Former President Barack Obama believes reparations are “justified” and suggests one of the reasons he couldn’t get it through during his tenure was due to “white resentment.”
Obama made the racially divisive remarks during a podcast with musician Bruce Springsteen.
Springsteen began the discussion by asking Obama how he can square the notion that America is the same country that sent a man to the moon and enforced racial segregation through Jim Crow laws.
He then queried the former president on reparations.
“If you ask me theoretically ‘Are reparations justified?’ the answer is yes,” Obama replied.
“There’s not much question that the wealth of this country, the power of this country was built in significant part, not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves,” he added.
RELATED: Biden Administration Supports Reparations Study As New Bill Is Introduced In Congress
Obama Blames Failure to Secure Reparations on White Resistance
Springsteen, playing the useful idiot to Obama’s effort to push an agenda, asked how a President could get something accomplished that is “so justified.”
The former President responded by trashing America in jarring fashion.
“This brings us to, could you actually get that kind of justice? Could you get a country to agree and own that history? And my judgment was that as a practical matter that was unattainable,” he claimed.
“We can’t even get this country to provide decent schooling for inner-city kids.”
Obama went on to defend not pushing for reparations during his presidency alleging it would have been met with “the politics of white resistance” and “white resentment.”
If Obama would’ve started the development of a reparations program during his tenure, he doesn’t have to use whiteness as a scapegoat here. I have zero respect for this man. The reality is, Obama was never for us. He crushed centuries of civil rights work in 8 years. #Reparations pic.twitter.com/HwuSvDyJHJ
— Maxwell Little ?? (@MaxHPF) February 24, 2021
Biden Also Supports Reparations
President Biden recently lent support to studying reparations for Black Americans, a recent Associated Press report reveals.
“He certainly would support a study of reparations,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a White House briefing.
White House says President Joe Biden supports study of slavery reparations https://t.co/DdNFqxUYTm pic.twitter.com/XoW0Ss8yJM
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2021
Reparations haven’t just been hit by “white resistance” as Obama claims.
They’ve hit American resistance.
As The Political Insider’s Becky Noble points out, “Recent polls have shown that a supermajority of Americans are opposed to reparations.”
“Last summer, in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that only 20% of Americans supported reparations,” she adds.
And that was at the height of the media-fueled race riots.
There’s also been some non-white resistance to the idea of reparations that Obama would rather ignore.
“Reparations teach separation,” NFL legend Herschel Walker recently lamented. “Slavery ended over 130 years ago.”
Herschel Walker: “My religion teaches togetherness. Reparations teaches separation.” https://t.co/LgJQuwcbxx pic.twitter.com/zQw1BEBoCU
— The Hill (@thehill) February 18, 2021
Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell blasted Obama for “pandering” by supporting reparations.
“Not a single dime of taxpayers’ money should be awarded because of slavery. The concept is racist and unconstitutional,” he tweeted. “Just another attempt by Socialists to play the ‘white guilt card.'”
Obama is pandering to Socialists by supporting reparations. Not a single dime of taxpayers’ money should be awarded because of slavery. The concept is racist and unconstitutional. Just another attempt by Socialists to play the “white guilt card”
— TheLeoTerrell (@TheLeoTerrell) February 25, 2021
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), at a House hearing to address slavery reparations in 2019, obliterated Democrats for pushing the idea.
“I used to be a Democrat until I did my history and found out the misery that that party brought to my race,” Owens revealed.
“Let’s pay restitution,” Owens continued. “How about the Democratic Party pay for all the misery brought to my race …”
NFL legend @BurgessOwens tells Democrats THEY should be paying reparations to black Americans.
I do believe in restitution. Let’s point to the party that was part of slavery, KKK, Jim crow, that has killed over 40% of our black babies, 20 million of them.pic.twitter.com/aVtmjBboDF
— Kambree (@KamVTV) June 19, 2019
He certainly has a point, if you listen to the words of Jesse Jackson Jr. who concluded that “so much of the Democratic Party’s history, since it is our nation’s oldest political party, has its roots in slavery.”
Larry Elder, a Black talk radio host, also points out the logistics of doling out reparations would be difficult.
“Figuring out who owes what is going to be a hell of an achievement,” Elder said.
No more so than in the case of Obama himself, who the Baltimore Sun reported in 2007 is a descendant of slave-owners.
