Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates Hits Back At McConnell Dismissing Slavery Reparations

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I think he meant we only had to do it once.

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Do you want to read Trump’s answer?

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McConnell and most of the GOP are racist scum, but I think reparations is a bad idea. What African-Americans need is a real end to racism. Reparations without it becomes just throwing money at people so you can say racism is over. We’ve moved on, so none of you have a right to whine about, say, the next Tamir Rice or Eric Garner, but without systematic work to end racism, there will be plenty more Rices and Garners.

I can’t imagine that the African-Americans who would had received the reparations would stop protesting racial injustice when it arises and white Americans would feel deceived if the payments did nothing to close the issue.

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" We elected an African-American president,” McConnell said. "

Seems since 2016 they have been trying to put that genie back in the bottle.

And who is we? Did McConnell vote for him? This royal We thing is grating.

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The GOP will label reparations as “checks for blacks” and that just might get Trump re-elected.
Arguing the justice of reparations will go nowhere with millions of voters who will see them – unfairly to be sure – as money for the undeserving.

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And a president McConnell vowed to deny a second term.

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That’s what they’re so afraid of.

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McConnell by adopting his position is circumventing actual discussion. I do not have much to say on reparations at this point. Maybe I would agree or disagree with portions of it. Maybe I would buy in completely. Or be totally put off for some reason or another. But when McConnell wants to basically kiss it off and walk away, then I can’t truly see what is there. He is jumping up and down, waving his arms, distracting people from having that painful discussion.

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Yep. Next to Don the Con he’s the biggest obstacle to any progress being made in this country over the last decade or more.

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Yep. At the meeting where the assembled GOP congress people began the meeting playing the clip from The Town, where Ben Affleck’s character says to Jeremy Renner’s “I need your help. I can’t tell you what it’s about. You can never ask me about it later. And we’re gonna hurt some people.” And Jeremy Renner’s character answers by asking who’s car we taking, yours or mine?

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I agree with you, but this is not the time for that discussion.

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Why not?

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We have a must win election and that is a distraction we don’t need.

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The reparation hearings were timed perfectly with Trump’s campaign rollout. Who made that call? The same fundraising team that says impeachment is off the table?

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There is a pragmatic agreement with that. But somehow my inner voice is saying it would be a mistake to not at least include this as a discussion with the other issues. I will go with the latter of the two choices.

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I would recommend Mr. Coates’ brilliant essay in the Atlantic: The Case for Reparations It may change your mind. I would say before reading that article, I was reparation curious. Afterward, I’m totally on board. I am about half way through his collection of essays, We Were Eight Years in Power. It is also outstanding and a perspective that is good for people like me (i.e., white southern-raised American male). I would commend it to you also.

@sao, also.

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See my response to Nero, above.

I would also recommend one of Malcom Gladwell’s podcasts that discusses what is called “moral licensing.” Which is the idea that people are more willing to express attitudes that could be viewed as prejudiced when their past behavior has established their credentials as nonprejudiced persons. For example, since we voted for a black president, it is ok if we continue our racist policies. This is exactly what McConnell is trying to do, though since he himself undoubtedly did not vote for Barack Obama, he’s trying to auger credit to the Republican party for what clearly it did not do.

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I support reparations. Republicans are not going to make them. We have to get the country back first and this could complicate that effort.

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You and me both. I hate that piece of shit. He’d still be talking in racist dog whistles if tRump hadn’t been (s)elected but now, he just spits passive-aggressive invectives, especially towards the Democratic party any chance he gets. And he’s supposed to be the Majority Leader of the entire Senate, not just his lousy party. When he does that, he also knows he’s attacking the broad cross section of the minority base of the Democratic party that’s made up of strong African American support as well. His dismissive attitude on letting any legislation go forward that deals with improving the lives of the poor and working class, for years it seems, is also nothing short of insulting. Like tRump, he behaves as though he has no shame.

He disgusts me.

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Thanks. I actually read that piece before expressing my thoughts. My most basic objection is that I can’t see how this doesn’t lead our politics into precisely the terrain that the GOP is praying it will go: racial tension, historical acrimony, and a pseudo-existential fight over racial/social capital. Focusing on reparations is essentially a politics of symbolism, not a politics of power.

I’m in favor of getting power and using it in ways that radically improve outcomes for groups handicapped by racist social structures: AVR, free public healthcare, good schools, aggressive climate-change measures, criminal justice reform, housing reform. That’s what politicians are good for. Teachers and educators can (and largely do) focus on questions of our history and its relation to the present.

To put it another way: if you think that Black Lives Matter and taking a knee is the most productive way to conduct racial politics, then reparations is for you. I don’t think it is. While not discounting the role of protest, I don’t think you’re ever going to guilt the white masses into transferring wealth or opportunities to the black masses. I think you just act, and act again, and act again. Never apologize, never explain. That’s what the GOP is good act. Actually running the country on their terms. We should focus on doing that. Enough with the chitchat and the placards and the analysis. That’s what colleges are for, not politicians.

PS: This is what the GOP is doing. The politics of fait accompli. That should be our practice, too.

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