"Squad" member Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., of the of House progressives, introduced a resolution Wednesday for $14 trillion in reparations to be distributed to American descendants of Black slaves.
A draft of the resolution, obtained by The Washington Post, reads "The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States." The Post reported the resolution also "calls for $14 trillion for Black Americans to close the racial wealth gap that some reparations advocates say is the direct result of racist government policies."
Speaking to reporters at a news conference outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Bush suggested that funding the program could be achieved by cutting foreign and military spending.
"We're working with this administration," Bush said, according to The Daily Mail. "We're talking with other members of Congress, but I'll say this: If we can continue to fund these endless wars, or we can continue to put trillions of dollars into these forever wars, into the defense budget even beyond what they asked for, if we can send money abroad to help elsewhere, then we have to make sure, because we're talking about things that are happening now.
"Uncomfortable as it may be, our country was not founded on the principle that all people are created equal. It was founded at the expense of the lives, freedom and well-being of Black people, African folks who they stole, whose enslavement, exploitation and dehumanization were written — written into the Constitution."
The $14 trillion figure reflects the findings of Duke University professor and economist William "Sandy" Darity, who estimated the racial wealth gap is more than $300,000 per person, and there are roughly 40 million Americans whose ancestors were enslaved in the U.S.
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