Slavery Reparations: House Hearing Intense Debate

On Wednesday, Congress gathered to discuss H.R. 40, a bill that would create a commission to address the lasting effects of slavery and consider a “national apology” and reparations.

It came a day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he doesn’t support reparations “for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible.”

That remark from McConnell brought a heated response from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose 2014 article, “The Case for Reparations,” published in The Atlantic, kick-started the current debate. (The New York Times)

Hot Takes:

  • The debate over reparations could be a part of the 2020 presidential campaign.
  • Reparations could take many different forms and wouldn’t necessarily involve the government issuing checks to black people.
  • The hearing took place on Juneteenth, the holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19th.