Reparations
“Economist Says Reparations To Black Americans Would Total $13 To $14 Trillion
Duke economist Dr. William “Sandy” Darity estimates that the funds would close the racial wealth gap and eliminate race-based government restitution.”
By Jamila Bey
January 13, 2023 / 4:54 PM
“The American Economic Association held its annual conference last week, and featured the latest work of Duke University professor of public policy Dr. William “Sandy” Darity. He’s the leading Black economist on Black wealth and reparations. His 2020 book, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” has shaped all the conversations about reparations to the descendents of Africans who were stolen from their homes and enslaved in the US.
Crunching the numbers, the economist reckons that it will cost between $13 and $14 trillion to repair the financial harm of excluding Black Americans from full citizenship in the US for some 247 years. Darity says that the racial wealth gap that persists to this day for those whose ancestors were enslaved must be remedied by raising the level of Black assets to a level sufficient to match the average net worth of white Americans.
According to Marketwatch, Darity insists this is the “central task” of a just reparations policy that could produce the material conditions for full citizenship for Black Americans.
By Darity’s calculations, the racial wealth gap exceeds an average of $300,000 per person, and there are about 40 million Black Americans who are the descendants of enslaved Africans.”
https://www.bet.com/article/k3251o/economist-says-reparations-to-black-americans-would-total-13-to-14-trillion
I’ll take mine as a direct deposit to my checking and savings accounts…
I presume that reparations given as cash payments would be taxed as ordinary income at the rate of about 30% or one third.
There’s no way that that kind of money would be distributed by the U.S. government tax free with no IRS claw-back strings attached…
If, as a result, I were entitled to a refund, I would request that said refund be donated to an appropriate non-profit entity and check the box accordingly…
Finally, I would make the suggestion that any reparation cash payments distributed on request, be made to the oldest black Americans first for obvious or even glaring reasons….
01/29/2023 @ 4:16 pm
“I’ll take mine as a direct deposit to my checking and savings accounts…”
Alternately, we could be taxed a percentage of our income which would be given to orgs like the Obama Foundation, which trains young people of color for leadership positions, business management, and community service, or to HBCUs for education untouchable by Ron DeSantis et. al. We have a Black owned bank in my city that offers low interest mortgages to POC. I’d love if my tax refund went towards helping someone buy a house.
Or, we could receive a tax break for leaving our retirement dollars to orgs that support and bring forward POC. Last year, I set up a living trust. When I toodle into the beyond, whatever’s left of my retirement savings will get divided three ways: the Obama Foundation, the Malala Fund, which serves girls’ education efforts in Afghanistan, and a local after school art program where I’ve been a mentor. 94% of the kids get accepted to college with financial aid and scholarships.
Rather than direct deposit into your checking account, think about innovative Black businesses in your town, Black ward councillors, Black teachers, Black medical professionals to help fix your creaky hips, and Black women DAs busy indicting political criminals. I am so in for that.
01/29/2023 @ 6:29 pm
Suzanne, as noble as your proposals are, they are not what King and others are talking about:
“Darity says that the racial wealth gap that persists to this day for those whose ancestors were enslaved must be remedied by raising the level of Black assets to a level sufficient to match the average net worth of white Americans.”
As I have said many times in the past:
“It would be nice to have enough money to not have to worry about having enough money.”
I’ll take my “reparations” in the form of a direct deposit to my savings and checking accounts thank you, and:
“If, as a result, I were entitled to a tax refund, I would request that said refund be donated to an appropriate non-profit entity and check the box accordingly…”
There should not be an iota or scintilla of white folks discretion or determination in the process…
Reparations should not be about making white people feel good about themselves or feel absolved from accountability for centuries of the perpetration and perpetuation of systemic, social, political, and cultural racism…
01/29/2023 @ 7:00 pm
Point made. I don’t see it as about making White people feel good though.
I’d have two qualifying aspects. First is that I am tired of southern states receiving twice the federal dollars that they put into the system, then complaining about Radical Left Marxist entitled blue states and sticking it to the libs blabbityblahblah. So they’d have to pay more than us. Not poor people, just Alabamites and Mississippians et al who make over a certain income, and they’d have to put in five or ten percent more than residents in Radical Left Marxist blue states like yours and mine.
The other is that people receiving money would have to be descended from enslaved African ancestors. Although I love my Hispanic and Haitian students, they’d sit this one out. I’m fine with giving money both to individuals and to organizations.
But you and I both know that any reparations that put money directly into bank accounts of blue state sanctuary city Black residents would set the right squawking and perhaps making bloody violence. Once enough POC and liberals move into political positions–and this is definitely happening, our new state AG is Black, and our governor and Lt. Gov are both out lesbians–then the shrinking White majority can be told to pay up and shut up.
I’m happy to do whatever I’m told, but Obama’s foundation is still getting my trust money. It’s not noble. It’s gratefully giving back. I’m a high school drop out, and if I didn’t earn a GED then weasel my way into college through the white privilege back door, most likely I’d be dead, and that’s the truth. Education changes lives more than anything.
OK. Been typing on this bindlestitch a huge chunk of the day, so headed off to make my old lady supper now. Good to talk with you again though 🙂