University of Maryland professor Jason Nichols argued in a Monday interview with Tucker Carlson that former President Barack Obama wouldn’t be eligible for a reparations check, should such a policy be implemented.
“My concern would be that if we are giving people money who don’t need it, and Cory Booker would be right at the top so would Barack Obama, purely because of their skin color,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said during the debate.
“I would say Barack Obama’s not eligible,” Nichols immediately responded. “He’s not a descendant of slave people in the United States of America. I don’t know about Cory Booker’s genealogy.”
Tucker asked another question, “Would you feel uncomfortable if Cory Booker got, I don’t know, pick any affluent African American—and there are not a small number—there are a lot. Would you feel uncomfortable if they got checks?”(RELATED: 2020 Democrats Support Slavery Reparations: What Does This Mean?)
“Again, I’m not sure that this goes down to checks. How this is gonna be dispensed, who gets it? These are the things that we need to study and figure out if it’s even feasible.”
The conversation came after Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill Monday that would create a commission to “study the impact of slavery” and propose a series of reparations initiatives.
“I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country’s policies—rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy—that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap,” Booker tweeted Monday when he introduced the piece of legislation.
Booker is only the latest 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls to express their support for reparation payments to descendants of slaves. Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard have all come forward in support of the idea.
Former American Civil Liberties Union Executive Michael Meyers slammed the idea during a Friday episode of “The Ingraham Angle”:
At that house of so-called justice, you have either a horror picture show showing or you have a farce. Either way, it is not to be taken seriously. I can’t understand how serious presidential contenders can give legitimacy to a racial blowhard and I think it is outrageous and silly on the part of the presidential candidates. Anybody who thinks that white Americans are going to take the blame or going to feel guilty or give their land and their property away in some sort of reparations pot because they feel responsible for the sins of their forebears. They are not.