Vice President Kamala Harris has expressed support for reparations for Black people as her presidential campaign kicks off in earnest.
Last Sunday, President Joe Biden dropped out the of race and endorsed Harris following weeks of interparty fighting among Democrats on whether he should pass the torch after his poor performance in the first presidential debate against Donald Trump in June.
Since then, talk has turned to what a potential Harris presidency might look like and what policies she might support.
Asked about the issue of reparations by Black publication The Root, Harris threw her support behind the concept of measures aimed to atone for the United State’s legacy of slavery and discrimination against African Americans.
Kamala Harris on Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Houston. The vice president has expressed support for reparations for Black people.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
“I think there has to be some form of reparations and we could discuss what that is, but look, we’re looking at more than 200 years of slavery,” she said. “We’re looking at almost 100 years of Jim Crow. We’re looking at legalized segregation and in fact segregation on so many levels that exist today based on race and there has not been any kind of intervention done understanding the harm and the damage that occurred to correct [the] course. And so we are seeing the effects of all those years play out still today.”
When pressed further, she agreed that if elected president, she would lead a conversation about what reparations for Black people would look like.
“Yeah, including things like what we should be doing to take very seriously undiagnosed and untreated trauma,” she said.
Newsweek contacted representatives for Harris by email outside of normal business hours to comment on this story.
Harris has previously expressed support for a proposal to create a commission to study reparations.
In 2019, she told NPR that funding for Black people’s mental-health treatment could be a way to provide reparations for slavery.
In 2018, she proposed a tax credit that would have provided financial relief to middle- and low-income Black households.
Since becoming the de facto Democratic candidate, commentators have opined on Harris’ chances of winning the election.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a Friday column for Fox News that Harris could be a “shockingly better” presidential candidate than Republicans expect.
According to latest polling, Harris is still slightly behind her Republican challenger, Trump, although among Black voters surveyed in Michigan in June, 82.1 percent supported Harris, 11.5 percent backed independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and none supported Trump.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.