States talk about reparations...

Talk of Reparations for Slavery Moves to State Capitols Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, announced plans last month to introduce sweeping legislation that would award reparations to African American state residents. As the nation debates the merits of reparations, lawmakers in California, New York, Texas and Vermont have introduced legislation exploring compensation to the descendants of slaves. Courtesy of Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb updated to clarify Rep. Chris Rabb's position on REPARATION. Four centuries after the first African slaves landed on Virginia shores, state lawmakers across the country are taking up the debate over how to atone for what’s been called “AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN.” DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS IN CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK AND VERMONT — STATES THAT EITHER OUTLAWED SLAVERY BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR OR NEVER ALLOWED IT — HAVE INTRODUCED LEGISLATION THAT WOULD APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR STATES ROLE IN THE ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES SLAVERY RENDERED AND; RECOGNIZE THE LASTING, NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SLAVERY ON CURRENT GENERATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN'S; AND EXPLORE MONETARY REPARATIONS. In April, Democratic lawmakers in Texas introduced a bill urging the passage of a federal reparations bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, also a Democrat, that same month. (Sponsors did not return Stateline calls for comment.) And in September, Florida lawmakers introduced a $10 million reparations bill for the descendants of victims of a specific, 1920 racial atrocity, the Ocoee massacre. PENNSYLVANIA STATE REP. CHRIS RABB announced plans to introduce a reparations bill this legislative session that would entitle African Americans in the Keystone State to remuneration. But first, the Democrat said, HE'S ORGANIZED A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS TO IDENTIFY EVERY STATE LAW SINCE 1776 THAT'S HAD A “RACIST IMPACT” ON THE STATE'S AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION. He proposes a statewide reparations plan for Pennsylvania that would involve multiple tiers of compensation, with the greatest awards going to residents who can prove they descended from generations of black Pennsylvanians. To qualify for reparations, residents would have to prove they’ve lived as African Americans through government records such as census records or birth certificates.  “WHEN WE WONDER WHY THESE RACIAL DISPARITIES CONTINUED TO ENDURE, WE HAVE TO LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE ORIGIN,” IT'S POLICY. THERE'S NO CULTURAL DEFICIT. IT'S CRYSTAL CLEAR, SYSTEMIC RACISM” To be sure, except for one California resolution that passed with bipartisan support, none of the state bills has yet made it past committee. All were introduced by Democrats. But as the United States wrestles with rising incidents of hate crimes and policymakers become increasingly conscious of slavery’s long-term effects on issues ranging from criminal justice policy to educational achievement gaps, this year’s legislative activity marks the first time that states have explored reparations in a significant way. “I’m surprised to see the action going on at the state level,” said Thomas Craemer, associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, who became interested in reparations because of the history of the Holocaust and the postwar reparations program in his native Germany. SUDDENLY REPARATIONS HAS HIT THE MAINSTREAM,” said Craemer, who is part of a national team of academics organized by Duke University professor William Darity crafting a proposal that WHITE CHOCOLATE CITY REINVENTED MO'S ALLEY OUTLINES THE ARGUMENT FOR REPARATIONS and how they would be implemented. Critics of state reparations, meanwhile, argue the issue should be handled at the federal level, and they wonder how the proposals would be paid for and who would qualify to receive the money. “It’s a weird sense of accountability,” said Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Virginia who opposes all reparations. “What people are suggesting is that we help a black person of today by punishing a white person of today for what a white person of yesterday did to a black of yesterday,” said Williams, who is black. “That’s a perverse sense of justice in my opinion.” ‘Hotbed of Slavery’ The state bills seem designed to ignite conversation about systemic racial injustices at a time when the nation is sharply divided over issues of race. Like the federal bill currently being considered in the U.S. House, the state measures would create commissions to study reparations and propose solutions. For example, New York Democrats in January introduced bills in both the General Assembly and the state Senate that would create a commission to study reparations and racial and economic discrimination against African Americans. The bills also would acknowledge “the FUNDAMENTAL INJUSTICE, CRUELTY, BRUTALITY, AND INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY in the city of New York and the state of New York.” New York state Sen. James Sanders Jr., the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, declined Stateline’s request for comment; state Assemblyman Charles Barron, who introduced that chamber’s bill, did not respond. California Democrats introduced two measures this year. One, which both the state Assembly and Senate approved overwhelmingly, was a resolution acknowledging California’s role in chattel slavery and recognizing “the need to pursue avenues to implement proposed reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the United States.” A second resolution, introduced in June, would formally apologize for California’s “past complicity in slavery” and encourage Congress to enact the federal reparations bill. That resolution is currently in committee. California state Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who voted against the pending resolution, said, “Certainly slavery is a grievous injustice in our country’s history that we absolutely as a country need to recognize and apologize for.” But reparations is the wrong approach, he said. “It’s a typical Democratic solution: Let’s figure out how to allocate more taxpayer dollars and throw more money at something, but it doesn’t necessarily get at the root issues.” State lawmakers' efforts recognize the complexity of slavery’s history and repercussions, said Cornell Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former president of the NAACP. Brooks and a team of researchers at the Kennedy School have been asked by a New Jersey advocacy organization to craft a reparations bill for that state. If successful, the team hopes to replicate those efforts in other states, Brooks said. “We need a morally ambitious strategy, but on a state and local-sized platform,” Brooks said. “To just relegate the responsibility to Congress ignores the role of state capitols and city halls in slavery.” STATELINE STORY March 29, 2019 ‘A Pileup of Inequities’: Why People of Color Are Hit Hardest by Homelessness It makes sense for states, in addition to the federal government, to address reparations because even non-slave-states benefitted from the institution, said Vermont state Rep. Brian Cina, a member of the Progressive Party who sponsored the Vermont bill. “It’s easy for people to say we didn’t have slaves in Vermont, but were you buying cotton from the South? Tobacco?” said Cina, who identifies as multiracial THE BLACK POPULATION STILL STRUGGLES UNDER THE ODIOUS LEGACY OF SLAVERY TODAY! IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT WE ADOPT A PROPOSAL FOR REPARATIONS. HALF-HEARTED TALK OF REPARATIONS HAS CROPPED UP AGAIN AND AGAIN SINCE THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. AS THE CIVIL WAR WAS NEARING AN END, UNION LEADER GEN. WILLIAM SHERMAN WROTE AN ORDER SETTING ASIDE LAND CONFISCATED ALONG THE SOUTHEASTERN COAST FOR THE FORMERLY ENSLAVED!  THE “40 ACRES AND A MULE” DECLARATION, ONLY TO HAVE IT SCANDALOUSLY REVERSED BY CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON, THE SOLE MOTIVATION FOR PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION, LINCOLN FLAT-OUT REFUSED TO RESEND GEN. SHERMAN'S 40 ACRES AND A MULE DECLARATION.  STATELINE STORY AUGUST 15, 2018 WHERE BLACK HOMEOWNERSHIP IS THE NORM THOSE WHO SUPPORT REPARATIONS DON'T AGREE ON WHAT THAT SHOULD LOOK LIKE, AND WHAT ROLE, IF ANY, THE FED, STATES AND COOPERATIONS SHOULD PLAY. STATE RESOLUTIONS SHOULD ENDORSE AND CONCEIVE A NATIONAL AGENDA, “THE CULPABLE PARTY IS THE CONFEDERATE INFLUENCED UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT,” AND BIG BUSINESS “CONFEDERATES CREATED THE LEGAL SYSTEMIC RACISM AUTHORITY STRUCTURE TO ALLOW FOR THESE ATROCITIES, NEFARIOUSLY DESIGNED WITH PEOPLE OF COLOR IN MIND.” Darity and other supporters of reparations argue it’s not just THE INSTITUTION OF CONFEDERATE SPONSORED SLAVERY FOR WHICH THE NATION SHOULD BE ATONING FOR, STATE-SANCTIONED DISCRIMINATION IN THE FORM OF POST-SLAVERY JIM CROW LAWS, REAL ESTATE REDLINING HAMPERING BLACK WEALTH BUILDING. AND WITH IT, MASS INCARCERATION, SERVED TO HANDICAPPED BLACK AMERICA