Ocasio-Cortez Says US Should Pay Reparations to Mexicans and Puerto Ricans Also

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated on Monday that the United States should pay reparations to the non-white communities who were negatively impacted by America’s New Deal.

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“You and I are in the same struggle. That does not give me a pass to not talk or acknowledge the black experience and that does not give you a pass to not acknowledge or talk about the plight of Puerto Ricans and people overall,” Ocasio-Cortez told interviewer Ta-Nehisi Coates. “It is in that exchange, and to say ‘you are distinct and you come from a distinct community that is valued and uplifted’ and vice versa.”

The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist contended that while people tend to associate reparations with slavery, instead, they should be associated with the effects of The New Deal, which, she argues, disproportionately impacted non-white communities.

Ocasio-Cortez explained:

People think reparations is reparations for slavery, but really, economically speaking, reparations are for the damage done by the New Deal and redlining because that is where we saw a compounding of the existing inequity from the legacy of slavery, where we drew red lines around black communities. We said white communities will get home loans and they will get access to the basic bedrock of wealth in America and this will be your heirloom and we gave white America the heirloom that appreciated overtime — that people still benefit from today and we did not give to African-American and Mexican communities, Puerto Rican communities.

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“{snip} And until America tells the truth about itself, we’re not going to heal.”