Source: Congressional Quarterly / Getty
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proved how out of touch he is with the concerns of Black Americans after he willfully stated that a discussion regarding reparations for slavery is moot because, in so many words, Black folks have it good now. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke at an open hearing in front of the House, aiming some of his blistering testimony towards the Kentucky senator over his comments.
The Atlantic captured Coates’ testimony, and here are some highlights:
It is tempting to divorce this modern campaign of terror, of plunder, from enslavement, but the logic of enslavement, of white supremacy, respects no such borders and the guard of bondage was lustful and begat many heirs. Coup d’états and convict leasing. Vagrancy laws and debt peonage. Redlining and racist G.I. bills. Poll taxes and state-sponsored terrorism. We grant that Mr. McConnell was not alive for Appomattox. But he was alive for the electrocution of George Stinney. He was alive for the blinding of Isaac Woodard. He was alive to witness kleptocracy in his native Alabama and a regime premised on electoral theft. Majority Leader McConnell cited civil-rights legislation yesterday, as well he should, because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing, and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them. He was alive for the redlining of Chicago and the looting of black homeowners of some $4 billion. Victims of that plunder are very much alive today. I am sure they’d love a word with the majority leader.
In short, Coates had the smoke and the brisket prepared for Sen. McConnell thus mincing no words.
Read Coates’ testimony in full here.
Watch video of the testimony courtesy of MoveOn’s Facebook page below.
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Photo: Getty
Ta-Nehisi Coates Smokes Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Headass Reparations Stance was originally published on hiphopwired.com
