, that’s as far as the plan has gone, however, as there is no report on who will pay, who will be paid, how these two things will be determined, or pretty much anything else.
The 11 mayors, who are shilling their plan as Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), are:
Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, California
Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado
Tishaura Jones of St. Louis, Missouri
Jorge Elorza of Providence, Rhode Island
Steve Adler of Austin, Texas
Steve Schewel of Durham, North Carolina
Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina
Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri
Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, California
Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota
Keisha Currin of Tullahassee, Oklahoma
Eleven U.S. mayors — from Los Angeles to tiny Tullahassee, Oklahoma — have pledged to pay reparations for slavery to a small group of Black residents in their cities, saying their aim is to set an example for the federal government on how a nationwide program could work.
The mayors had no details on how much it would cost, who would pay for it or how people would be chosen. All of those details would be worked out with the help of local commissions comprised of representatives from Black-led organizations set up to advise the mayor of each city. But the mayors say they are committed to paying reparations instead of just talking about them.
“Black Americans don’t need another study that sits on a shelf,” said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s first Black female mayor and a member of the group. “We need decisive action to address the racial wealth gap holding communities back across our country.”
Tullahassee — a small town of fewer than 200 people in northeast Oklahoma — is the oldest of the surviving all-Black towns in the states that were founded after the U.S. abolished slavery. Many of the first Black people to live there had been enslaved by Native American tribes that had allied with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
I’m guessing that descendants of these Native American slave holders will not be expected to chip in for their part in “systemic racism” and “white supremacy,” but color me cynical.
Honestly, I would be fine with cities choosing to pay reparations if the mayors and their cities’ voters are on board and want to do it. However, the stated goal of the program and announcement is to put pressure on the U.S. government to redistribute wealth on the basis of race.
WPRI continues:
This group of mayors, dubbed Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), is led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. Their stated goal is for these reparations programs to “serve as high-profile demonstrations for how the country can more quickly move from conversation to action on reparations for Black Americans,” according to the group’s website.
“Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” Garcetti said during a news conference on Friday to announce the group. “When we have the laboratories of cities show that there is much more to embrace than to fear, we know that we can inspire national action as well.”
If it’s true—and it is—that these 11 cities “will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” what’s the point?
Essentially,this MORE venture is little more than virtue signalling with the goal of “inspiring” and “nudging” the federal government to step in and lavish taxpayer dollars on a national reparations scheme.
For some reason that I have never been able to fathom, Democrats can’t seem to grasp that if “cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations” on a small scale, then the federal government surely doesn’t and will never have the funds on a far larger scale.
This is in the same vein of the infamous Obama-era “Solyndra logic” that went something like this: sure, we’re losing money on every unit sold, but we’ll make it up in bulk!
Setting aside the many compelling arguments against reparations, there is one glaring problem here. If Garcetti’s Los Angeles, one of the largest and wealthiest cities in America with a gross metropolitan product of $1 trillion, can “never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own” for only its own city’s qualifying black residents, there is no way on earth the entire U.S. can do so.
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Taking money from people who never owned a slave to give to people who never were a slave. This sounds fair.
Yeah. And let these mayors PERSONALLY chip in.
Enough of these psychos.
It sounds like they are demanding that we give them everything they have coming. That will be staggering.
They can do it with their own money.
It would never be enough and it would never end the anger or hate against whites who never did anything to them.
It’s not about ‘enough’ – it’s about ongoing ‘protection’ money, much of which will surely make it back to these hacks:
Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, California
Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado
Tishaura Jones of St. Louis, Missouri
Jorge Elorza of Providence, Rhode Island
Steve Adler of Austin, Texas
Steve Schewel of Durham, North Carolina
Esther Manheimer of Asheville, North Carolina
Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri
Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, California
Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota
Keisha Currin of Tullahassee, Oklahoma
Payouts hoping to keep BLM happy or stoking the CRT fire some more?
Stoking the fire.
Danegeld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danegeld
I thought I heard that term before.
TY… I never heard it before.. but I really like it… Danegeld… yup..
There is only one way to get rid of Danegeld, and it is most untidy.
Subotai Bahadur
The scramble for determining who is and is not the most deserving or least deserving among the wider audience is going to be entertaining. I predict lots of ‘sharp elbows’ being thrown.
Then there is the disappointment factor as folks figure out that there isn’t a payout in the near future, just more empty rhetoric and failed promises.
I’m gonna have fun just watching the show.
Austin Tx lol don’t make me laugh
Does Kamala Harris have to pay herself? Since her family owned slaves and she’s sorta almost considered black.
Her “family” only owned slaves in the same sense that most black Americans’ “families” owned slaves. I.e. their white ancestors owned their black ones!
no, her legitimate family were plantation owners in Jamaica.
and Obamas legitimate family owned slaves here
BS to both claims. Her Jamaican family is black; they came there as slaves. Have you seen a picture of her father? That a plantation owner is among her ancestors is not at all surprising or unusual for the descendants of slaves.
BS to both claims. Her Jamaican family is black; they came there as slaves. Have you seen a picture of her father? That a plantation owner is among her ancestors is not at all surprising or unusual for the descendants of slaves.
And who in 0bama’s American ancestry owned slaves? You have to go very far back to find one. It’s far more likely that one or more of his African ancestors owned slaves, a lot more recently.
You keep telling this untruth. Kamala’s direct non-white ancestors owned slaves.
No, they did not. Name one.
A simpler formulation would be to divide the periods of history for which reparations might be relevant:
1. Slavery era / pre 13th ammendment
2. Post 13th Amendment to end of reconstruction
3. End of reconstruction to Eisenhower administration; incorporates Truman Military desegregation, Brown v Board and integration in Little Rock
4. Little Rock to Civil rights act of 1964
5. Post 1964
Presumably ‘reparations’ are tied to historical harm and these periods correlate to eras of lessening harm. If one was impacted by one or more periods personally then they have higher harm so more reparations.
Same for indirect harm via family though that is likely going to be sticky in many cases.
Harris is of Indian and Jamaican Decent. Bother parents held PHD, father taught at Stanford. Both were immigrants and had no ties to the earlier eras.
Harris herself was born in 1964. So she has very little personal claim to harm. If she did, her claims could have been pursued in CT.
So Harris herself, much like Obama has only a tenuous relationship with the wider historical context of harms upon which reparations might be based.
Off course if reparations are focused exclusively on ‘black America’ then that eliminates the clear history of discrimination, exploitation and oppression of Asians, Latino and poor ‘whites’ aka crackers/Red neck/mountain people/Hoosiers ECT.
To ignore the facts of our historical class based system of discrimination, exploitation and oppression takes a good deal of wind from the sails of reparations. IMO
Ka-mal-a is not black. She is a Hindu.
Wrong. She is exactly as black as 0bama.
Considering all the insanity coming out of the left – and lunatics from Yale in particular – Yale University has published the “Communist Manifesto”
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300123029/communist-manifesto
This really isn’t remarkable. Many college-allied presses reprint public domain classics.
The USSR may have imploded but it looks like the USA might explode. Communism never goes away. It just waits, changes time period and comes back with different people. These different people today are called Democrats in America, other names in other countries.
How many White Americans are descended from Europeans who were enslaved by Barbary Pirates who are the ancestors of today’s black Americans?
Maybe they should be paying us?
Irish ancestry here. Where’s my moneys?!? Oh, right, we decided to move on from our enslavement, to leave the horrors of slavery behind, and to embrace the American promise. A once-enslaved and long-despised people (even after the pall of slavery was lifted, we were met with the signs and sentiment that “No Irish Need Apply”) should be shining a light on how to move past the past, how to embrace real change, a real future.
I don’t want a single cent from any descendants of the people of any race (and many were black and/or Hispanic) who “owned” my kin. Not one penny, ever. I am not a victim of my ancestry, I am not defined by it, and I am not ashamed of it. That said, I am also not a victim; I live in the greatest country this world has ever known; while my ancestors were enslaved, I am free. Where they had no agency, I have tons. And I have that because my people chose to embrace the great promise of America, to live and build and thrive in the American Dream.
Any people could have done the same thing, no matter their skin color. Instead, we are teaching black people they are victims, less than, horrifically crippled persons who cannot thrive, and we are doing this for nefarious, evil reasons, that a particular party can gain power. And then still more power. It makes me sick to my stomach, it really does.
Hear, hear. Well said. I hope you know my question was rhetorical
In this current fit of slave mania, black Africans were the first slavers. The slave business did not end there when it ended in America. Before slaves were captured and sold to Western customers, there had been a thriving slave business for centuries only to the East.
Slavery is still going on in Africa, by Africans.
Haven’t you heard? History has been re-written. The Irish were never enslaved. That’s a myth perpetuated by racists to downplay the effect slaver has had on the black community.
Huh?! How do you figure any black Americans, let alone all of them, are descended from Barbary pirates? That’s just a bizarre statement altogether.
Isn’t the Barbary Coast in Libya/Tunisia/Algiers? (Where there is still a slave market…. allegedly)
Yes, of course it is. And of course the people there are not black, and effectively no black Americans are descended from them, which is what makes Paul’s comment so bizarre.
And no, there’s no slave market there any more. You may be thinking of Mauritania or the Sudan.
This should be the only available reparations
1. Those who experienced slavery are to be compensated by those who owned slaves
2. Those who run modern slave plantations in China including basketball players for the toon team may qualify for paying their former slaves if one of them ends up as an American citizen.
I want reparations for the injuries suffered by a member of my family in the
War of Northern AgressionWar Between the StatesCivil War. I have letters and documents showing that my great-great-great-grandfather was seriously injured in the Battle of the Wilderness. The pain, suffering, and permanent loss of ability incurred by this beloved ancestor who fought to free the slaves* are certainly as worthy of compensation as the trials and tribulations of slaves. And, I can prove concrete, direct lineage; no question as to whether or not I’m entitled based on being connected to a disabled veteran of the war.* – please, no arguments on whether or not the Civil War was fought to end slavery. That’s a topic which cannot be adequately addressed in anything less than a multi-volume analysis.
my situation similar to yours though besides being wounded in the conflict, many of my ancestors(who fought on both sides of the conflict)were killed in action–though perhaps entitled to some form of ” compensation ” am inclined to dismiss any personal claim as the majority of them served willingly and were not conscripted in any way–however, the incidents that harmed many of them(and their families/properties)that occurred during ” reconstruction ” are simply unforgiveable–for american citizens to sustain the sort of treatment/injuries/illegal takings at the hands of federal(US) troops is unconscionable–many of my relatives were in court for decades in efforts to be compensated for their injuries and to have their lawful properties restored
Mayor Brain-Addled of Austin is going to have a little problem. The Texas State Constitution, Article II, Section 52(a) [or however it is cited in legalese] specifically prohibits gifts of public funds to individuals, corporations, etc. Even if that moron deems them “reparations”, it is highly likely that the Texas Supreme Court would see it his way, not to mention Abbott would likely convene the legislature in session to pass a law forbidding municipalities or counties from entering into such arrangements.
Make that highly UNlikely.
Won’t happen. Abbot just defunded the state legislature. Now THAT”S what I’m talking about! Time to defund the states and cities. Start with the teachers’ unions here in LA. and then the city council and county board of supervisors. All that money that could be put to good use or to pay down debt.
Pigford 1 & 2 were the test runs for reparation payouts and how it will go.
Reparations are infrastructure.
Socialism.
“We need decisive action to address the racial wealth gap holding communities back across our country.”
Graduate high-school
Don’t have children out of wedlock
Get married
Stay out of the criminal justice system
Do these 4 things, at minimum, and you’ll likely improve your lot in life. Of course, that isn’t Jones’ point though.
Every slave holder should pay every slave one million dollars! I’ve already done my part.
The slavery reparations thing is bs. They just want to hand out money to POC.
SMH…This is fundamentally illegal.. Something about blood guilt? I read that somewhere, not that it matters. Seems to me that we are no longer a nation of laws.
St. Paul???
So, there’s no trace of my family until after WWII. We have to pay why? Collective guilt because we fall Into one racial category?
Melanin tax. There will be color charts involved.
The last time white Democrats did something massive to ‘help’ black people was LBJs Great Society welfare state program. He wanted blacks voting ‘Democratic’ for the next 200 years. More harm was done to the black family than anything since Reconstruction.
That harm was by design. It was an intended consequence and it was predicted at the time by the non-racist people. But, “The words sounded so nice and I felt so good if I supported the Great Society.” The part that was not clear back then was “Why?” Now I see the purpose.
Don’t fall for this. It is not about slavery. It is a racist and condescending move to further divide and destroy the USA.
This makes sense if you consider the actual agenda demonstrated by the consistent behavior of the Democrats. Never listen to what a liar says. Always watch his behavior and look for the patterns.
I repeat, This is not about slavery. That is a distraction for thinkers so they do not pay attention to other stuff.
Can you see any Alinsky in this reparations nonsense?
• Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
• Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”
• The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself.
• According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”
Rather than a serious or thinking reaction, perhaps we should simply apply another of Alinsky’s rules as a response:
Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Ridicule is what the “moron mayors” deserve. Can I label them that?
Pay that money through the mayors, and just see where it goes. We already know what California does with its education and infrastructure budgets.
Anybody who thinks that money is going to be used to redress genuine grievances of people who have been harmed is hopelessly naive.
“Mayors call for reparations for their cities”
That a good way to increase the population of your city in a hurry. Or an exodus depending on which group you are talking about.
Providence, Rhode Island. SMH.
When a deep Yankee state feels the need to pay reparations for slavery, you know some serious virtue signaling is after your wallet.
I feel like I paid reparations thru all my tax dollars. The government was not efficient in distributing it. Too much of it was wasted. They should be held to account not me.
Nice. Crime will drop everywhere except these cities. As the criminals move there to get their freebies.
Reparations were paid from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 when 365,000+ American soldiers died freeing the Confederacy’s slaves.
“Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,”
Translation: Give me OPM (other people’s money) and we’ll give it to people who we think deserve it (and by coincidence these people are my supporters who will kickback a certain fraction of that money back to me)