Author and documentarian Dinesh D’Souza isn’t exactly persuaded by the case for reparations, most recently raised by Ta-Nehisi Coates in a long and much-talked about essay in The Atlantic magazine.
D’Souza argued against the idea of reparations, for African Americans and other minorities, in an extensive interview with The Daily Caller on his new book, “America: Imagine A World Without Her.” TheDC will be featuring segments from the interview throughout the week.
“The strength of Europe and the West was the result of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific Revolution. It was not the result of theft,” D’Souza argued. “Same with America. Who built America? The innovation of America is the result of capitalism.”
Coates’ essay specifically discussed the possibility of reparation for African Americans, but D’Souza argued against reparations more broadly, as well as how the case applies to Native Americans.
“It’s the fact that people came here with nothing, who had a tremendous work ethic and tremendous creativity, restless people from all over the world, brought their intelligence, cooperative efforts, and they built America,” D’Souza said. “The American Indians sold Manhattan to the Dutch for $700 in today’s money. My point is, that’s what Manhattan was worth then. It was useless, it was just a piece of land, like any other piece of land which you can buy today for $700 in many places in the world. Manhattan today is the result of the people who built it, not the original inhabitants who occupied or sold it.”
“By the way, some of these offenses, like taking the land from the Indians, are before America,” D’Souza added. “I mean, Columbus came in 1492, the Spanish Conquistadors came in the early 16th century, it was going to be 200 years later that America’s founded. So why are we being blamed for the British, the Portuguese, the Spanish? The answer is, the Obama administration and the progressives need to have us up against the wall, so that when they come to take our stuff we are not going to be reluctant to give it.”
See previous segments from TheDC’s interview with D’Souza below:
D’Souza: Hillary’s America Would Be Same As Obama’s America
D’Souza Opens Up On Possibility Of Going To Jail