Half a mil to put their thumbs up their asses instead of just literally giving that money directly as reparations 
Edit: I want to clarify, I fully support reparations, I’m just extremely frustrated knowing that, under liberal/bourgeoisie democracy, these types of efforts tend to get bogged down with means testing, and sometimes outright turn into thinly-veiled handouts to private corporations. All while the police budget is still increasing YOY.
That said, Evanston (city on Chicago’s northern border) did actually manage to distribute “…$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility.” So I don’t want to encourage further reactionary criticisms such as mine towards this specific subcommittee if they are able to achieve at least some form of direct payments similar to Evanston’s program.
Also it’s kinda wild of the libs to look at the current situation of various minorities and think that “ah yes, we need official documents linking you to a slave ancestor” rather than just helping people without means testing. Because that’s usually what the liberals are trying to do, it can be obvious that you had slaves in your family, but if you don’t have the papers they get off on denying due to technicality. I’ve read through most reparations resolutions and it’s depressing
i think the NAACP had a good solution https://naacp.org/resources/reparations
“Reparations would involve a national apology, rights to the cannabis industry, financial payment, social service benefits, and land grants to every descendant of an enslaved African American and Black person a descendant of those living in the United States including during American slavery until the Jim Crow era. 1965. Because slavery involved kidnapping, barbarism, and the stripping of language, culture and heritage, many Black people are unaware of their specific African heritage and which country in fact their ancestors were stolen from. The forged documentation, lack of documentation or non-existent documentation, from birth certificates to slave manifest, be it resolved that eligibility for these reparations requires the following: people that were born in the United States or naturalized citizens that have noted their Black heritage on the census, identify as Black on their birth certificate and/or have documentation of enslaved parentage in the United States, documentation of parentage residing in the United States prior to and during the Jim Crow era, and currently identify as Black American or African American. Identification of African-American heritage is both a biological and physical representation of being African-American on a daily basis.”
and yes means testing is stupid. black does not equal poor, were the Japanese internment camp prisoners means tested? were the italians?? was anyone else??
Ruining the tobacco industry’s plans to monopolize cannabis is reason enough to implement this alone. Eat shit Marlboro.
i also hate how in this discourse that there are currently 2.3 million black people in prison and many are being used for literal legally defined slave work and that it never gets brought up. they act like its so long ago but its literally happening right now. especially when labor is used as a punishment of a crime, its so fucked to keep pressing the profit button once someone has ‘fixed’ what they broke. im talking theft-based and possession felonies that get you in jail for 10-15 years but 10-15 years of labor is way more money and harm than the crime itself. and thats not even getting into labor trafficking from countries like haiti or the fact that jim crow would result in situations that were basically just slavery…
im really worried about this bit, i know it was common in the czech community in america to hide that we were czech to avoid anti-slav discrimination. i even have talked to czechs that were forced to live in certain districts because they identified as czech on naturalization papers, it was generally recommended to identify as austrian or german because they got off easier. theres got to be edge cases for white-passing/mixed ancestry black people. i also recall some movements in the 70s demanding everyone to say ‘rather not say’ on ethnicity forms or not fill out ethnicity so as to avoid geographic racial profiling. i wish we didnt have such a shitty government so we could have actual scientific socialist studies on how to get reparations to everyone effected with no one being left behind. i honestly wonder what cuba has done in this field, i cant say im well-versed on afro-cuban history. i do know china has had some really extensive reparations policies to certain ethnic groups, but that is a very different setting.
honestly wonder what cuba has done in this field
they did not have reparations but they addressed the disparity it in other ways , but you have to consider that cuba is not the richest country in the world and they had to do what best fit their revolution. with the committees for the defense of the revolution. but every country is different and this has been a long held demand. you should watch one way or another sometime lol i was watching it with ving the other day and they said it was the most dialectical movie they had ever seen but im just rambling about a movie it like . but to your other points ill just sumise to say there will never be a 100% perfect solution and the theoretical of what to do changes based on whether or not we are talking about this happening under a socialist or capitalist society. i have my own personal thoughts on both scenarios (and the likelihood of them) but as i type this im getting too high to think.
TTYL kristina
i aspire to this rn thanks for the great idea
The one city I know of that has actually started reparations payments – Evanston – is tying them to redlining and other discriminatory policies in Evanston and in the 20th century. I don’t think it’s means tested, either; it’s not based on need, but on if recipients are “descendants of Evanston residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969.”
that seems pretty good, but do they need to currently reside there, or does it go to everyone including people that left the city? also isnt that the one othello was talking about as not being enough
The way I read it is that someone would be eligible if they currently live in (for example) Chicago, but their parents lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969. This seems like exactly the sort of wheels-on-the-pavement question you’d need to talk through in a committee before rolling this out, too.
And yeah, I’d agree this isn’t enough, but a city trying to repair the part of the damage it did specifically seems like a significant step in the right direction.