Free Republic

This year has seen a dramatic change in tone in the global conversation about the transatlantic slave trade. The demand for formal apologies, debt relief and financial compensation from nations and institutions that benefited from slavery has become increasingly forceful. In March, a resolution was passed at the United Nations recognising slavery as "the greatest crime against humanity" - though the United States voted against the resolution and every European nation abstained from the vote. The UK, which alongside Portugal dominated the transatlantic slave trade, has consistently rejected the idea of paying reparations, which is perhaps unsurprising given estimates of...

You said:H.Res.414 calculates slavery reparations for the years of 1619 up to 1865. What is the argument for why the United States should pay on behalf of the British Empire?ChatGPT said:There is an important distinction here: H.Res. 414 does not actually argue that the United States should compensate people for slavery because Britain committed it. Its argument is that the United States, after independence, inherited and continued the institution and therefore assumed responsibility for its own conduct and its continuing consequences.The key passage is unusually explicit. It says that, beginning with the nation's founding in 1776, federal policies "produced and...

Children’s YouTube and Netflix star Ms. Rachel has added support for reparations over slavery and Jim Crow Laws to her growing catalogue of left-wing causes, taking her latest stance via an Instagram post to her five million-plus followers.Ms. Rachel, AKA Rachel Accurso, took an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay The Case for Reparations to illustrate the need to “reckon” with America’s history of slavery.

The push is back on for slavery reparations. In July, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a report urging the immediate adoption of reparations. As Lanessa Owens-Chaplin — one of the report’s authors and Director of the Racial Justice Center at NYCLU — puts it: “Reparations are a debt that is owed. Enslaved Black people built the foundation of New York’s economy… Reparations must be extended to all Black New Yorkers descended from those enslaved by New York State.” The NYCLU report is predicated on an undeniable reality: the persistent wealth gap between black and white households. But all...

For almost four decades, I did expert witness testimony in wrongful death cases. The purpose of such testimony is often to place an affected party in a position of financial indifference between a "before" and "after" event. It's the same premise for black reparations. Most enslaved Africans brought to the United States came from Senegambia and west-central Africa, including present-day Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon. I did a calculation that compared wages in these countries today and compared them to current black wages in the US. I then did a present value...

The city of Chicago is billions of dollars in debt, including $36 billion in pension debt. The Chicago Public School district also has a budget deficit of more than $700 million. Despite these very dire fiscal parameters, Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to spend more taxpayer money to give reparations to areas where ICE conducted immigration enforcement raids. "I believe the most relevant ballot referendum question around receiving reparations for communities that experienced that hardship, and whether that was on the west side of Chicago or the black man being placed in an illegal chokehold or long guns being stuck into...

Residents at two swanky North Carolina communities have sounded the alarm over alleged trespassers taking over their pools, claiming that their homeowners associations (HOA) are not doing enough to stop the rowdiness. The complaints have emerged at Edge of Auburn in Garner and Trace at Olde Towne in nearby Raleigh, with residents saying they have become afraid to use their amenities funded through hefty HOA dues. Dramatic footage from one of the pool areas showed a spat between residents and nonresidents, WRAL reported. It was not clear how or why the confrontation started, but homeowners described how it embodied the...

Longtime CNN political commentator and Democrat Van Jones rebuked far-left activists Saturday, warning that their positions on Hamas, prisons and immigration are regressive and threatened to steer the Democratic Party in the wrong direction as socialist-backed candidates celebrated recent primary victories. "Yes, we want our Democratic Party to be a big tent. But we don’t need 'party poopers. So STOP pooping in the punch bowl — and telling us the turds are ice cubes," Jones said on X, in reference to his Substack post. Jones accused some Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) activists of promoting positions involving Hamas, policing, prisons...

A Tennessee mother shot and killed a man she found hiding under her 13-year-old daughter’s bed, according to cops — and now she’s facing first-degree murder charges. Kendra Scott was arrested after police found a 20-year-old man dead from a gunshot wound in the back of his head outside her Memphis home just before 2 a.m. Thursday, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Post. Her lawyer called the situation, “the worst nightmare of any parent of a 13-year-old girl.” The 36-year-old mother told officers she came home and “saw a dude under my kids’ bed.” “And I did...

A California county that faced a $91 million budget gap this year has approved a sweeping reparations plan for black residents that calls for major changes to housing, education, healthcare and criminal justice — while leaving the door open to cash payments. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on June 30 to accept the comprehensive plan following more than two years of research and community engagement. The plan largely centers on institutional and policy changes rather than immediately handing out direct payments, though officials have not ruled out eventually putting cash in the hands of eligible residents. The...

OPINION:Democrats are abandoning the party’s most cohesive and dependable voting base — Black voters — in favor of flashy, young and charismatic socialists. Historically, about 80% to 90% of Black voters have aligned with the Democratic Party. No other major demographic in the U.S. votes as unitedly. Black turnout is essential for Democrats to win national elections, and candidates who fail to secure their support, as seen in the historically crucial South Carolina primary, rarely win the overall nomination. However, the Black electorate is not a progressive monolith. About 73% of Black Americans identify as Christian, and nearly 97% believe...

Derrick Lemond Simmons, 50, was arrested after he attacked the unnamed coworker with a bat, knife and hatchet at the semiconductor manufacturer’s Ocotillo campus on Saturday, according to court documents obtained by Arizona Family. Chandler police responding to the scene found one person dead with fatal blunt force trauma injuries and another person injured.

The bottom 50% of households in the U.S. own only $4.27 trillion of the nation's $174 trillion in available wealth. By contrast, the top 0.1% own $25.07 trillion, and the top 99 to 99.9% own a little under $30 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data. With AI now supercharging the stock market, and richer families already owning the majority of those assets, that divide is only likely to widen. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is well aware of this phenomenon. In fact, the man worth more than $3 billion according to Forbes says he understands why people are "anti-rich."...

Advocacy group calls on acting attorney general to lead ‘thorough, transparent federal investigation’The deaths in recent days of two Black men in Tennessee, one in the custody of police and the other at the hands of national guard troops, has prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to demand the suspension of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, Donald Trump’s anti-crime alliance of federal, state and local law enforcement.In a letter to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Friday, the NAACP also demanded “a thorough, transparent federal investigation” into the actions of the taskforce, which it...

Florida millionaire wooed bestselling author before allegedly forcing her into cuckolding fantasy with black men who he paid 'reparations': Litany of claims detail degrading sexual abuse It was supposed to be the dating app where the rich met their equals. Millionaire Match promises to connect wealthy, successful singles looking for partners who share their ambition, lifestyle and bank balance – a kind of Tinder for the one percent. For Australian bestselling author Hacia Atherton, 38, it appeared to deliver exactly that. Her match with millionaire Florida businessman and retired pilot Paul Vitale, 69, quickly blossomed into a glamorous long-distance romance...

Jasmine Crockett, the race-hustling Congresswoman who lost her Texas Senate bid to Democrat James Talarico, revealed the real reason she lost the race during a black culture festival over the weekend. At a panel discussion during the Essence Festival in New Orleans on the Fourth of July, Crockett appeared alongside Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) and Louisiana State Senator Royce Duplessis. At one point, Crockett went off on her own party and "racist" Republicans for ignoring black people, saying, "I believe that we need to make demands." "It is not enough just to be that you're not the racist Republican but...

Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, the Democrat nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, denounced the Declaration of Independence, capitalism, billionaires, and what he called “American exceptionalism.” Rabb made the remarks during the “America at 250 — Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth” panel, held June 26 at People’s Plaza on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. Rabb is running unopposed in Pennsylvania's heavily Democrat 3rd Congressional District and is widely expected to win election to Congress in November. During the discussion, Rabb argued that the Declaration of Independence did not deliver freedom to everyone and instead helped preserve the...

This video, created by Black Conservative Perspective, criticizes recent actions by African leaders regarding the Juneteenth holiday. The creator argues that the recent commemoration in Ghana, which involved a reenactment of the slave trade, is an inappropriate way to observe the holiday, which he defines as a celebration of freedom. Key points covered in the video: Critique of Juneteenth Observance (0:00 - 2:05): The creator expresses disapproval of observing Juneteenth through displays of sorrow or slavery reenactments, asserting that the day should focus on happiness and gratitude for emancipation. The "Hijacking" of Juneteenth (2:06 - 4:10): The creator discusses how...

Freedom in the United States has always arrived in stages, declared in one space and denied or delayed in another. Such was the reality for formerly enslaved Texans who learned of their emancipation in 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation and the same year he issued his “40 acres and a mule” promise. Indeed, Juneteenth is as old as the call for reparations. Flashforward to 2021, and the bill that established Juneteenth as a national holiday and H.R. 40, the proposal to establish a commission to study reparations, reached Congress. The former...

Some Black New Yorkers are demanding cash reparations from the government as state officials consider some form of compensation for slavery or other past racial injustices. “We need $800,000 for each foundation of Black Americans. That’s simple,” Aubrey Muhammud told Fox News Digital. “That’s — in New York — that’s about the cost of living that’ll get you a home or a small business or for you to recover from any financial duress.” The New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies held a public hearing last Saturday. The hearing followed up on when Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023 signed...