Half a mil to put their thumbs up their asses instead of just literally giving that money directly as reparations 
Edit: I want to clarify, I fully support reparations, I’m just extremely frustrated knowing that, under liberal/bourgeoisie democracy, these types of efforts tend to get bogged down with means testing, and sometimes outright turn into thinly-veiled handouts to private corporations. All while the police budget is still increasing YOY.
That said, Evanston (city on Chicago’s northern border) did actually manage to distribute “…$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility.” So I don’t want to encourage further reactionary criticisms such as mine towards this specific subcommittee if they are able to achieve at least some form of direct payments similar to Evanston’s program.
inb4 they pocket the money and go “we’ll meet again next year to finish this”
No that’s literally what they’re doingAld. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward), the chair of the Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus, said the subcommittee is likely to be part of the City Council’s Committee on Contracting Equity and Oversight, which is led by Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward). That panel will meet for no more than a year, and then transition to a full commission, Coleman told WTTW News.
Edit: I’m going to go back on this specific criticism, as has been pointed out by other commenters, this committee has voiced their intentions to model their program after Evanston, which began with means-testing assistance but had a 2nd phase which instituted “$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility.”
There’s still plenty to criticize around the inefficiencies and contradictions of reparation attempts under liberal democracy, but I don’t want to direct my ire at efforts that actually accomplish some material benefit, at least if and until they demonstrate failure. In other words, we should agitate these efforts to do it correctly, and clown on them if they end up with some means-tested liberal nonsense, but not clown on them for attempting it all.
How does this imply they are pocketing the money and doing no work?
This is a major city taking a concrete step towards reparations and we’re making unfounded criticisms that could be ripped right from
How do people think you go from supporting reparations as a concept to actually cutting checks and deciding who gets what? Are the people doing the work to get from concept to execution supposed to work for free?
This is what running a government looks like. Absent a specific critique about why this amount isn’t needed, the takes objecting to this are just the reactionary “any dime the government spends on anything other than the end product is pure waste.”
I will believe this the minute I see this process resulting in >$500k being given as reparations. Unfortunately creating a committee to study an issue is from a well-established playbook of stringing people along.
“I’ll believe the government can do good when I see it” is a core reactionary idea. Its another strain of
we have to purge from ourselves if we’re going to sell people on a system of government that we think should directly provide housing, healthcare, education, jobs, solutions to climate change, etc.Really, how else would you go from concept to execution? Committes can be used to string people along, but they’re also how you make big decisions in big organizations. Skepticism is warranted, but calling this nothing until the checks clear is not.
This is a government that exists within bourgeois capitalist democracy, aka a government run by the capitalists. Specifically since it’s a municipal government it’s run by real estate developers. Thinking that electing someone with specific beliefs will alter the forces shaping the trajectory of that government is, itself, brainworms.
Good things occasionally do come out of capitalist democracy, though – look at the reparations being paid right now in Evanston.
Understanding the flaws of capitalist democracy does not mean that style of democracy never ever ever does anything but harm. This is the appeal of liberalism – you get occasional carrots, and all better options are snuffed out, so do you want the carrot or do you want nothing? The socialist criticism of that is that it’ll never be enough, and will turn to fascism in a hearbeat; it’s not that those carrots do not exist.
That’s a fair point, it’s just hard to not be pessimistic when the same city is still spending $2 billion on their police budget and $29 mil to a private company for tents to house migrants (instead of just expropriating some unoccupied office buildings).
I’m not against spending large amounts of time, effort, and money on planning and executing reparations, I just have very little confidence that it can be done under liberal democracy without it turning into some market-based, means-tested program that is most certainly not reparations, all while other systems of harm are still being funded by several higher orders of magnitude. I will word my criticisms better in the future so as not to come off like I’m criticizing the very idea of planning and distributing reparations.
Skepticism is warranted, but there are reparations being paid right now 45 minutes down the road in Evanston. It’s not a pipe dream; there’s an actual working example right there.
We talk a lot here about how social programs in the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries served as an immediate example of how things could be done better, and how that pressured capitalist countries to make concessions in the same direction. Reparations programs can work the same way. We’ve seen this effect with LGBT rights and marijuana legalization recently, too.
Salary and benefits for a 3 person team with a lawyer consulting will eat that up in a year easily.
Photo of the reparations committee in session
LMAO, yes! this is literally the first thing that came to mind.
How is Chicago going to pay for reparations and according to what criteria? Collective years lived in Chicago? Reparations to Japanese Americans came from federal funds as a counterexample. Clown show all around.
Those are exactly the questions this subcommittee will answer? How is using a committee to go from “reparations should be paid” to the specifics of how to pay them, and to whom, a clown show? How else would you do it?
Reparations for a national crime isn’t something that should be decentralized to city councils and local governments.
How would I do it? How all the other governments do it worldwide. National apology first. Truth and reconciliation committee afterwards along with reparations on a federal level.
Chicago looking into it is theatrics. It’s only entertaining. Not very useful and they know it.
Reparations for a national crime isn’t something that should be decentralized to city councils and local governments.
Sure, but a national program isn’t happening anytime soon. I don’t see why we should object to local governments doing something, as local governments had plenty of discriminatory policies, too.
Chicago looking into it is theatrics.
This level of pessimism is unfounded. Another Illinois city (Evanston) has already started making reparations payments, and local governments have been ahead of the curve on many issues where the feds lag behind.
Evanston is “reparating” home repair credits to 16 residents. It’s not a real example and you know it.
The chicago committee is going to issue $700 per resident, get embroiled in a lawsuit over prior residents who moved out and needs water bills from 10 years ago to prove it. The administrative costs will be greater than the reparation, and people will claim reparations have been paid.
If there is a mandate and political capital for reparations, this Chicago affair only wastes it. If I am being uncharitable, I might even say maliciously.
Evanston involves direct cash payments. 124 residents have been approved so far out of 650 applicants. Slow, yes; nothing, absolutely not.
they should update their website
i was going to post this whole thing from their faq
Why doesn’t the City give cash payments for Reparations?
Due to IRS reporting requirements, the City does not have the authority to exempt direct payments from either state or federal income taxes. As a result, a recipient would be liable for the tax burden associated with the award. The amount a particular recipient would owe would depend on their overall income, but it could be as much as 24 to 28 percent owed to the IRS and Illinois. The Restorative Housing Program disbursements of funds would go directly to the financial institution or vendor which will be responsible for the tax liability, not the resident.i’m interested in how they got past the irs thing
“We didn’t get the money in our hands. We never see the money. The city paid the contractors for the work.”
That’s what 88-year-old Louis Weathers, another grant recipient, said he wants to remain in place. He is not in favor of the cash option the council approved Monday.
“I don’t think they should do that. They should have some stipulations that will help the city in housing. Something that will help the value of my property stay stable or go up,” he said. “Giving people cash isn’t a good idea unless you put it in a trust, and you can only get so much each year.”
Looks like they started by paying contractors for repairs/renovations done, or paying banks for new purchases, but approved a cash option in March '23.
I was going by an old source that listed home repair credits for 16 residents. I stand corrected on that front, as direct cash payments to 100+ people isn’t nothing unlike home repair/purchase credits for 16.
i think smaller bodies can look into and demo programs, they shouldnt foot the national bill sure but they can do a little and its good theyre trying
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Why does this website have to be so weird about race??? These people call people crackers constantly but most of them are crackers when push comes to shove.
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I apologize for not being more careful with my words. I do believe in race-based, direct cash-payment reparations, I was just being flippant at the idea of liberal democracy spending $500k + a year of deliberation just to likely end up with a means-tested program, and then I was taking the position that such amount of money would be put to better use literally just being given away rather than being burned on consultant fees or w/e (but I recognize that such a giveaway would still not be reparations).
But even that was ignorant of me, because:
So maybe there’s hope for this Chicago program, as well. Again, apologies for my flippant comment, I meant to direct my criticism solely at liberal democracy historically doing poorly-implemented, means-tested “assistance programs,” not the idea of doing reparations itself.
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Cash payment doesn’t seem like a good solution compared to the “40 acres and a mule” (i.e. means of production) line. Scholarships are alright but feel a bit like a trap when you consider the barriers poor people face in succeeding in college even setting aside tuition.
Nonetheless, on mass line principles, we may as well try and fail this approach since it’s still a small expenditure compared to the MIC and a lot of other bullshit the US has infinite pocket depth for. After it fails, it will have still directly done some good and then the need for a more systemic solution will be made obvious to virtually everyone.
Also it’s kinda wild of the libs to look at the current situation of various minorities and think that “ah yes, we need official documents linking you to a slave ancestor” rather than just helping people without means testing. Because that’s usually what the liberals are trying to do, it can be obvious that you had slaves in your family, but if you don’t have the papers they get off on denying due to technicality. I’ve read through most reparations resolutions and it’s depressing
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i also hate how in this discourse that there are currently 2.3 million black people in prison and many are being used for literal legally defined slave work and that it never gets brought up. they act like its so long ago but its literally happening right now. especially when labor is used as a punishment of a crime, its so fucked to keep pressing the profit button once someone has ‘fixed’ what they broke. im talking theft-based and possession felonies that get you in jail for 10-15 years but 10-15 years of labor is way more money and harm than the crime itself. and thats not even getting into labor trafficking from countries like haiti or the fact that jim crow would result in situations that were basically just slavery…
have noted their Black heritage on the census
identify as Black on their birth certificate
im really worried about this bit, i know it was common in the czech community in america to hide that we were czech to avoid anti-slav discrimination. i even have talked to czechs that were forced to live in certain districts because they identified as czech on naturalization papers, it was generally recommended to identify as austrian or german because they got off easier. theres got to be edge cases for white-passing/mixed ancestry black people. i also recall some movements in the 70s demanding everyone to say ‘rather not say’ on ethnicity forms or not fill out ethnicity so as to avoid geographic racial profiling. i wish we didnt have such a shitty government so we could have actual scientific socialist studies on how to get reparations to everyone effected with no one being left behind. i honestly wonder what cuba has done in this field, i cant say im well-versed on afro-cuban history. i do know china has had some really extensive reparations policies to certain ethnic groups, but that is a very different setting.
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but as i type this im getting too high to think.
i aspire to this rn thanks for the great idea
Yeah NAACP is right. First comes national apology and acknowledgement. Truth and reconciliation commission comes next along with reparations. Standard stuff worldwide.
Dems aren’t actually interested in condemning founding fathers and rectifying past injustice which is why we are getting a committee on forming a committee instead.
rights to the cannabis industry
Ruining the tobacco industry’s plans to monopolize cannabis is reason enough to implement this alone. Eat shit Marlboro.
“ah yes, we need official documents linking you to a slave ancestor” rather than just helping people without means testing
The one city I know of that has actually started reparations payments – Evanston – is tying them to redlining and other discriminatory policies in Evanston and in the 20th century. I don’t think it’s means tested, either; it’s not based on need, but on if recipients are “descendants of Evanston residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969.”
that seems pretty good, but do they need to currently reside there, or does it go to everyone including people that left the city? also isnt that the one othello was talking about as not being enough
The way I read it is that someone would be eligible if they currently live in (for example) Chicago, but their parents lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969. This seems like exactly the sort of wheels-on-the-pavement question you’d need to talk through in a committee before rolling this out, too.
And yeah, I’d agree this isn’t enough, but a city trying to repair the part of the damage it did specifically seems like a significant step in the right direction.
I’m so glad the USSR didn’t take OP’s approach of “planning Schmanning, we’ll ignore it because overhead is wasteful.” You can spend a lot up front and it’ll be costly but might actually happen and even finish somewhat on time, or try to save up front and never end up finishing and wasting a colossal amount of labor and resources.
Pop open a thread about the USSR or the PRC and you’ll find plenty of people praising central planning and the role it played in rapid economic development, and you might also find critiques that amount to “you should have better examined the effects of trying to eradicate sparrows.”
It’s OK to be skeptical of government power, waste, and corruption, but deep cynicism about government ever being able to do anything right is a core reactionary belief.
Hasn’t pretty much every single study of means testing ever showed it wasted more money than it saved?
Like what are the qualifications of these people, are they acting in good faith or are they going to be collecting a salary to make sure they don’t accidently give any black people too much money?
I think there’s a huge difference between criticizing central planning and critciszing how liberal think tanks distribute resources to poor people.
This isn’t a think tank, and the one example of reparations we have (Evanston, right down the road) is not means tested.
This is the way lib world ends
This is the way lib world ends
This is the way lib world ends
Not with a bang but a subcomittee.I disagree, the new mayor actually seems willing to provide the basic apologies as reparations. It doesn’t matter how much it costs as long as it is done.
Plus his general spending plan for Chicago 2024 seems to be very decent, he’s an alright guy from what I can see.
decent except for his pledge not to defund the police. up 3%
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Plenty of crimes to pay for in the North, too. Look at how Evanston, IL did it:
The housing program is the first initiative in a historic plan to distribute $10 million in reparations to Black residents of Evanston, according to the resolution. The effort is to directly acknowledge and address the “historical harm” done to Evanston residents through “discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction by the City.” The effort would prioritize descendants of Evanston residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or suffered housing discrimination after 1969.
Highlighting more recent discrimination seems like a good plan for a number of reasons.
Slavery was not exclusive to South, slavery was practiced in many northern states, even the nominally “free”
a union town
PMC parasites lol
“OK after paying thousands of consultants 6 digit salaries for years we’ve figured out how to distribute the funds your check for $8.64 will be in your mailbox in 8 to 10 months.”
It’s $500K. As someone else pointed out, salary and benefits for a small team will burn through that in short order. Evanston is making $25K restitution payments; this program is likely looking at something similar.
If there’s an already established and working program why spend $500k on anything other than sticking it in that fund and expanding it.
Can I have half a million dollars to sit in on a meeting and go “yea we should do this too”.
500k isn’t a lot if it’s actually being paid to somebody with good intentions, if it’s going to three people to set up filters to figure out who doesn’t qualify it’s bullshit.
And historically thenoverwhelming majority of instances of this have been that latter.
The program isn’t in Chicago, it’s in Evanston.
