President Trump could seize on Democratic calls for slavery reparations to mobilize “white rage,” providing a possible advantage in the general election.
Trump trails presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by an average of 8.5 percentage points. But pressure Democrats faced during the primary to support at least a reparations study could help Trump stay competitive during the fall fight.
Reparations are once again a topic of conversation as racial inequality and criminal justice reform dominate the political agenda after George Floyd’s death. Yet Republicans latched onto activist demands to “defund the police” as the latest instance of left-wing extremism. Now ideas regarding how to make amends for two centuries of slavery could become the GOP’s next target.
“If the Republicans are smart, they’ll keep bringing it up,” George Mason University professor Jeremy Mayer told the Washington Examiner.
With November’s contests coinciding with an economic dip, Mayer explained that forcing Biden to discuss reparations could “divide Democrats between pragmatic moderates, who want to win above everything, and people who feel that Biden should stand for something.”
Most African Americans favor reparations, while about 70% of Americans more generally don’t, Mayer said, citing a September 2019 AP-NORC poll. To the academic and author who’s written extensively on U.S. politics and race, many of those people who are against the policy are fueled by “white resentment.”
“If you look at public polling on this issue and racial issues in general, there are a sizable portion of white voters, including a number of them in Trump’s base, who believe it’s actually easier to be black today than it is to be white,” he said. “There’s a hard core of angry white people who would oppose reparations in any shape or form because they think America has probably done more than enough.”
Democrats have harbored reparations concerns in the past, even former President Barack Obama and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton. However, the party has shifted to the left, driven in part by the electoral influence of African Americans, according to Mayer.
“Republicans would be fools not to exploit the divide between Biden’s move to keep enthusiasm with his black base and white America,” he said.
Last week, Biden reiterated his support for H.R.40. The bill, if passed by Congress and given the presidential seal of approval, would create a commission to study proposals for a national apology and reparations.
“Let’s do the study and decide whether there should be direct cash payments, but in the meantime, you know what has to be done,” Biden said during a NAACP town hall.
The two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator mentioned housing and education initiatives before he was pressed on whether he would endorse monetary transfers. University of Connecticut researcher Thomas Craemer, for one, has slapped an estimated $5.9 trillion to $14.2 trillion price tag on purely financial compensation.
“The answer is it depends on what it was and will it include Native Americans as well,” Biden replied.
During the primary, Democratic presidential candidates were cornered by civil rights advocates such as Rev. Al Sharpton to take a stance on H.R.40.
More than a year later and after the unrest that followed Floyd’s death, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday she was “hopeful” H.R.40’s Senate companion legislation would gain traction in her chamber.
“If we keep marching, if we keep protesting, if we keep pushing, if we keep putting these bills up, we can start bringing in more co-sponsors, and we can actually move this forward,” Biden’s former White House rival turned running mate contender told Steve Phillips’s Democracy in Color podcast.
The senator hasn’t explicitly said whether she supports cash payments.
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez similarly told reporters Tuesday on a press call that regardless of who became Biden’s understudy, they would “share his commitment to make sure that we really, in fact, take aggressive action to correct our original sin.”
If Biden were to claim the White House, Mayer predicted he’d sign off on the reparations study but would likely find “a nice way” to avoid cash payments through a “mix of healthcare and education benefits.” For Mayer, any undertaking would be burdened by financial and logistical problems, comparing it to a Ronald Reagan-era program after World War II.
“There’s a huge difference between compensating Japanese Americans who were put in concentration camps and compensating the descendants of slaves,” he said.
But the work continues.
San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton’s board in February unanimously passed a resolution establishing a reparations study group.
“A lot of times, people look at reparations in terms of giving everyone a check,” Walton told the Washington Examiner.
Walton suggested “no amount of money” could make up for “hundreds of years of oppression.” Instead, his task force is examining “all the areas of injustice,” including education, housing, employment, and small business. He used San Francisco’s police funds reallocation to its African American population this month as an example of what could be done.
“I want long-term investment, long-term change, things that are gonna help change the wealth gap that exists between the black community and most communities, particularly the white community,” he said.
Walton wasn’t deterred by the possibility of a GOP backlash.
“I don’t make any decision having any concern about angering Republicans,” he said. “I don’t really care. My focus is on doing the right things for the people that I serve and the communities that I serve.”
