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CA Reparations task force member tells white folks to ‘chill out and pay your ‘sin bill’

May 24, 2023 | | Print Article

A member of both California State’s reparations task force and San Francisco’s reparations advisory committee says it’s on every white American to pay their “sin bill.”

Dr. Amos Brown of the Third Baptist Church made the divisive remarks to Fox News while arguing why even the white residents of San Francisco, where slavery was always illegal, are obligated to pay their fair share of the reparations “sin bill.”

“Unfortunately, that evil group called the Ku Klux Klan in California was founded here in San Francisco. So San Francisco’s hands are not clean. They have been complicit in this evil system, and all we’re saying is let’s just chill and pay your debt, your sin bill of enslavement, of discrimination, of intimidation, of terrorizing of black people,” he said.

Listen:

He continued by defending the decision by the reparations task force and reparations advisory committee to recommend millions of dollars in reparations payments.

“This is not an opinionated document. This is a document that came from the labors of scholars, and social analysts. So we should just chill and reason, come together, think and refrain from just emoting,” he said.

“The crime bill is so high, so astronomical, and all we did was to evaluate the harm and to state the case of what it might mean in terms of dollars and cents. And when you look at it deeply, the horrors, the hellishness, and the harm that was done to African Americans and their descendants,” he added.

Brown views slavery as a crime that still needs to be adjudicated in a court of law. And so when he speaks of a “crime bill,” he’s referring to what the American people allegedly owe in restitution.

“But if you can’t pay all that, say what you can pay. That’s the point. But you cannot put a dollar sign on what’s been done to black people. I repeat again, our sin bill in this nation has been so high because of the long years of doing nothing. The interest has grown, but we are people of grace, we are people of reason,” he continued.

“But for anyone to react and say you don’t deserve anything is not the way a person of compassion, of common sense, and logic would see this measure. How would you feel if you were wronged? How would you feel if you were a victim of a crime? In our system of government and our legal system, any person based on the facts who’s been wronged does get redress, does get his or her day of recompense,” he added.

This is no longer true. In recent years, many victims of crimes have been prosecuted for defending themselves from criminals who were trying to hurt or rob them or others. This includes Kyle Rittenhouse, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, and, most recently, Daniel Penny.

Brown concluded his veritable lecture by claiming that anyone who opposes the paying out of millions of dollars in reparations just wants to be “mean to black people.”

“Let’s be honest. Let’s just admit that it’s about being mean to black people. Why change the rules in the middle of the game? So that’s basic. That’s very fundamental. And any person who would say, no, you don’t deserve it, it says they do not respect the humanity of black people, and that we are, to use the words of my teacher Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., things. Things, tools in the sight of the majority culture. Not everybody, but for the most part,” he said.

“For us to be stuck over this issue rather than to come to common ground and see what is doable, what is practical, that is what the response should be. But those who say oh no, it’s too much, you don’t deserve it, they are not showing that they have a heart. They are hard-hearted. It’s time for America, and this city, and this state, to pay the debt. And we can come, I repeat, to common ground if we just sit down and work together,” he added.

His lecture — or “rant,” as some call it — has not been well received.

Look:

Vivek Saxena
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