Reparations were right but a non-starter, says Obama

BARACK OBAMA has backed reparations for slavery, but said he could not get it done due to the “politics of white resistance and resentment”.

The former president said he did not pursue the issue in office because it had been politically a “non-starter”.

Mr Obama said: “If you ask me theoretically, ‘Are reparations justified?’ the answer is yes. There’s not much question that the wealth of this country, the power of this country was built … on the backs of slaves.”

The former president was speaking on his podcast with Bruce Springsteen, Renegades: Born in the USA. He said: “What I saw … was the politics of white resistance and resentment. The talk of ‘welfare queens’ and the ‘undeserving’ poor, and the backlash against affirmative action.”

He added that meant a reparations programme “struck me as, politically, not only a non-starter but potentially counterproductive”.

Mr Obama also said it was “perfectly understandable why working-class white folks, middle-class white folks, folks who are having trouble paying the bills or dealing with student loans, wouldn’t be too thrilled”.

During his original campaign in 2008, Mr Obama’s position was that the “best reparations” would be “good schools in the inner city” and jobs.

Joe Biden’s White House has given its support to studying reparations amid renewed Democrat efforts to create a commission on the issue.

The commission would be charged with suggesting appropriate remedies including financial payments from the government to compensate descendants of slaves for years of unpaid labour by their ancestors.