Black Man Running for NC Governor Says Black People Owe Reparations

North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson has an unconventional proposal to end the reparations debate once and for all. What if instead of Black Americans being compensated for the atrocities of slavery — Black people paid reparations?

Robinson, who is Black, is currently running for North Carolina governor.“If you want to tell the truth about it, it is you who owes,” said Robinson during the 2021 North Carolina Republican Party Convention, seemingly referring to Black Americans. “Why do you owe? Because somebody in those fields took strikes for you. After those fields were ended and slavery was ended, somebody had to walk through Jim Crow for you. Somebody fought wars and died for you. Somebody lived less than because they didn’t have what you have, and they did it for you. There are people in their graves right now, and they are there because they were willing to stand up and fight for you.”

Robinson, who former President Donald Trump once compared to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has made a habit of casting Black people as the real villains of the slave trade. In a 2017 Facebook post about why he doesn’t call himself “African American,” — Robinson placed the primary blame for the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Africans.

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