Legendary former professional football runner Herschel Walker led the conservative resistance to slavery reparations on Wednesday during a Congressional hearing.
Walker, who played in the former USFL and NFL for 15 years, said the reparations may require black Americans like him to use the genetic company 23andMe to calculate their pay by percentage of ancestry and he argued that African Americans were also involved in the US slave trade abolished in 1865.
Walker, who campaigned for former President Donald Trump last year, said he opposed reparations for practical and moral reasons.
“We use black power to create white guilt. My approach is biblical: how can I ask Heavenly Father to forgive me if I cannot forgive my brother? ”The former Dallas Cowboys star told a subcommittee on the House Judiciary Committee.
“America is the largest country in the world for me, a melting pot of many great races, many great minds that have come together with different ideas to make Americans the greatest country on the planet. Many died trying to enter America. Nobody is dying trying to get out, ”he said.
“Repairs, where does the money come from? Does it come from all other races except black taxpayers? Who is black? What percentage of blacks should you be to receive compensation? Do you go to 23andMe or a DNA test to determine the percentage of darkness? Some American ancestors came to this country 80 years ago, their ancestors were not even here during slavery. Some black immigrants were not here during slavery, nor were their ancestors. Some states didn’t even have slavery ”.
Walker, winner of the 1982 Heisman Trophy who began his professional career with Trump-owned USFL New Jersey Generals, also played in the NFL for the Vikings, Eagles and Giants. He was the most famous witness at the hearing for Resolution 40 of the House, which would create a commission to study the matter. The project is sponsored by Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) Quoted attorney Charles Ogletree, who said the commission’s final outcome “may not be the 21st century equivalent of 40 acres and a mule. The 21st century equivalent, he said, was an SUV and a condominium. ”Deputy Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said it is possible that the reparations are not financial.
Walker, 58, said he talked to his mother to get his opinion before the hearing.
“I asked my mother, who is about 80, what she thinks of the repairs. Her words: I don’t believe in reparation. Who does the money go to? Has anyone ever thought of paying families who lost someone in the Civil War, who fought for their freedom? “Walker said.
The football star said his mother told him that the reparations are similar to the proverb about giving someone a fish instead of teaching them to fish on their own.
“Repair is only feeding you for one day. It is removing a ‘whites only’ sign and replacing it with the ‘no education here’ sign, ”he said.
Walker also questioned who was responsible for slavery.
“Who is to blame? Should we start at the beginning, where African Americans sold their African American ancestors as slaves? What about a slave trader who ended up selling African American ancestors to slave owners? ” he said.
He concluded: “I feel that it keeps telling us that we are still African-Americans, and not just Americans. Reparation or atonement is outside the teaching of Jesus Christ. “
Jackson Lee said that last year’s Black Lives Matter protests showed “signs in support of HR 40” and that now is the right time to establish the commission. With broad Democratic support, your project has a reasonable chance of being approved.
The congresswoman criticized the Republicans for choosing two black witnesses – Walker and conservative analyst Larry Elder – to speak out against her project.
“As in our last hearing, the minority selected two African-American witnesses to speak out against HR 40. This is their privilege. But we know that justice, the facts and the life that was and continues to be conducted by African Americans are on our side, ”she said.
Elder said at the hearing that blacks should be considered a “race of winners” and that historical data on poverty indicate progress towards equality.
“Despite all the problems that were raised in this committee on racism, slavery, Jim Crow, blacks have overcome it to the point that only 20% of blacks are below the poverty level set by the federal government – still very high, but in 1940 this number was 87% and 20 years later that number was reduced to 47% ”, he said.
Republican Congressman Burgess Owens of Utah, who is black, said the reparations would amount to “socialism” and would be “impractical”. He said it is “unfair and cruel to give black Americans the hope that this will be a reality.”
“The reality is that American black history is not that of a hopeless race oppressed by a more powerful white race. Instead, a story of millions of middle-class, wealthy black Americans throughout the early 20th century reaching for the American dream, Owens said.
The Utah congressman countered that politicians should “give us back our story” and that “by accepting our lineage as victors, the same story will inspire the respect of our American compatriots – an example of how to overcome the most overwhelming adversities. “