if we're going to actually have a comprehensive assault on the racial

wealth gap, it's going to require a program that is on the order of a

comprehensive national reparations plan.

That there's no indirect policy that I'm aware of like giving people housing

subsidies that's going to close the racial wealth gap. It's very difficult to conceive over construct what we might

refer to as a universal policy where we give something to everybody that would actually

close the racial wealth gap.

There are some possibilities there, but nothing that I've seen anybody propose fits that mold.

So my sense says that if you want to really close the racial wealth gap, you do it by making direct payments to black Americans who are eligible.

And from my perspective, the eligible population should be black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States.

So that's how you do it. Just straightforward. Are there any candidates who have ever proposed that? Well, yes, not exactly that plan, but there are those who have endorsed preparations.

None of them became the finalists.

Which presidential candidates have endorsed reparations?

Did Jesse Jackson?

Well, in the 2019 phase of the 20-20 election,

Julian Castro, I'm not tracking real well on everybody who did, but there were at least three

candidates, one of whom had a very short-lived candidacy, Tom Steyrr, and Marion Williamson, who was probably the first to bring up the idea.

Williamson was probably more vigorous about it than anybody, but her proposal was actually ultimately fairly cautious. I think the maximum figure she ever came up with was about

500 billion dollars and my estimate is if you were to attempt to close the racial wealth gap, it would require at least 16 trillion dollars.

And I also remember from the 2020 cycle that part of her plan that I was frustrated by, you know, all credit to her for frankly leading the pack for sure, but she also had indicated that the money would be dispersed by a council of kind of black

elders or you know like a group of kind of non-elected random black people anyway yeah yeah I think that, I think that's absurd.

Yeah, I think that's absurd.

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