Vice President Kamala Harris has declined to say whether she would support a commission to study reparations, despite her efforts to craft such legislation in Congress.
She suggested that a study into the history of racism and the possible need for reparations should be led by Congress, not the White House.
During a conversation with members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia on Tuesday, the Democratic presidential candidate, when asked if he would create such a commission, said, “We just need to tell the truth about our history. We need to tell the truth about the generational impacts of our history, the generational impacts of slavery, the generational impacts of redlining, the generational impacts of Jim Crow laws, despite the fact that some people are trying to erase history and teach our kids that it's not true.”
“I think ultimately Congress will have the ability to do this work,” Harris said.
Vice President Kamala Harris addresses members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, September 17, 2024. (REUTERS/Piroszka van de Woow)
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Racial justice groups and some Democrats Promoting President Biden There have been years of attempts to establish a National Reparations Commission by presidential decree, but so far they have been unsuccessful.
“We are calling for an executive order without apology,” the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said in December 2022. Her landmark legislative proposal was a bill to create a commission to study reparations. “I want the history, the journey that African Americans have taken to become an accepted reality in America once and for all.”
Liberal cities and states have launched their own efforts to provide reparations to black Americans. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) said last year: Pay $14 trillion It's to make up for what she believes are racist government policies that have created a wealth gap between white and black people.
Harris, meanwhile, has shifted focus to her own proposals that she believes would boost African-Americans.
“Part of what we can do now is, for example, build that opportunity economy that I've been talking about, explicitly addressing the barriers that exist historically and that exist today, addressing things like student loan debt, medical debt, stigma, home valuation, etc. What we need to do to address an issue that I've been advocating for for years, which is the fact that Black maternal mortality is three to four times more likely to die in a way that's related to childbirth than other women.”
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A boy holds a sign calling for reparations to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide during a protest in front of the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington, DC on April 24, 2021. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate and vice president Kamala Harris answers a question at the National Association of Black Journalists rally in Philadelphia, September 17, 2024. (REUTERS/Piroszka van de Woow)
The vice president was also asked about black men who were considering voting for former President Trump.
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“I think it's really important that we don't operate under the assumption that black men are in somebody's pocket,” Harris responded.
“Black men are like any other voting group. You have to earn their vote. So I work to earn their vote, not because I assume I'm going to get their vote because I'm black, but because I understand that the policies and the perspective that I have, we have to do something to recognize the needs of all communities.”
