U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) has introduced proposed legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations from the U.S. government.
Introduced on May 17, H.Res. 414 seeks reparations from the federal government to be paid out to Black Americans to make amends for “the practice of chattel slavery and hundreds of years of racist policies that followed,” a Wednesday NPR report said. The bill has been dubbed Reparations NOW by its supporters, which include U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16), U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL-3), U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA-12), U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5), U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL-1) and U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-TX-9).
“Slavery. Black codes. Jim Crow. Redlining. Mass incarceration,” Bush said in a Wednesday Twitter post. “Every step of the way, Black Americans have been intentionally pushed back economically. A debt is owed. It’s time to pay that debt. It’s time for reparations.”
The resolution of the bill reads as follows:
“Recognizing that 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 in the United States.
“Whereas Black people are, and have always been, human beings, yet the Federal Government has historically failed to recognize our dignity and humanity;
“Whereas reparations are defined as a victim-centered process by which survivors of atrocities and serious human rights violations, and their descendants, have the right to seek restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of nonrepetition for past and ongoing harms;
“Whereas to meet the international legal obligation of reparations, the Federal Government must compensate descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent in the United States to account for the harms of chattel slavery, the cumulative damages of enslavement, and the epochs of legal and de facto segregation.”
This is the latest attempt at reparations payments in the country, although national consensus remains generally opposed to such programs.
Bush has been a constant advocate for financial payouts to people of color, tweeting on May 15, “If Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz’s PPP loans can be canceled, we can cancel student debt.”
That tweet was followed with another.
“Black women carry more student debt than any other group in America — and carry it the longest,” Bush tweeted on May 16. “It’s no coincidence that the GOP is standing in the way of canceling student debt.”
Both tweets, written before Bush introduced her reparations bill, were later retweeted to her own page again.
