Vice-president Kamala Harris has signalled her openness to the idea of reparations for black people, saying she would not rule out executive action if she wins the White House in November.
Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, Harris was asked about her position on the issue, which is typically confined to Black Lives Matter activists and far-left radicals.
“Do you have a position on whether that [reparations] should happen — this [reparations] commission should happen through executive order or via Congress?” she was asked by Politico’s Eugene Daniels.
Harris responded:
I think Congress ultimately will have the ability to do this work. I’m not discountingthe importance of any executive action, but, ultimately, Congress because if you’regoing to talk about it in any substantial way, there will be hearings, there will be alevel of public education and dialog that — and I think that was part of the spiritbehind the congressional action thus far — to ensure that everyone can participate inthis conversation in a way that elevates knowledge about history and the referencepoints that have, that are the impetus of this conversation, especially, again, whenpeople are trying to deny history, when people are, you know, so-called leaders aresaying that enslaved people benefited from slavery. I mean, let’s talk about the deltahere in terms of the work that needs to be done. It’s profound.
In a desperate attempt to win over the black votes, democrats have lost due to migration and pure neglect of the black community as a whole.
Kamala Harris is making another broken promise. Reparations… pic.twitter.com/bRGxjmS59g
— We The Memes (@MericanMemes) September 17, 2024
It is not the first time that Harris has said she will support reparations for the enslavement of black people, which was outlawed over 150 years ago.
Previous proposals put forward in her home city of San Francisco have included payments of $5 million to each citizen, $90,000 a year guaranteed income and free housing.
There are 41.6 million blacks in America, so $14 trillion in reparations would work out at $336538 per person.
Yet that is still peanuts compared to San Francisco, which plans to give everyone who "identifies" as black $5 million + $90k a year.
Good work if you can get it! pic.twitter.com/JGvpyxsHK3
— Ben Kew (@ben_kew) January 18, 2024
When running for president back in 2020, Harris was asked by the notorious race grifter Al Shaprton whether she would support a bill that would get the ball rolling on financial payments and other benefits for black Americans.
“In the area of reparations of for descendants of Africans enslaved: If you’re elected president would you sign that bill [Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act proposed by Representative Shelia Jackson Lee] if it came across your desk?” Sharpton asked Harris at the time.
“When I am elected president I will sign that bill,” she responded.