Biden senior adviser says White House will start acting on reparations 'now'

[He'll forget tomorrow]

The White House is “going to start acting now” to address
reparations to African Americans, a White House senior adviser
said in a new interview, as Congress debates forming a
commission to study how the policy could be implemented.

Speaking to “Axios on HBO” in an interview set to air Monday,
White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond discussed efforts
targeted to helping minority communities.

While the administration may back the study, Richmond added that
they were not waiting on Congress.

“We don’t want to wait on a study. We’re going to start acting
now,” he told the outlet.

“We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers
that have held people of color back and especially African
Americans,” Richmond told the outlet. “[W]e have to do stuff
now.”

“If you start talking about free college tuition to
[historically black colleges and universities] and you start
talking about free community college in Title I and all of those
things, I think that you are well on your way,” he continued,
noting that a timeline for Congress’ commission was not known.

In legislation first introduced by the late Rep. John Conyers (D-
Mich.) in 1989, and reintroduced repeatedly in years since by
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Democratic lawmakers have
called for Congress to form a commission to study the issue.

That legislation saw an uptick in interest last summer following
the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose killing by
a white police officer sparked nationwide outrage.

Reparations had been debated for decades prior to this past
summer, without any results.

After clinching the Democratic presidential nomination last
year, President Biden added supporting the study of reparations
to his platform.

In early February, the White House said Biden is open to naming
a group to study the issue.

“He certainly would support a study of reparations,” White House
press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing in early February.
“He understands we don’t need a study to take action right now
on systemic racism, so he wants to take actions within his own
government in the meantime.”

Asked about the potential panel, Richmond said, “I think that
[the creation of a commission] will pass.”

The Biden senior adviser and former Louisiana congressman went
on to point to one of the president’s myriad of executive
actions, referencing one “breaking down barriers in housing,
making sure that African Americans can pass down wealth through
homeownership, that their homes are not valued less than homes
in different communities just because of the neighborhood it’s
in.”

https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/biden-adviser-says-white-house-to-
start-acting-on-reparations/