House To Hold Slavery Reparation Hearings On Capitol Hill, Regrets It

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Should African-Americans get slavery reparations? That’s the question that hearings on Capitol Hill will answer next week. These hearings are meant to give “large lump sum payments” to African-Americans for slavery that happened in this country over a hundred years ago. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is hoping to assemble a star-studded cast of Hollywood leftists to testify, but it’s looking like she may very well regret it. Don’t miss this.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Photo Credit: YouTube/Screenshot)

Slavery reparations is a hot topic amongst the far-leftists in America. It’s also a ridiculous notion. This isn’t about racism, and those who oppose it do so because it just won’t achieve what the pro-reparations crowd thinks it will.

Right now, Sheila Jackson Lee was successful in using the hype generated from the far-leftists race-baiters to secure hearings for the first time in more than a decade where the House will discuss potentially compensating the descendants of slaves. Jackson Lee is appealing to the Hollywood crowd to testify.

So far, The Case for Reparations author Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor Danny Glover are reportedly set to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, and the hearing’s stated purpose will be “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice,” according to a Thursday Associated Press report.

Jackson Lee said her bill would create a commission “to study the impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans, resulting directly and indirectly from slavery to segregation to the desegregation process and the present day.”

“The impact of slavery and its vestiges continues to affect African Americans and indeed all Americans in communities throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee said. “This legislation is intended to examine the institution of slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present, and further recommend appropriate remedies.”

That means “reparations” coming from tax-payers in the United States. 

Forbes Magazine says reparations won’t work:

The reparations plans that have been suggested, however, would work a lot like lotteries. Coates suggests a large lump sum distributed to a single generation over a period of “a decade or two.” Slate’s Jamelle Bouie suggests either a cash boost for existing government social-welfare and infrastructure projects (which might sound too indirect to count as reparations, at least to the average American) or “baby bonds” which black Americans, who have been given low-yield government-guaranteed savings funds at birth, would be able to cash in for perhaps a $60,000 lump sum at age 18.

Forbes then asks the question, “Both of these ideas sound like lotteries. What happens to lottery winners? Do they and their descendants go on to a permanently higher socioeconomic bracket?”

The answer is a flat no. This idea that Americans in 2019 owe anything to people who may or may not have been related to slaves is preposterous. Many Americans of European descents like the Irish and the Italians also suffered heavily from discrimination when they came to America.

No, it wasn’t slavery, and we aren’t attempting to make it a direct comparison. However, they did work for slave wages and had to live in ghettos. They weren’t welcome in “polite society,” and their Catholic faith made them outcasts.

How many Americans ancestors had nothing to do with slavery? We bet it’s the majority of Americans. So, why are we the ones being penalized?

The other problem with reparations is determining who gets it. What qualifies an African-American? Must they show a direct link to the ancestry of slaves, or do all African-Americans get “lump sums?”

Americans are already outraged over these hearings.

“If we agree to slavery reparations we’ll have to agree to reparations for the Koreans; Japanese; Chinese; Jews; Irish; and some populations I forgot. It’s just not feasible,” tweeted Twitter user “HWY.”

“Good I’m Irish you will owe me money too!” tweeted Edward Lindsay.

“Wait. who was a slave that is living today? I’m Irish. my family has ties to being slaves. Count me in on that money,” tweeted Twitter user “Most it Up.”

Maybe Sheila Jackson Lee and her cohorts should tackle the real crisis in America, the Southern border and the problem with existing immigration loopholes that cause the border disaster. Americans are getting sick and tired of the Democrats holding hearings that have zero impact on improving America as a whole.

They are so focused on identity politics they end up serving no one’s interests, especially the real problems in America today. Slavery is a stain on America but it is the past. There’s no way to eradicate all racism in the world no matter what you do. America is not a racist nation, and those who advocate this lie are only hurting themselves.

About Rebecca Diserio, Opinion Columnist 1557 Articles
Rebecca Diserio is a conservative writer and speaker who has been featured in numerous high profile publications. She's a graduate of St. Joseph High School in Lakewood, CA and worked as a Critical Care Registered Nurse at USC Medical Center. A former Tea Party spokesman, she helped manage Star Parker’s campaign for US Congress and hosted a popular conservative radio show where she interviewed Dr. Alveda King, Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, and Michelle Malkin. A police widow, she resides in Southern California.