Reparations and Presidential Candidates

Writer: Madison Hayden

23 Democrats and 2 Republicans have already filed to run for president in 2020. With the Democratic Debate last night, some of the largest policy debates have come into view. However, there is perhaps no other single topic that has managed to get as much attention as the argument surrounding reparations for the descendants of slaves. These reparations would help slow the growing racial inequality that’s engraved in our country; take for example, a study from the Pew Research Center found that the median income of white households is $171,000 -- 10 times that of black households, which is $17,100.

MIKE GRAVEL- The former Alaskan U.S. senator is arguably one of the most outspoken candidates on reparations. His website says the U.S. should: “establish a National Reparations Trust Fund” and “create a National Commission on Reparations” that would be “funded by an infusion of $30 billion per year from government coffers.”

CORY BOOKER- Booker supports reparations, and laid out his reasoning in an emotional statement, saying “a lot of the inequities and the pain and the hurt manifested in economic disparities, manifested in health disparities, manifested in a criminal justice system that is indeed a form of new Jim Crow.”

PETE BUTTIGIEG- The Democratic mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has made it crystal clear that he was very much against reparations that were monetary.“I haven’t seen a proposal for a cash transfer that people would be able to come together around and [be] viewed as fair,” Buttigieg said. “But I absolutely believe that we need to have some kind of accounting for the persistent racial inequities today there by design because of part and present racism.”

JULIAN CASTRO- The former secretary of Housing and Urban Development states that, “I’ve long believed that our country will never truly heal until we address the original sin of slavery,” he said at the National Action Network convention.

AMY KLOBUCHAR- The U.S. senator from Minnesota stated on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ “I believe we have to invest in those communities that have been so hurt by racism. It doesn't have to be a direct pay for each person, but what we can do is invest in those communities. Acknowledge what’s happened.”

HOWARD SCHULTZ- The former Starbucks CEO is profoundly against reparations. “I would rather look forward than look back,” he said. Schultz apparently does not realize that these reparations would likely affect recipients futures.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON- The Democratic candidate wrote that she would propose “a $200 billion – $500 billion plan of reparations for slavery, [with] the money to be disbursed over a period of twenty years.” The reparations would be given out by “an esteemed council of African-American leaders [who] would determine the educational and economic projects to which the money would be given.”

PASS THE BILL BUT NO INDIVIDUAL STANCE

John Hickelnooper, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gilliband, Elizabeth Warren

NO COMMENT

Jay Inslee, Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Tim Ryan, Joe Biden, John Delaney, Michael Bennet, Bill Weld, Eric Swawell

Sources: Forbes