dr Phil warned Tuesday that an economics professor’s plan to pay $350,000 in reparations to 40 million descendants of slaves would be “an absolute disaster,” arguing that providing a lump sum isn’t the best way to help anyone.
The TV host invited Duke University’s William Darity, co-author of the book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, to his show on Tuesday.
Darity suggested the US government spend the funds the same way it sent checks to millions of Americans at a cost of $14 trillion at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
dr Phil questioned Darity’s plan for psychological reasons.
“What I can tell you psychologically is that if you take $350,000 or $840,000 and write a check to any group of people — black, white, poor, homeless, whatever — you give that much money to any group of people and say, “Here you go, good luck.” If you come back in six months, you’ll be broke, he said.
“Whatever reparations are made would be an absolute disaster, as opposed to guidance and help in creating generational wealth, as opposed to income.”
dr Phil questioned Professor William Darity’s claims, saying it’s a bad idea to give a group of people a lump sum of money and expect them to invest and spend it wisely
Darity accused Dr. Phil for unfairly preventing black people from accessing what was rightfully theirs.
“No one ever says there will be mismanagement of funds when we talk about distributing reparations to other communities,” Darity said.
The TV doctor replied: “I just said it.
“I just said, ‘If you give the money to anyone, they will mismanage it. You’re going to screw it up.”
He added: “Look at the scam that has just occurred with all the money that has been given to support COVID.”
Darity had suggested sending checks, similar to how they have been distributed during the pandemic.
“It would be paid by the federal government in the same way that the federal government covered the expenses paid for the purposes of dealing with the Great Recession and, more recently, the economic downturn associated with the Great Pandemic,” he said.
Darity said if the $14 trillion were divided evenly among 40 million people whose ancestors lived in the system of slavery, that would equate to about $350,000 per person.
Professor William Darity teaches economics at Duke University. On a panel by Dr. Phil Show on Tuesday, he argued that the US federal government should spend $14 trillion on a massive reparations program for 40 million black Americans
He said the amount “should be determined by the wealth disparity between black and white Americans, which currently stands at over $840,000 per household.”
Darity said the “goal” of the program was “to close the racial wealth gap in the United States.”
The US government is currently more than $31 trillion in debt.
Political writer Joshua Ferguson, who also spoke Tuesday with Dr. Phil, seen on the podium, said the country could not afford the massive reparations bill.
“First, the US government has no money,” Ferguson said.
“All their money comes from taxes. To say you won’t take it away from people today, you’re right. You will take it away from future generations.”
Renowned author and civil rights activist Bob Woodson also criticized Darity’s plan, saying: “I can’t think of any group of people who got rich just by giving them money.”
There are just over 40 million black Americans in the US, so Darity’s number assumes each of them is a descendant of American slavery.
However, according to an April 2022 study by the Pew Research Center, only 57 percent of black Americans believe they are descendants of American slavery.
Darity said the program would work similarly to the COVID payments millions of Americans receive. The payments would eventually be felt by current and future taxpayers
The idea of compensating black Americans for slavery-era sins has been floated numerous times over the years.
In January, San Francisco proposed a $5 million payout to each longtime black resident, causing an uproar.
Cities such as Boston, Massachusetts, St. Paul, Minnesota and St. Louis, Missouri, and Los Angeles have set up task forces and boards to formulate their own reparations plans.