First of all, I don't actually watch CNN, because I would feel hypocritical as the proud owner of a TV-B-Gone Keychain Remote Control.
But, I have to give them credit for bringing up the topic of reparations. Don Lemon may be annoying, but he uses the correct rhetoric at the correct time, and who cares if he's wrong a lot. It's (fake) news, not a future's predictions show.
As a Republican, I am a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln who ended slavery in my country. In fact he was shot for angering his assassin by promising slaves full voting rights, in other words 100% human dignity. My guess is that it is either because he was raised Christian, or went to law school. Therefore, it stands to reason, that considering all slaves were owned by democrats, 100%, democrats would be the party who would actually pay the reparations to African Americans, right? However, the commentator guest lady they had on, who apparently was a Brit, said that the reparations should first go to the families of the military, because they actually fought to end slavery. That also sounded very compelling to me, but I almost feel creepy watching such debates on what amounts to rent seeking behavior.
As an American, right now, there is no doubt that African Americans are equals, and certainly in the eyes of God, which I separately also believe as a Muslim. Furthermore, Louis Lattimore, Thomas Sowell, George Washington Carver, and long list of African American scientists could be made right off the top of my head. Muhammad (SAW) himself was white (Quraish is Haplogroup J1), however as a white man (J1's are the mostly white Jews, who are both white and middle eastern), The Holy Prophet consistently insisted on slave emancipation, and equality of gender and race. Many of his detractors are just lying to the public, because they have prejudice against Muslims. Muhammad (SAW) was absolutely a man of unimpeachable character. There is no doubt about it. His method of emancipating the slave was using money. We also see that while the US fought a war to end the practice, the rest of the world simply used money. These are facts anyone can look up as it has been historically preserved. Muhammad (SAW) spend a lot of time thinking about things such as slavery and equality. The freedom of religion, as from religion, both pre-date the USA, and are found in The Holy Prophet's Declaration of Medina, also historically preserved. In other words, Islam already contains all the things the US attempts to deliver, which is why Islamic nations outnumber constitutional western democracies, and likely always will. Every once in a while one sees both white and black Muslims here in the US. Obviously their ethnic and racial background are not relevant to their spirituality and to conflate religion and race is a common logical fallacy purported by the (fake) news. Therefore, actual racial differences may affect, for example, what type of chemo the patient needs, but it's not the type of difference that has much meaning in day to day life in America. No one cares. I don't care what someone's race is. I could care less. I don't care what language they speak, because that would violate their freedom of speech. I don't care what religion they are, because they have the right to believe whatever they want. I simply do not care, and neither should you.
I was born in New York City, and that is a place where there are so many different races, people stop caring about such differences, and become oblivious race/gender entirely. At least that was my experience of New York. It didn't even occur to me that most of the children I went to school with were Indians and South Koreans until very recently. As far as I knew as a child, we are all just Americans. Our differences were irrelevant, but our academics were relevant. I have friends that are from all kinds of backgrounds, and typically our common shared value is a curiosity in science, technology and business, which are truly the core American concerns. Most Americans do not have the time to waste thinking about race, gender, sex, religion, or politics. That's because it's an expensive place, and people therefore have to come up with money at a high frequency. Expensive places lack time.
Generally, my view of reparations is the same as unions, it's rent seeking behavior (not innovation), so it is generally kept on the back burner for most Americans who care more about technological advance. However, sometimes you have to fix what is wrong in order to advance. I do view the legal vocation of government as a technology, so they could certainly fix this seam. However, that's not my field.
There is no doubt that slavery must have had some sort of effect. For one thing, it is noteworthy that many African American women are without husbands. The lack of a marriage culture in the ranks of African Americans can be attributed to the welfare that was given to them dismantling their nuclear family units, as the women took Uncle Sam as their primary husband. Some blame Bill Clinton, who was certainly a foul immoral leader. There is no doubt the families of the military have endured loss. At the very least the reparation fraction that goes to the family members of the military that fought under Abraham Lincoln, and folks such as General Ulysses S. Grant, should be found and paid royalties of reparation. I believe that the families of police officers, and the military should move to the front of the line, because they are the very definition of the word "royalty." I think that would be smart, and of course figuring all of this would require genetic testing, hopefully law makers are reading this, which would create at least some demand for those test kit manufacturers as well. I view a large payday for the lawyering profession is building steam. Perhaps even some work for genetic consultants, as opposed to genetic counselors (who usually advocate abortion, because it's their job to confront miscarriages, and try to explicate them). Granted this is all out of my field, but I think it's generally within the fold of science.
Personally, I think the urgency of this matter is paramount. It's critical. The black vote is huge. It is a decider. Time is of the essence. This is because allowing time to pass before reparations will cause irreparable harm. This is due to recency bias. For example, it's very popular in the US to virtue signal by dogging on Hitler. How come such vitriol is not lobbed on Genghis Khan, who at this point is almost valorized, and there are even songs valorizing him? That's because Genghis Khan is too old and Hitler was much more recent in history, so recent that his victims are still alive. That's the recency bias. So, if African Americans are not paid reparations by the progeny of their democrat party slave owners, things will get very ugly for the stolen regime. Personally, I am so taxed to death more taxes make very little difference to me. I have already accepted that government is a bill I have to keep paying.
As a Republican, it's important for me to jubilantly watch democrats impoverish one another in a downward spiral domino effect of them rug pulling one another. It's almost an insurance. If I win, I win, If I lose, my enemy is the actual loser. It simply does not get better than being Republican in America. This is not pathological optimism, but simply the realization that my enemy is so stupid, I don't have to worry. I don't want to sound spoiled but it's true. I'm just lucky, I know.
Not only that, but as someone who has spend a good amount of time in Cancer Diagnostics, both research and clinical, I will say that I am not surprised that most of the funding came through other Republicans, such as the family of George Bush, and Laura Bush, who have been tremendous funders of science. The party of science is actually the Republican Party, who puts money into it. Many of the Republicans who donated unfathomable amounts of money towards cancer research were women. I would be an ingrate not to mention this. My letters asking for science funding written to Jeff Merkley were ignored, same with Ron Wyden. So I strongly urge that such senators be ousted, and it's not because I have a problem with how long Ron Wyden has been in office. I could care less. If he was actually better at his job, then I would not have to say kick him out. The fact he is still bad at his job decades into it, is a big concern, and why he's got to be evicted from that office. Capiche?
Democrats are type of people who steal from scientists.
The best way to help the poor, is to not be one of them.
Urge educated African Americans to be Republican, and start families. No one has killed more families than democrats.