WH vow onracial reparation

‘We don’t want to wait’

The White House is “going to start acting now” on reparations for African Americans, a White House senior adviser said Monday, as Congress debates forming a commission to study how the policy could be implemented.

Cedric Richmond told “Axios on HBO,” “We don’t want to wait on a study. We’re going to start acting now.

“We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back, and especially African Americans. We have to do stuff now.”

“If you start talking about free college tuition to [historically black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college in Title I and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way.”

Richmond noted that a timeline for a congressional commission was not known.

In legislation first introduced by the late Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) in 1989, and reintroduced repeatedly in years since by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Democratic lawmakers have called for Congress to form a commission to study the issue.

That legislation saw an uptick in interest last summer following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

After clinching the Democratic nomination last year, President Biden added support for the study of reparations to his platform.

Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman, pointed to one of Biden’s many executive actions that is devoted to “breaking down barriers in housing, making sure that African Americans can pass down wealth through homeownership, that their homes are not valued less than homes in different communities just because of the neighborhood it’s in.”