Far-left U.S. Rep. Cori Bush proposed $14 trillion in federal reparations Wednesday, saying America has a “moral and legal obligation” to pay up “for the enslavement of Africans.”
What are the details?
National Public Radio characterized the Missouri Democrat’s push as an “effort to see the federal government atone for the practice of chattel slavery and hundreds of years of racist policies that followed.”
“The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of black people,” Bush said in a news conference, NPR said.
She added that “America must provide reparations if we desire a prosperous future for all,” the outlet added.
“We know that we continue to live under slavery’s vestiges. We know how slavery has perpetuated Jim Crow. We know how slavery’s impacts live on today,” Bush added, according to NPR, which also said she cited the racial wealth gap, voter suppression, infant mortality rates, and other negative health outcomes for black people.
“It’s unjust, and it wouldn’t happen in a just and fair and equitable society,” Bush also said, according to the outlet. “Those are not the natural consequences of human society. They are directly caused by our federal government’s role in the enslavement and exploitation of Africans and black people throughout our history.”
More from NPR:
About three-quarters or more of white adults oppose reparations, and so do a majority of Latinos and Asian Americans.
Black Americans overwhelmingly support the proposal, and young people in general are more likely to support cash payments to the descendants of enslaved people than their older counterparts.
But more than 90 percent of Republicans say they oppose it, while Democrats are split nearly 50/50 on whether descendants should receive compensation.
What else has Bush been up to?
Bush has been hard at work of late pushing leftist perspectives and policies: