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National
Lawmakers, Advocates Set Example for Biden on Reparations
Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer
Shortly after entering office, President Joe Biden reiterated his pledge to tackle systemic racism by increasing lending to Black entrepreneurs and launching infrastructure projects to spur employment.
For proponents of reparations however, few if any other options exist to reverse the long-term effects of chattel slavery, segregation, redlining and other institutional practices that have long placed Black people at the bottom of the American caste system.
“We have to be the ones who say this is what we want and why it’s necessary,” Kenniss Henry, the legislative commission co-chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations [NCOBRA], told The Informer.
Henry said that time is of the essence for Black people, especially with House Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s reintroduction of H.R. 40 on the first day of the 117th congressional session in January. Days later, Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a copy of H.R. 40, designated as S.B. 40, with 15 cosponsors.
Given these circumstances, NCOBRA’s leadership has organized around raising awareness about H.R. 40 and pressuring lawmakers to pass the bill. As part of an effort to meet this goal, NCOBRA has forged partnerships with the American Civil Liberties Union, Movement for Black Lives, Color of Change, Center for American Progress and Institute of the Black World 21st Century.
Henry credited this collaborative strategic planning group with a compelling more than 170 lawmakers to cosponsor H.R. 40 during the previous legislative session and 157 congressmen and women doing the same this year.
“There are 230 years’ worth of wealth gaps between Blacks and whites,” she said.
“We have to make sure our legislators deliver; remember, our ancestors worked 256 years of forced free labor and endured 100 years of Jim Crow treatment during which time we did not enjoy intergenerational wealth,” Henry continued.
“If reparations is not on the legislative agenda, it could come down to an executive order from the president that directs a commission to do what’s in the legislation itself. We have to be vigilant all the time,” she said.
BUSINESS from Page 15
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WI
5 D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (Courtesy photo)
5 DOEE Director Tommy Wells (Courtesy of DCWater)
SETTING THE TONE, LOCALLY
A study published in The Review of Black Political Economy in 2020 estimated that reparations for chattel slavery and other injustices committed against African Americans would cost more than $12 trillion.
Those findings would be derived from what researchers calculated as the value of lost freedom, lost opportunity and pain and suffering.
In the wake of protests that erupted after the police-involved deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, lawmakers in cities across the country either introduced or passed legislation for the payment of reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans in their jurisdiction.
This phenomenon transpired a year after the House Judiciary Committee conducted what had been described as an historic hearing on H.R. 40 that featured some of the foremost scholars and organizers on the subject.
Just blocks away from the White House, the D.C. Council has also been at work to redress the wrongs done against enslaved Africans and their descendants living in the nation’s capital.
Earlier this year, D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) introduced the Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act of 2021.
If passed, this legislation, which goes a step further than a version introduced during the previous council session, would launch a reparations task force, establish a reparations fund and require the commissioner of the D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking to establish a database revealing insurance policies that provided coverage for injured or deceased enslaved people.
McDuffie, chair of the council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development, expressed plans to conduct a hearing on the Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act sometime this year. He cited housing insecurity and a persistent wealth gap plaguing Black D.C. residents as key impetuses for this legislation.
While McDuffie remained confident that the Biden administration would do its part to advance racial equity on the federal level, he said that the D.C. Council must set the pace locally for such a mission.
“President Joe Biden was sworn in as senator in 1973 and the District has changed drastically since then. It has changed as well since Vice President Kamala Harris walked the yard at Howard University,” McDuffie told The Informer.
“Thousands of Black residents have been displaced over the decades and the racial wealth gap has only worsened, so it’s my hope that this administration will continue its efforts so that 20 years from now, we can all be proud that one’s race and zip code will no longer predict their success in Washington, D.C.,” he said. WI @SamPKCollins
VIOLENCE from Page 1 and need so desperately.” Moten said many young people
White credited the Bowser ad- to who partake in criminal activity ministration for appointing Linda have no solid male figures in their Harllee Harper to be the city’s new lives. director of gun violence prevention “There are no men encouraging but said the escalating homicide them to do what they need to do rate should be handled by a com- in the community,” he said. “Plus, mission consisting of representa- so many people are struggling with tives from various sections of the the coronavirus pandemic and the District “and would have no more bad economy and many adults are than 30 days to develop a set of barely surviving themselves. There recommendations which can be is a sense of hopelessness in the quickly acted upon.” community.”
Although the District’s homicide Moten said young people, sensrate leveled off as of Feb. 5 accord- ing tension in the community and ing to Metropolitan Police Depart- feeling ignored are acting recklessly ment statistics, the numbers com- and are “willing to pick up a gun to piled in January were grim. By Jan. get attention.” 29, the police department recorded “They use gun violence as a plat16 homicides since the year began, form to get attention,” he said, an increase of 14 percent compared “and that is the wrong way to do to the same date in 2020. that.” By Feb. 5, two additional murders police department data re- ‘INVEST IN PEOPLE’ ported 18 homicides, posting a six Regina Pixley, former Ward 8 percent increase as opposed to last advisory neighborhood commisyear’s number of 17 as of that date. sioner, said she supports White’s
White insists the community state of emergency call “100 perneeds to step up efforts to fight cent.” the gun violence and not leave the “This should have been done problem to politicians, the may- before,” Pixley said. “The mayor or or the police department. The needs a plan to address violence in councilmember has already taken the city. I do think hiring Harper is steps to address the problem, ac- a good start but things seem to be cording to a White staff member getting worse.”who told the Informer the coun- Pixley agreed with Moten that cilmember will push for $10 mil- the pandemic has taken its toll on lion in fiscal year 2021-2022 for the District. She said while Ward 8 violence intervention efforts. doesn’t have the highest number of
At a Feb. 4 news conference, coronavirus infections, it does have Bowser said she heard about the highest death rate in the city White’s state of emergency request due to the virus. and complimented his interest in Pixley said White’s idea regardthe issue but made no declaration. ing the community getting more involved in fighting gun violence MAYOR BOWSER “makes sense.” AGREES WITH WHITE “The community needs to step
“The councilmember is right up,” she said. “People can start at to sound the alarm,” the mayor their front door. We know who the said. “There are too many senseless shooters and the hitters are and we shootings in some parts of Ward 8 can tell them to stop what they are and many people are being tragi- doing.” cally affected.” Like Pixley, former Ward 8 D.C.
Bowser noted Harper’s hiring State Board of Education member and said her administration will Markus Batchelor favors White’s support any effort to fight gun vi- state of emergency call. However, olence. he said one way to curtail the ho-
Ron Moten, a co-founder of micide rate “is to deeply invest in the former anti-gang non-profit people.” new economy is producing, not for Batchelor credits the success he make a difference in the life of a Peaceoholics, said White’s state of “People feel left behind,” Batch- the old ones that just won’t come has had in life with a strong fami- young person. If it wasn’t for that emergency call “was a good move” elor said. “There should be access back. There is a state of emergency ly and friends’ network in Ward 8 network, I wouldn’t have served but said the District needs to to quality education, mental health on crime and violence, along with that provided him a safe space. a term on the school board but a “look at what worked in the past services and we have got to get the public health emergency on “I had a family and teachers sentence in prison.” to see what we need to do in the people back to work. We have got COVID-19 but we also have an in school who cared about me,” WI future to get the results we want to retrain people for the jobs the economic emergency.” he said. “Those are things that @JamesDCWrighter
Girls’ nights IN are gonna take COVID-19 OUT.
We don’t get enough laughs these days. But, wherever they are, our friends are as close as a click. Vaccines are coming. But until enough of us are vaccinated, we still need to slow the spread. We can watch our distance, and not let COVID-19 keep us apart.
