WASHINGTON — An effort is underway in the District to get money back into the hands of residents. A councilmember at-large re-introduced a bill calling for reparations for the descendants of enslaved African Americans.
The bill was first introduced in 2020.
Nine other councilmembers signed on to the bill, saying it's about the decades of structural racism and government policies that prevented Black people from buying homes, securing jobs, and building generational wealth for their families.
Kenyan McDuffie says the racial wealth gap in D.C. is the largest in the nation. The typical white household’s net worth is 81 times higher than the typical Black household at $284,000 compared to $3,500.
The councilmember said the only way to bridge that divide is through government-sanctioned action to repair the lingering effects of enslavement and institutional racism.
“You think of any measure of success, whether it's education, whether it's health, wealth, whether it's employment, and really, you know, Black residents are on the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder,” explained McDuffie, “And this is not about pointing the finger. Let me be clear about that. It is just one of the myriads of tools that our government should consider when thinking about ways to make our city more racially equitable.”
If passed the bill would:
- Establish a nine-member reparations task force to study and develop a proposal
- Require the Commissioner of the Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking to create a slavery-era database
- Establish a reparations foundation fund
McDuffie wouldn't get into how much money we're talking about or more importantly, how to fund it. But he said the bill is the first step to figuring that all out.