the bastards' last stand

Presidential contenders are being asked about their support for reparations. One could be forgiven for assuming that reparations has broad support within the Black community, it seems like an easy bet. But only slightly more than half of Black people support the idea. So why has the idea suddenly gained so much traction? Neither Yvette Carnell nor Antonio Moore, originators of #ADOS (American descendants of slaves) have the following to drive a topic supported by less than a quarter of Americans into the national conversation. I suspect that it has everything to do with Bernie Sanders, the obvious frontrunner since announcing, and the ongoing attempt to portray him as racially blind and unaware. When asked directly about his support of reparations in 2016, Sanders answered, "Its likelihood of getting through congress is nil. Second of all I think it would be very divisive." He then went on to explain how his policies would have a disproportionate positive effect on the Bla...

The idea of reparations being paid out to the descendants of the enslaved is prominent in the political discourse again. In this moment it's specifically being talked about in relation to Kamala Harris' presidential ambitions and the sense that she lacks a Black agenda. Harris' record as a tough on crime District Attorney for San Fransisco and Attorney General for California stands in contrast to her current positions and rhetoric on criminal justice. A number of her critics point to the image she portrayed in defeating a progressive in her run for DA and the videos in which she brags about her approach to truancy and laughs at the naivety of activists promoting school construction over prison investment. Many of her critics, self-identifying as American Descendants of Slaves and with the hashtag #ADOS suggest that Harris, who identified herself as American when asked if she saw herself as Black, feels no deep connection to the experience of ADOS or strong affinity for ...