Monday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Tonight,” Michigan U.S. Senate Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed indicated that he was open to a discussion about reparations.
According to El-Sayed, such a conversation shouldn’t be a “crazy thing.”
“Reparations,” host Jesse Watters said. “Do you support that?”
El-Sayed replied, “I think we need to have an honest conversation about the incredible debt that was put upon Black folks as a function of slavery that we have yet to pay, and I just think that’s fair. Like if people are enslaved and forced into servitude, and then we don’t actually have a conversation about all that was owed that our own country agreed was owed. I just think that it’s past time to have that conversation. That shouldn’t be a crazy thing. You know, I understand that. Like for folks who really want to inflame culture war, I just think it’s important for us to think about how do we make sure that communities like the city of Detroit that have been segregated, so that you have a disproportionate number of people as a function of redlining who are forced into certain communities, how do we make sure that their schools are made whole?”
“I’ll just tell you this: In the city of Detroit right now, they just had $700 million invested in their schools,” he continued. “They’re still $1.7 billion behind, and a lot of folks want to say, “Oh, well, that’s profligacy, et cetera, et cetera.” No, a lot of that has to do with public policy. And if public policy created a level in which Black folks disproportionately suffer everything from maternal mortality and infant mortality to lack of access to jobs, I think it’s important for our country to have a conversation about making how to make people whole.”
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