In Bernie’s CNN Town Hall, he was asked a question about reparations. That is, reparations paid to black people for their ancestors having been enslaved. 40 acres and a mule, so to speak, although 150 years late.
Of course, we know now that the questioners at that Town Hall were not exactly random, so to say it was a gotcha question is not even a stretch.
Then, there is a concern troll type I’m seeing on a couple of the Bernie sites I visit, always posting the same thing: no reparations, no support for Bernie.
Bernie is in favor of Medicare for All, a Green New Deal which will also end homelessness and unemployment, an end to private prisons, reforms to the criminal justice system, free college tuition and legalization of marijuana.
All of those things will benefit black people, at least as much as white people. They will help poor people, of whom an unfair percentage are black. They will free a lot of unfairly incarcerated people, a large percentage of whom are black. Reparations is way down in about 143rd place on the list of things anybody’s talking about.
In fact, I don’t think any candidate at all (except for Marianne Williamson, who has about as much chance of becoming president as Vernon Supreme) was talking about reparations.
This happens in every election cycle in America. People will be talking about important issues, like war and peace, or the economy, or the environment, and somebody will make some dramatic statements and all of a sudden something else is the major issue – gay rights, or abortion, or guns, or prayer in schools. Usually something that can trigger defensive reactions, and extreme emotionalism.
Let’s keep focused on the issues: we need to save the planet, we need universal health care, we need to get big money out of politics, we need to stop having wars at the drop of a hat, we need to stop throwing people in jail because some people are making money on it, and we need to save the planet.
Did I say that twice? Well, that’s because it’s an important issue. Reparations is not.
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