Georgia County commissioner blasts $210K plan to contemplate reparations: ‘We don’t have cash for a hospital’

Commissioners in Fulton County, Georgia voted to maneuver ahead with a expensive examine to contemplate whether or not to ascertain a reparations program, at the same time as native establishments wrestle.

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted 4-2 in favor of $210,000 of funding in the direction of a reparations examine this previous Wednesday.

The examine can be carried out by each the county’s native management and Atlanta College Middle and can discern if reparations are obligatory for some Fulton County residents who’re descended from slaves.

Earlier than the vote, Commissioner Bridget Thorne of District 1 condemned the choice as being a “divisive” plan of action.

“That is simply such a divisive idea and I really feel prefer it’s simply gonna damage Fulton County, it’s simply gonna rip us aside. We heard in public remark, how persons are gonna be paying for it — that is popping out of taxpayer {dollars} — this $210,000 is popping out of taxpayers {dollars}, no matter reparations, no matter they resolve, no matter they discover, they’re going to make the taxpayers pay for it,” she stated previous to the vote, based on The Washington Examiner.

“And we don’t have cash for a jail, we don’t have cash for a hospital, that’s what we have to be specializing in.”

She additionally reportedly attacked the reparations task force for less than researching the Georgia county’s actions as much as 1980, arguing that native initiatives previously few many years must be factored into the examine.

Then again, Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, who’s described on the Fulton County’s web site as a “robust voice” for “social and financial justice” voted in favor of the invoice, saying such an inquiry is required.

“The aim of the reparations job drive is to guage if reparations are warranted, if they’re warranted, in what kind? Ought to or not it’s instructional, ought to or not it’s monetary? What ought to they be?” Abdur-Rahman instructed Fox 5 Atlanta.

Comparable initiatives have emerged throughout the nation, the place lawmakers debate the feasibility of financial reparations for Black People whose ancestors had been victimized by the Atlantic slave commerce and its legacy. 

California is one such state, regardless of the actual fact it was designated as a free state when it joined the Union.

Fulton County Reparations Activity Power member Mike Russell beforehand spoke to Fox Information Digital in June, the place he credited America for taking the initiative to contemplate such a program within the first place.

“Of all of the locations I’ve been, I’ve by no means been wherever the place the society has taken such an effort to, in blood and treasure, right previous wrongs.”

Then again, he famous the “validity” of individuals saying such a program may be divisive, and famous that “sooner or later, we’re going to should let go of the previous.”