Kamala Harris prepares to speak with Charlamagne Tha God before “We The People: An Audio Townhall With Kamala Harris and Charlamagne Tha God” in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct15 | Bloomberg
By Akayla Gardner and Jennifer Epstein
Vice President Kamala Harris said financial reparations for Black Americans need to be studied, while touting her own economic agenda as one which would help build up intergenerational wealth in the community.
“On the point of reparations, it has to be studied, there’s no question about that,” Harris said Tuesday in response to a question during an audio town hall with radio host Charlamagne tha God, part of a broad campaign effort to ramp up her outreach to Black male voters.
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“My agenda is about tapping into the ambitions and the aspirations, knowing that folks want to have an opportunity — if they want — should have a meaningful opportunity to build wealth, including intergenerational wealth,” Harris said.
The issue of reparations for Black Americans has gained momentum in recent years, with California in 2023 becoming the first state to put a potential dollar value on multi-generational inequality as a direct result of slavery. The issue, though, is a political lightning rod and highly divisive.
The vice president’s comments came during a visit to the Detroit metropolitan area in swing-state Michigan focused on countering Republican former President Donald Trump’s inroads with Black voters — particularly men — that threatens to tip the balance in key battlegrounds with just three weeks until Election Day.
The Republican presidential nominee has aggressively courted Black men, a traditionally stalwart Democratic bloc, capitalizing on anxiety over President Joe Biden’s record and worries about economic mobility.
In recent days, Harris has unveiled economic policies specifically targeted toward addressing those concerns for Black men, including a plan to provide 1 million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20,000 for entrepreneurs and a vow to support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies that would give more investment certainly to the 20 per cent of Black Americans who own or have owned digital assets.
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Harris has also unveiled proposals aimed at countering the impact of high prices on US households and to provide mortgage assistance to some first-time homebuyers.
“Black families are 40 per cent less likely to be homeowners than others,” she added. “Homeownership is one of the surest ways to build intergenerational wealth.”
Trump Inroads
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted from Sept 29 to Oct 6 found that Trump has made gains with Black and Latino voters compared to past GOP presidential candidates, particularly among young men.
The Democratic anxiety that Harris, who is seeking to become the first Black woman president in US history, may underperform among Black men was highlighted by former President Barack Obama who in pointed remarks at a campaign stop last week, said some voters were “coming up with reasons and excuses” not to back Harris because of her gender.
Those comments spurred criticism from those who noted that Black men were still overwhelmingly behind Harris in polling.
Harris dismissed the idea that Obama’s comments had hampered her outreach to Black male voters.
“No, obviously not,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for quite some time, including before I was running for president.”
The vice president on Tuesday, though, appeared to acknowledge the frustrations among some voters over the administration’s policies but sought to draw a stark contrast between her agenda and that of Trump’s, urging people to turn out in support of her campaign.
“We should never sit back and say, ‘Okay, I’m not going to vote because everything hasn’t been solved,’” Harris said.
Charlamagne, who has two million followers on the X social media platform, has been critical of Harris at times. Ahead of Tuesday’s event, the Trump campaign released a digital ad featuring Charlamagne disapproving of Harris’ past support for federal-funding for gender-affirming surgeries for inmates and migrants.
The radio host endorsed Harris’ campaign in July when she supplanted Biden as the party’s standard-bearer after initially declining to endorse a candidate.
First Published: Oct 16 2024 | 9:51 AM IST