By Don Hall

Nutshell History Lesson:

Americans went to war over several issues in the 1800’s but a major player of issues was the end of chattel slavery. Lincoln wasn’t completely on board but got there and officially ended the practice for the nation after a five-year bloody campaign against the Confederacy.

When it came to the Reconstruction, America let the very people who had benefitted most from slavery administer the transition including Andrew Johnson repealing the “40 acres and a mule” thing. In short, we busted it hard to end slavery but half-assed the follow-up leaving the newly freed slaves at the hands of the bigots and assholes who beat them and enforced their labor in the first place.

Nearly 100 years later, the Little Rock Nine were integrated into a white public school with the force of the Supreme Court and Eisenhower’s use of the 101st Airborne.

Following up that pretty awesome show of solidarity, Governor Faubus responded by closing all the schools in the state as opposed to allow integration. For a year. No response from Ike or the Supreme Court. America did the right thing, patted herself on the back, and half-assed the follow-up.

Between then (the Civil War) and now (the slow economic death afforded to black Americans and brutality at the hands of our police) our American legacy has followed suit. We’re good at eventually doing the right thing (after a lot of hand wringing and slowly drawn upon outrage) but fucking shitty cleaning things up after.

America is the guy who finally joins the war against the Nazis and Imperial Japan, tipping the tide to win the war, feels all good about himself but ignores the horrors of Hiroshima and Moscow hoping no one notices. And then cheaps out on the medical care of the soldiers who actually fought the war.

I don’t believe that America was founded on slavery. I don’t believe that white people are racist by default. I don’t believe America’s greatest sin (if you want to get religious about it) is the continued subjugation of black Americans. I believe we are good intentioned half-assers. We want to feel so good about ourselves we forget that the clean-up is as important as the blow up and, in most cases, more important.

Ending slavery was an essential good. We should feel pretty solid about that. But the reneging of promised financial help to those newly freed slaves is a debt this country owes and we should be like the Lannisters of Westeros and pay our fucking debts.

In the common parlance, we pay this debt with reparations. That’s the follow-up from 1865. We owe a bill and the bill has to be paid in full. Bigotry will never be eradicated because human beings are tribal and can be incredibly cruel. Money talks, my friends, and the rest is just rhetorical bullshit walking.

Social Security pays out nearly 500 billion dollars a year to seniors who’ve paid into the fund their whole lives. The military budget for the United States tops 700 billion dollars annually. During this recent pandemic, the feds paid out a trillion bucks they miraculously found or borrowed. It’s time to get serious about our debt.

Mind you, this is not a case made that white people owe the money. The United States government made the promissory note to every freed slave then Johnson took it back because he was a bigoted welsher. The United States federal government owes black Americans a long overdue bill.

Now, I’m no economist or numbers guru by any stretch. I have read a lot about this idea and the one that seems most feasible goes a bit like this:

• All black Americans with traceable lineage to chattel slavery receives an annual amount for life. Tax free. Given that the United States government paid out $20,000 to survivors of the Japanese American Internment Camps, I think we could do $35,000 - $50,000 a year.

• All black Americans are given (not as in a gift but as in collect upon delivery) free education (including college), free housing (and not those shitty projects...fucking houses in areas with grocery stores and retail), and free medical care for life.

Fuck acknowledging our privilege. Acknowledge our debt and do whatever we have to to get it paid.

A perpetual five percent flat tax on the gross earnings of the top five percent of Fortune 500 corporations would pay for everything.

I’m not a hashtag kind of guy but #PaytheDebt is far more pragmatic and helpful than #FuckTrump or #DefundthePolice.