Half a mil to put their thumbs up their asses instead of just literally giving that money directly as reparations 
Edit: I want to clarify, I fully support reparations, I'm just extremely frustrated knowing that, under liberal/bourgeoisie democracy, these types of efforts tend to get bogged down with means testing, and sometimes outright turn into thinly-veiled handouts to private corporations. All while the police budget is still increasing YOY.
That said, Evanston (city on Chicago's northern border) did actually manage to distribute "...$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility." So I don't want to encourage further reactionary criticisms such as mine towards this specific subcommittee if they are able to achieve at least some form of direct payments similar to Evanston's program.
there are valid questions about who gets reparations but yeah thats insane. edit im undeleting my comment because i needs to be said.
not looking for a whole thing im just mentally ill. but thats not reparations, call it something else. like from the naacp to the black panthers everyone calls for race based reparations. and before you start yes mlk called for the destruction of poverty as a hole but he did call for race based reparations. all reparations are race based reparations. reparations are payment for a specific crime that crime was slavery. reparations are also about healing the genarational trauma. if you look a poll on what black people actually want (the only peoples who opinions matter) https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/08/30/black-americans-views-on-reparations-for-slavery/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/28/black-and-white-americans-are-far-apart-in-their-views-of-reparations-for-slavery/ its clear black people want reparations in the form of cash payments and collage schollarships. frankly i couldn't even FIND a poll on non race based reparations because thast just NOT A THING im sorry but i feel crazy reading your comment it feels like im on reddit sorry lol ive had this exact conveo with so many redditors its crazy. im not looking for a debate or another "othello hate white people" saga but non race based reparations is NOT REPARATIONS ITS JUST FREE MONEY FOR POOR PEOPLE ITS NOT JUSTICE. call it what ever you want bout you cant say youre in favor of reparations and then be against reparations, i cant even FIND a respected black org that supports what your saying im over here trying to steelman your argument and I cant. this is the only issue that both black radical communist and black conservatives and basically most black people agree on. lastly in know this is the ramblings of a mad man im very mentally ill i cant let things go this doesnt matter we are never getting reparations anyway or anything in this goddamm country (i already fucking got my ancestors land in my fathers country) - nevermind im forcing myself to stop and walk away. sorry i just hate seeing this anti reparation shit on hexbear its not the first nor will it be the last time im sure. im not going to respond any more for the sake of my own mental health thank you.
Why does this website have to be so weird about race??? These people call people crackers constantly but most of them are crackers when push comes to shove.
its all
and 
and 
memes until its time to actually do the things those figures were calling for. the worst part for me is the redefining reparation to not be about race. just say youre against reparations with your whole chest you know? i could at least engage with the position then. the worst part for me is the last part.
that you that is what YOU are doing. frankly its WORSE, your not even limiting how people can spend their reparations your just denying them reparations. thats fucking worse!!!!!!! (you being OP not you autism dragon) every single black person in this country could be middle class and the American federal government would still owe them reparations. the issue of poverty in general and the issue of reparations are two separate issues.
I apologize for not being more careful with my words. I do believe in race-based, direct cash-payment reparations, I was just being flippant at the idea of liberal democracy spending $500k + a year of deliberation just to likely end up with a means-tested program, and then I was taking the position that such amount of money would be put to better use literally just being given away rather than being burned on consultant fees or w/e (but I recognize that such a giveaway would still not be reparations).
But even that was ignorant of me, because:
So maybe there's hope for this Chicago program, as well. Again, apologies for my flippant comment, I meant to direct my criticism solely at liberal democracy historically doing poorly-implemented, means-tested "assistance programs," not the idea of doing reparations itself.
apology accepted. and as for my heated response i have had to deal with similar comments to the one I thought you were making when affirmative action got overturned (including some egregious misuse of mlk quotes). we all good comrade!
Cash payment doesn't seem like a good solution compared to the "40 acres and a mule" (i.e. means of production) line. Scholarships are alright but feel a bit like a trap when you consider the barriers poor people face in succeeding in college even setting aside tuition.
Nonetheless, on mass line principles, we may as well try and fail this approach since it's still a small expenditure compared to the MIC and a lot of other bullshit the US has infinite pocket depth for. After it fails, it will have still directly done some good and then the need for a more systemic solution will be made obvious to virtually everyone.
Also it's kinda wild of the libs to look at the current situation of various minorities and think that "ah yes, we need official documents linking you to a slave ancestor" rather than just helping people without means testing. Because that's usually what the liberals are trying to do, it can be obvious that you had slaves in your family, but if you don't have the papers they get off on denying due to technicality. I've read through most reparations resolutions and it's depressing
i think the NAACP had a good solution https://naacp.org/resources/reparations
"Reparations would involve a national apology, rights to the cannabis industry, financial payment, social service benefits, and land grants to every descendant of an enslaved African American and Black person a descendant of those living in the United States including during American slavery until the Jim Crow era. 1965. Because slavery involved kidnapping, barbarism, and the stripping of language, culture and heritage, many Black people are unaware of their specific African heritage and which country in fact their ancestors were stolen from. The forged documentation, lack of documentation or non-existent documentation, from birth certificates to slave manifest, be it resolved that eligibility for these reparations requires the following: people that were born in the United States or naturalized citizens that have noted their Black heritage on the census, identify as Black on their birth certificate and/or have documentation of enslaved parentage in the United States, documentation of parentage residing in the United States prior to and during the Jim Crow era, and currently identify as Black American or African American. Identification of African-American heritage is both a biological and physical representation of being African-American on a daily basis."
and yes means testing is stupid. black does not equal poor, were the Japanese internment camp prisoners means tested? were the italians?? was anyone else??
Ruining the tobacco industry’s plans to monopolize cannabis is reason enough to implement this alone. Eat shit Marlboro.
i also hate how in this discourse that there are currently 2.3 million black people in prison and many are being used for literal legally defined slave work and that it never gets brought up. they act like its so long ago but its literally happening right now. especially when labor is used as a punishment of a crime, its so fucked to keep pressing the profit button once someone has 'fixed' what they broke. im talking theft-based and possession felonies that get you in jail for 10-15 years but 10-15 years of labor is way more money and harm than the crime itself. and thats not even getting into labor trafficking from countries like haiti or the fact that jim crow would result in situations that were basically just slavery....
im really worried about this bit, i know it was common in the czech community in america to hide that we were czech to avoid anti-slav discrimination. i even have talked to czechs that were forced to live in certain districts because they identified as czech on naturalization papers, it was generally recommended to identify as austrian or german because they got off easier. theres got to be edge cases for white-passing/mixed ancestry black people. i also recall some movements in the 70s demanding everyone to say 'rather not say' on ethnicity forms or not fill out ethnicity so as to avoid geographic racial profiling. i wish we didnt have such a shitty government so we could have actual scientific socialist studies on how to get reparations to everyone effected with no one being left behind. i honestly wonder what cuba has done in this field, i cant say im well-versed on afro-cuban history. i do know china has had some really extensive reparations policies to certain ethnic groups, but that is a very different setting.
honestly wonder what cuba has done in this field
they did not have reparations but they addressed the disparity it in other ways , but you have to consider that cuba is not the richest country in the world and they had to do what best fit their revolution. with the committees for the defense of the revolution. but every country is different and this has been a long held demand. you should watch one way or another sometime lol i was watching it with ving the other day and they said it was the most dialectical movie they had ever seen but im just rambling about a movie it like . but to your other points ill just sumise to say there will never be a 100% perfect solution and the theoretical of what to do changes based on whether or not we are talking about this happening under a socialist or capitalist society. i have my own personal thoughts on both scenarios (and the likelihood of them) but as i type this im getting too high to think.
TTYL kristina
i aspire to this rn thanks for the great idea
The one city I know of that has actually started reparations payments -- Evanston -- is tying them to redlining and other discriminatory policies in Evanston and in the 20th century. I don't think it's means tested, either; it's not based on need, but on if recipients are "descendants of Evanston residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969."
that seems pretty good, but do they need to currently reside there, or does it go to everyone including people that left the city? also isnt that the one othello was talking about as not being enough
The way I read it is that someone would be eligible if they currently live in (for example) Chicago, but their parents lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969. This seems like exactly the sort of wheels-on-the-pavement question you'd need to talk through in a committee before rolling this out, too.
And yeah, I'd agree this isn't enough, but a city trying to repair the part of the damage it did specifically seems like a significant step in the right direction.