A House Democrat plans to introduce a resolution calling for the U.S. to spend trillions of dollars on reparations for Black Americans this week.
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Penn., plans to introduce the Reparations Now Resolution on Thursday. Lee met with other lawmakers and activists on Capitol Hill on Tuesday at an event titled “Why We Can’t Wait: Advancing Reparative Justice in Our Lifetime.” She argues that reparations are a “moral and legal obligation” for Americans.
“This is a moment in time where societies are shaped [and] new societies are built. We should be the ones who are shaping it,” said Lee.
“Their real intention is to build up whatever comes next in their image,” she said, referring to the Trump administration, “and we better fight like hell to make sure that we’re building it in our image.”
Lee added that “it took nothing but a stroke of a pen,” for President Donald Trump to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government.
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“That’s why we recognize that the fight to restore Black folks has to be so much more substantive,” she added.
Lee’s resolution cites U.S. slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other racially discriminatory laws and policies to justify spending trillions of dollars supporting the descendants of Black Americans in the U.S.
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Lee’s push comes after Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., introduced her own legislation in February calling for a federal commission to study U.S. slavery and reparation proposals.
“We are in a moment of anti-Blackness on steroids and we refuse to be silent,” Pressley said at the time. “We will not back down in our pursuit of racial justice.”
The bill aims to create a federal commission charged with investigating the enduring impacts of slavery and its aftermath, along with developing concrete proposals for reparations to African Americans who are descendants of slaves, Pressley said.
Democratic politicians in blue states, including California, in recent years have floated reparations as a way to atone for what proponents describe as a legacy of racist policies that created disparities for Black people in housing, education and health.
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Democrats on the Hill and in California have pushed for passage of reparations legislation, with other cities and states proposing ideas for reparations.