Reparations Are Part of Marianne Williamson’s Plan to Heal America

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/marianne-williamson-reparations.html

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As part of the self-help author Marianne Williamson’s campaign to heal America, she has proposed paying $200 billion to $500 billion in reparations for slavery over a period of 20 years.

For decades, Germany has paid billions of dollars into a postwar reparations program meant to compensate mostly Jewish victims of Nazi crimes. In the United States, people of Japanese descent who were forced into internment camps during World War II received $20,000 in 1988, along with a formal apology.

Over the past several months, many candidates have been asked if they support a House bill to study and develop a plan for reparations for African-Americans. The bill gained heightened attention in June when a hearing was held to discuss it.

Under Ms. Williamson’s plan, the proposed $200 billion to $500 billion in reparations for slavery would go to educational and economic projects selected by a group of African-American leaders.

Ms. Williamson’s call for a tangible step toward atonement fits in with her campaign’s broader push for introspection, reconciliation and healing.

Most of the candidates in the 2020 field who have been asked about reparations have expressed some measure of support. But Ms. Williamson appears to be the only candidate with a specific plan on how to administer them.

Those who have dismissed the idea have done so on the grounds that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get through Congress — and also potentially divisive.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has spoken out against the idea, saying he does not favor reparations “for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible.”