Just in time for Juneteenth 2019, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, weighed in on reparations by the US government for slavery:
“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none us currently living are responsible is a good idea …
“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African-American president.
“I think we’re always a work in progress in this country, but no one currently alive was responsible for that, and I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it. First of all, it would be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate. …
“No, I don’t think reparations are a good idea.”
Juneteenth celebrates June 19th 1865 when the slaves were freed in Texas. But it was the freedom to go hungry: they did not get “40 acres and a mule”, as some had proposed, they got nothing, nothing for the hundreds of years of slave labour that helped to build the country. To this day the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites remains wide, on the order of 14 to 1 as of 2014.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, was born to Whiteness in 1942 in Alabama in the Deep South. Jim Crow was law till he was a grown man. To this day, over 50 years later, he is still against making it easy for Black people to vote.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote “The Case for Reparations” in 2014, said of McConnell’s comments:
“For a century after the Civil War black people were subjected to a relentless campaign of terror, a campaign that extended well into the lifetime of Majority leader McConnell.”
and:
“Majority Leader McConnell cited civil-rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing, and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for the redlining of Chicago and the looting of black homeowners of some $4 billion…
“Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. I am sure they’d love a word with the majority leader.”
H.R. 40: Coates was speaking at hearings in Congress on H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. It would set up a committee to study the matter of reparations, something Coates has urged as the next step, something the US government has never done, even though slavery ended over 150 years ago, even though H.R. 40 has been introduced to Congress every year for the past 30 years.
Sheila Jackson Lee, the Texas Congresswoman who introduced H.R. 40 this year, said of McConnell’s comment:
“Payments are not the focus of H.R. 40. Knowledge is the focus of H.R. 40. … [McConnell] can’t deny the free labor that slavery brought; he can’t deny the people who died in transit; and he can’t deny that this is the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the slave trade.”
McConnell is against even studying the issue!
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- reparations
- Bernie Sanders on reparations
- UN on reparations
- Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations
- H.R. 40
- 40 acres and a mule
- ADOS
- Black Americans
- 1619
- American slavery
- Juneteenth
- Jim Crow
- The New Jim Crow
- racial wealth gap
- tropes:
- arguments:
552
Why would a racist support raparations.
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“No, I don’t think reparations are a good idea.” – I don’t think Mitch McConnell not having a brain is a good idea.Reparations of some kind should be developed. They kinda sorta maybe have worked out some compensation for the Native American lands they stole, and Native descendants are getting benefits from European colonization from more than 150 years ago. I believe that the descendants of the people they stole to work the stolen land should be compensated also. The U.S, government is acting like we want a “free for all”. like their Manifest so-called Destiny was their free for all. Truth is, counting having a Black President as a “reparation” especially one who’s African ancestry has a different connectivity to African American enslavement should not be a negotiating point.
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Mcconnell is a certified piece of shush-a-tee.
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He’s a bigot plain and simple.
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How come he looks like a tortoise?
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Turtleman!😂😩
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How come he looks like a tortoise?
He results from continuous inbreeding. Cousins shouldn’t marry each other!
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Cosponsors: H.R.40 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
All Information (Except Text)
Sponsor: Rep. Jackson Lee, Sheila [D-TX-18] | Cosponsor statistics: 67 current – includes 23 original
* = Original cosponsor
Sort by
Cosponsor Date Cosponsored
Rep. Serrano, Jose E. [D-NY-15]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Meeks, Gregory W. [D-NY-5]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Moore, Gwen [D-WI-4]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Jayapal, Pramila [D-WA-7]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. [D-GA-4]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Payne, Donald M., Jr. [D-NJ-10]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Johnson, Eddie Bernice [D-TX-30]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Beatty, Joyce [D-OH-3]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL-9]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Thompson, Bennie G. [D-MS-2]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Green, Al [D-TX-9]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Rush, Bobby L. [D-IL-1]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Nadler, Jerrold [D-NY-10]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Davis, Danny K. [D-IL-7]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Engel, Eliot L. [D-NY-16]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Richmond, Cedric L. [D-LA-2]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Bass, Karen [D-CA-37]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Evans, Dwight [D-PA-2]* 01/03/2019
Rep. Wilson, Frederica S. [D-FL-24] 01/28/2019
Rep. Smith, Adam [D-WA-9] 02/05/2019
Rep. Sewell, Terri A. [D-AL-7] 02/25/2019
Rep. Tlaib, Rashida [D-MI-13] 02/25/2019
Rep. Gabbard, Tulsi [D-HI-2] 02/26/2019
Rep. Pressley, Ayanna [D-MA-7] 03/05/2019
Rep. Lowenthal, Alan S. [D-CA-47] 03/18/2019
Rep. Butterfield, G. K. [D-NC-1] 03/25/2019
Rep. Cooper, Jim [D-TN-5] 04/04/2019
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria [D-NY-14] 04/08/2019
Rep. Clyburn, James E. [D-SC-6] 04/08/2019
Rep. Omar, Ilhan [D-MN-5] 04/08/2019
Rep. Pallone, Frank, Jr. [D-NJ-6] 04/15/2019
Rep. Yarmuth, John A. [D-KY-3] 04/15/2019
Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1] 04/15/2019
Rep. Carson, Andre [D-IN-7] 04/18/2019
Rep. Adams, Alma S. [D-NC-12] 04/18/2019
Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12] 04/18/2019
Rep. Lawrence, Brenda L. [D-MI-14] 04/18/2019
Rep. Casten, Sean [D-IL-6] 04/18/2019
Rep. Swalwell, Eric [D-CA-15] 04/18/2019
Rep. Espaillat, Adriano [D-NY-13] 04/18/2019
Rep. Cummings, Elijah E. [D-MD-7] 04/18/2019
Rep. Haaland, Debra A. [D-NM-1] 04/25/2019
Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1] 04/25/2019
Rep. Hastings, Alcee L. [D-FL-20] 04/25/2019
Rep. Ryan, Tim [D-OH-13] 04/25/2019
Rep. Waters, Maxine [D-CA-43] 05/01/2019
Rep. Lawson, Al, Jr. [D-FL-5] 05/01/2019
Rep. Jeffries, Hakeem S. [D-NY-8] 05/22/2019
Rep. Garcia, Sylvia R. [D-TX-29] 05/22/2019
Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR-3] 05/22/2019
Rep. Clark, Katherine M. [D-MA-5] 06/13/2019
Rep. McGovern, James P. [D-MA-2] 06/13/2019
Rep. Lewis, John [D-GA-5] 06/18/2019
Rep. Dean, Madeleine [D-PA-4] 06/18/2019
Rep. Barragan, Nanette Diaz [D-CA-44] 06/18/2019
Rep. Kennedy, Joseph P., III [D-MA-4] 06/18/2019
Rep. Raskin, Jamie [D-MD-8] 06/18/2019
Rep. Escobar, Veronica [D-TX-16] 06/18/2019
Rep. Connolly, Gerald E. [D-VA-11] 06/18/2019
Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. [D-VA-8] 06/19/2019
Rep. Blunt Rochester, Lisa [D-DE-At Large] 06/19/2019
Rep. Hayes, Jahana [D-CT-5] 06/20/2019
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No Republicans?
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This whole hearing was a circus. The fact that Danny Glover was even put in there to speak on it shows how little of a shit they give about reparations.
I think this was intentional sabotage.
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Did… did one of those idiots actually say “if you give me reparations, you are making me a victim without my consent”?
Did someone actually say that!?
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@Heru Sankofa: The fool’s name is Coleman Hughes a 23 year old columnist.
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MConnell is known as The Grim Reaper and has a single minded thirst for power. He seems to enjoy hurting marginalized communities. He’s rotten to the core.
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@Doris
Most reservations are a sham. They are still government owned and have worked to only segregate and destroy 1st nation communities by depriving them of all manners of resources. They are really non-official perpetual internment camps in most cases. The casino success is very few to non-existent with several detrimental factors that do very little in terms of any form of reparations.
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Coleman Hughes is a sometimes African American or sometimes Puero Rican, SoundCloud Rapper. He titled one of his songs “My @ick Works.”
Also, here he is is on a New York subway train dancing on one of the train’s pole. Well, keeping his skimpy attire in mind, we have an idea of what agenda he was representing at the so-called reparations hearings (what a joke).
https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1142626159475220480
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Just say “Nyet” to Moscow Mitch.
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