By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
While African Americans continue to fight for long-promised reparations for slavery and its lasting impacts, President Donald Trump is now considering compensation for the mostly white individuals who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. In a recent interview with the far-right Newsmax host Greg Kelly, Trump was asked whether there was any discussion of a compensation fund for the Capitol rioters, citing lost income and opportunities. “Well, there’s talk about that,” Trump responded. “We have a lot of people… a lot of the people that are in government now talk about it because… really like that group of people.”
Trump continued, “They were patriots as far as I was concerned,” calling the defendants “incredible people” and claiming, “They were treated so unfairly, so horribly.” He went on to suggest that “some of them didn’t even go into the building.” The former president’s comments follow his sweeping pardon of approximately 1,500 individuals convicted for their roles in the insurrection, including those charged with violence and sedition. As Trump moves to compensate individuals who tried to overturn a democratic election—jeopardizing lawmakers, Capitol police, and the foundation of American governance—Black Americans are still waiting for the country to honor its centuries-old debt.
Since the abolition of slavery, African Americans have received little more than broken promises—from the unfulfilled offer of 40 acres and a mule to the persistent failure of meaningful reparative policy. Meanwhile, nearly every other aggrieved group in America has received redress from the federal government, whether for the internment of Japanese Americans, the Holocaust, or the terrorist attacks of September 11. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has once again introduced S.40, the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.” The bill, supported by more than a dozen Senate Democrats, aims to establish a federal commission to examine the legacy of slavery, de jure and de facto racial discrimination, and their continuing impact on African Americans today.
“We as a nation have not yet truly acknowledged and grappled with the ways slavery, racism, and white supremacy continue to disadvantage African Americans,” said Booker. “Commissioning a study to understand better where our country has fallen short will help lawmakers better address the racial disparities and inequalities that persist today as a result of generational injustices.” According to the bill, roughly four million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in America from 1619 to 1865, with slavery legally sanctioned by the U.S. government. After emancipation, the federal and state governments continued to enact and uphold racist policies, including sharecropping, redlining, unequal education, and mass incarceration.
The legislation notes that Black Americans continue to experience severe economic, educational, and health disparities—including an unemployment rate more than twice that of white Americans, more than one million under correctional supervision, and a wealth gap where Black families possess, on average, less than 1/16 of the wealth of white families. The proposed commission would investigate systemic injustices, identify their ongoing effects, and recommend forms of reparations. These may include financial compensation, educational and policy reforms, and a national apology from the U.S. government. “Any conversation about compensation for insurrectionists while refusing even a serious study of reparations for the descendants of slavery shows just how far we have to go,” said Booker.
