I didn’t want to let the story of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s reparations task force pass without comment. Here’s the editors’ of the Sun-Times/s reaction:
Johnson didn’t say what form reparations would take or how they would be funded. Any potential solutions would likely have to be policy-based, given the city’s budget constraints.
Johnson’s office issued a news release saying the task force will “create a definition and framework” for reparations, identify “core issues for redress and reparative actions,” and examine “all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to the present day.” The task force would then “make a series of recommendations [to fix] past injustices and present harm.”
All of this seems iffy, ponderous and time-consuming. If the mayor wants to make things better for Black Chicago, he doesn’t have to wait for a task force’s findings.
He can fix the CTA so people all across the city can get to work and school safely and on time. He can fight to make sure the public school system, with its $9.4 billion budget, is properly educating all students.
He can make crime in Black communities a priority by working closely with police and the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability on a coherent, workable plan to make those neighborhoods safer.
He can make sure parks on the West and South sides are safe, have good programs and are properly maintained, the same as parks on the North and Northwest Side.
Fixing these things won’t change the past. But they can make for a better future.
My question about reparations is the same as it has always been: paid by whom to whom? I question the justice of newly-arrived Hispanic and Asian immigrations paying reparations to Chicagoans of African-American ancestry, some of whom are recent immigrants themselves. I do predict that the $500,000 budget announced for the task force will improve the lives of some Chicagoans of African-American ancestry: those serving on the task force.
On the subject, a funny take by the Youtube channel HistoryLegends (https://youtu.be/Ev58x0nnM60?feature=shared).
Lets not forget the web designers, print shop owner and flim flam men who will benefit. the of course, the inevitable class action suits.
Wonder when we will start to make amends to tribes and ponder whether we owe reparations to the Mexicans, Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, etc
Some days I think I should get reparations from my in-laws, but they are gone. Anyway, the time to do this is long gone. Besides which the only case of reparations on a large scale paid over a long time has gone to former slaveholders for losing their property. Let it go and move on.
Steve