Progressive politicians are having trouble convincing Black Americans that reparations are politically feasible or possible within this generation, according to a new report.
"We have been talking about [reparations] for years, people have been fighting for this for years," Aziza Kamara-Amimi, a Californian, said at a Sunday service at San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church. "And still all we are doing is talking and talking, and I don’t see any real progress being made."
"What’s the real solution?" Kamara-Amimi reportedly asked.
The Washington Post reported in a story headlined, "Black Americans aren't enthusiastic about reparations yet," that some pro-reparations activists are concerned that Black support is too low for reparations to make it a serious political possibility.
"If Black residents, who make up 6.5 percent of California residents, don’t believe in reparations enough to apply political pressure on state leaders, the movement could stall, advocates worry," the outlet reported.
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll last year found 75 percent of Black Americans supported compensation for the descendants of slaves, but only 14 percent believed that would happen in their lifetimes.
"If Black folks don’t believe that reparations are possible, then no other community, either other people of color or White people, will really get on board with this," Trevor Smith, head of the Reparations Narrative Lab, told the Post.
Some politicians are arguing that reparations are a key issue ahead of the presidential election in November, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.
"There are people who support this and would be more politically engaged if this were a part of our political discourse," Bowman said, according to the Washington Post. "But it isn’t, so they’re staying home or some are even moving to the Republican Party because it feels like Democrats are taking Black voters for granted."
Bowman is among nine sponsors of H.R. 414, which seeks to establish that the U.S. 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 measure, introduced in 2023, would prompt the federal government to spend $14 trillion on a reparations program that would support the descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. Blacks make up 12% of the population in the U.S., according to U.S. Census figures.
President Biden said during the 2020 election that he "supported a study on reparations for Black Americans, but he has resisted calls from advocates to issue an executive order to establish one," The Post reported.
"The President has supported Congress’ efforts to study reparations and the continued impacts of slavery," White House assistant press secretary Robyn Patterson said.
Fox News' Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this report.
