ONE suburban town in American has voted to offer $25,000 to black Americans for slavery reparations, but not all locals are on board.
The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, is the first US city to offer reparations to black citizens after an 8-1 vote earlier this year.
Eligible black Americans in Evanston can receive $25,000 housing grants for down payments, repairs or mortgages.
The program will provide 16 grants in its first year. These reparations are an attempt to correct past racist actions.
To be eligible, applicants must have lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 or be a direct descendent of someone who did.
Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons, a fourth-generation black resident spearheaded the program saying, "We had to create ordinances and laws that said we are committed to inclusion in a tangible way, not just in a sign, not just in a resolution, but with our budget."
Other citizens also supported the movement, such as Reverend Michael Nabors, who said: "It is Evanston today and, in my opinion, it is going to be the United States tomorrow. We are leading the way.”
Other locals do not believe the system will work in providing proper repayment, including Alderwoman Cicely Fleming.
"The bank continues to be the largest beneficiary and perpetrator of housing discrimination. It really lays under the guise of a narrative that poor and/or African American people don’t know how to manage their money. Therefore, when the government gives them money, there are lots of parameters on how they can use it," Fleming says.
Duke University economist William Darity agrees, determining the program will do "more harm than good."
Former Housing Secretary Ben Carson also agrees with the harmfulness of these reparations, even calling them "un-American."
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post in April, Carson wrote, “Focus has moved from equality to equity, that is, instead of pursuing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideal of judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, equity would reward and punish people because of the color of their skin."
Carson instead suggests access to decent paying jobs education, and a solid family structure as better means of repayment.
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