In a near impossible position to succeed. And the pandemic has further exposed the racial disparities. Black folks are getting the covid19 virus at a much higher rate than white folks. If you dont see how the killing of george floyd and the protests that followed are tied to reparations, well, then you may need to go back and watch every single episode of united shades of america. Then youll discover we are way past time for reparations. Did you just get naked for beads . Its not even mardi gras. Most people coming to new orleans, they come for this. Music, party. Weirdly colored drinks loaded with alcohol. But this isnt the whole story of new orleans. Its a big, vibrant city with a lot of stories to tell. Were not here to talk about the parties. Were talking about reparations. You might want to fix yourself a stiff drink. As the race for 2020 starts to heat up, so is the debate over reparations for slavery. Oh, its coming, everybody. Chris knows it. Reparations for africanamericans. Representative Sheila Jackson lee knows it. Congress has the responsibility to do the right thing. And lot of people who are going to be president know it. The legacy of slavery is alive and well in every aspect of the economy. Its time to start the national, fullblown conversation about reparations. I agree with what elizabeth is saying. Of course you do, bernie. Okay. Reparations aint exactly coming yet, but it looks like the United States is finally ready to have the discussion about talking about reparations. Reparations, meaning that the United States would pay back black folks for all the free labor it got during slavery and all the damage done to the black Community Every day since. And theres no better place to have this conversation than new orleans. Theres no city in the country that combines the best of americas blackness, pain of americans racism, and the pain of watching white folks exercising all their rights. Ive been coming to new orleans since i was a kid. I just vacationed with my family here. So i know the city and its history. And as much as its been identified as a party city, you can turn a corner and feel like you walked smack dab into the antebellum south. Dont believe me . Just as i pull into town, new orleans was hosting a reenactment of a slavery rebellion. At least i think it was a reenactment. These black folks look serious. The rebellion happened in 1811. And i dont have to tell you it wasnt successful. Because we all know slavery didnt end in 1811. New york artist dred scott is the one who came up with the idea. This is about freedom and emancipation. It is not about slavery. I dont want to dress up as a slave. Im dressing up as a liberated person, selfliberated thats going to fight to emans paitd everybody else. Not as a slave, im dressing up as a person whos fighting for liberation. We came here to pay homage to our ancestors. As far as the dressing up, was that the easy decision to make . It was emotional. But i feel like what do i have to cry about . They sacrificed so much for me, the least i can do is to pay them back. Singing the songs, chanting. How was the walk . 26 miles, right . Exhausting. But we made it. Im like, they didnt give up, so why should i . I was just walking and all of a sudden my tear ducts started filling up. Whats going on . Got a little glory tears . I marched all over the city. You can see theres a lot of people here, powerful stuff. I also had a white guy who i think was hired to help. Even at the rebellion reenactment, white people walk through the shot. Even at the rebellion reenactment, white people walk right and look, i dont want to spend too much time in the reparations episode talking about slavery but if were going to talk about it lets go to someone whos recently changed the conversation. This is nicole hanna jones, New York Times Racial Justice reporter and creator of the 1619 project. The 1619 project is named after the year when the first 20 to 30 enslaved africans arrived at the British Colony Of Virginia only to find out how much worse things could get. Its an unvarnished look into The Legacy Of American Slavery told through essays, pictures, poems, and much more. Its the amazing thing about this country, the past matters only in the ways we want the past to hatter. And i say all the time you cant say that the declaration of independence Still Matters or the constitution Still Matters but 1619 doesnt, but slavery doesnt, but jim crow doesnt. We cant pick those parts of us that we think really define who we are as americans if theyre good but ignore those things that also define us as americans if theyre bad. I mean, thats really the whole purpose of the 1619 project, is not to tell a history, but to answer that most common question that black people get, which is slavery was a long time ago, why dont you get over it . Thats the thing. From the moment the emancipation proclamation, 13th amendment, america was working hard to get black folks as close to slavery as possible p where we cant just do it flat out but we can put them in jail and take away their rights to vote and also still not have to pay them a living wage. Thats right. Yes, you can legally learn to read but we can make your schools so bad so that youre not going to learn at the same rate as white people. Yeah. We can ensure your schools dont even have a book or a teacher. You have a right to read. Just not the ability to be taught to read. So many as pex v pekts of modern American Life can be traced back to slavery and antiblack racism. We cant be liberated from this legacy if we dont acknowledge the role that legacy plays right now. So to me reparations has to be threepronged. Recommitment to strong enforcement of civil rights laws, because you can get this economic payment but we know that black people still face discrimination in every aspect of american society, in the housing market, the job market, criminal justice. And then i think there needs to be a really large investment of resources into the black communities that have had that wealth extracted and have been denied the ability to live like other americans. And i think anyone arguing for reparations that is not arguing for cash payment is basically racist. I like that. Flat out. I thought you were going to softpedal something. Its only when it comes to black folks were so concerned how people are going to spend i dont know if they know how to spend that money responsibly. I say this jokingly but half jokingly. Like if i wanted to spend my reparations on all gucci, thats my right. And were very clear on that in this litigious society. Like if you hit me with your car and i cant go to work anymore, i want my work money but i also want some hurt my feelings money and you made me feel bad you made me suffer. You made me suffer money. Unnecessarily. And that may be way bigger than the actual money that is owed. We get that in everything except thats the thing. Racism makes you illogical. So like all of a sudden all of these concepts of law and morality that we understand everywhere else when it comes to black folks were like oh, hell, no. I dont get it. What would money do . Why should i have to pay you i never owned slaves. You didnt have to. To me if the government if you can inherit wealth, which we all understand, then you also inherit debt. Termites. Go back up hang on i am hanging on. Dont mess up your deck with texmex. Terminix. Hi. The only way to nix it is to terminix it. [sfx psst psst] allergies dont have to be scary. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. 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All the damage Hurricane Katrina has already caused and more you know the story. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was responsible for almost 2,000 deaths and an estimated 161 billion in damage across the gulf coast. Mostly in Southeastern Louisiana and coastal mississippi. The Largest National disaster in american history. Some of you are thinking, katrina . I thought this was about Slavery Reparations. Well, the governments lackluster response to the black community after katrina is still about the need for reparations. Oh, and it was definitely lackluster. No matter what president bush told the head of fema. Brownie, youre doing a heck of a job. And even though the seventh ward which at the time was a black workingclass neighborhood, might not be the first area you think of when you think of katrina, it has a katrina story to tell. This is Actist Endesha Jewakali who grew up here. Yeah. I deal with stuff like this. Youll forgive him if he doesnt seem all that impressed with me. Hes done this before, with better company. The same walk with spike. Most notably with spike lee in his film when the levees broke. I like interviewing here because the new orleans you see now is not the new orleans i grew up in. If you look at this area here, prior to katrina, this whole area was a Public Housing development. That was all Public Housing. All of this was Public Housing. When the storm came, we got very little water. But they declared a national emergency. Came with guns and state police and theyre lining buses on that interstate as far as the eye can see. Told you to get on the bus. And you didnt even know where you was going. So they put all of the poor people out. And many of those people found out they werent ever going to be able to go back home because the city tore down their Affordable Housing and did not rebuild it. It aint right to do us like that. What is this now . Thats private now. Its not public thats private. Some developer got it . Yeah. Do people live back there . You can live back there if youve got money. The government said they wanted new orleans to be more affluent. A way to do that was to get rid of poor people. Now about 100,000 fewer black folks live in the city than in the year 2000. So people think katrina was a national disaster. In new orleans, katrina was a manmade disaster. It was a natural event that men turned into a disaster for black poor people. In his analysis the seventh wards Mass Evacuation and the tearing down of the Public Housing in an area that barely got any water was not effort to push black people out of the neighborhood is not the official line of the local government. What . Today we made a unified decision to move forward. Every citizen has a right to return to the city. Unified . Im pretty sure a lot of new orleans folk wouldnt describe it as unified. Because when they were ready to go home their homes were gone and the city had become too expensive for them to find new ones. Unified. So in new orleans, you can see the legacy of slavery through neighborhoods like this and through the response to katrina. Right. So the link to slavery is so clear here. Exactly. Its a good modern example of how ruthless people with money and power can be when it comes down to making sure they stay on top and we stay on the bottom. What is this . Thats my Elementary School i went to. Wow. Yeah, youve got a lot of these spots in new orleans where youre pointing at something totally empty. Whats that . Oh, thats where i used to go to school. Oh, wow. That used to be our Elementary School. And now its nothing. Now its nothing. When was it torn down . After katrina. They just felt like i guess after you take away all that housing there aint no more people. Aint no kids to go here. Everything in new orleans was anchored by Public Housing. So when youre going to change the scope of new orleans, first thing youve got to do is get rid of poor people. So when they tore down all the Public Housing, they actually made the first step toward redefining the whole essence of new orleans. If i was to give you the power to repair all this, to give reparations, whatever space magic you need, the Reparations Wand, what would you do . I think the debt to black folk is so high we would break america. Like Martin Luther king said, they wrote us a check but its nsf. Insufficient funds. Right. So when we talk about the concept of reparations, then we have to talk about how were going to go after reparations. Yeah. Its got to be more than us asking the congress or us trying to go through the courts. Youve got to build a Peoples Movement thats so powerful you shake the roots of america. People say they want you to be peaceful and nonviolent. I might be nonviolent but i aint going to goddamn be peaceful. You can forget about that. Peace is a weapon of those in power. Weve got to take everything we want. So im going to stop here because im through. I know its got to be an hour by now, right . You said enough. Yall enjoy yall self. Yall good . Are we good . Okay. Legit unlimited data, powered by verizon for as little as 25 a month. But when you bring a friend every month, you get every month for 5. So im bringing everyone within 12 degrees of me. Bam, 12 months of 5 wireless. Visible. As little as 25 a month. Or 5 a month when you bring a friend. Powered by verizon. Wireless that gets better with friends. car horn splash turn todays dreams into tomorrows trips. With millions of flexible booking options. All in one place. Expedia. Our kids are bad at hiding things. But we found out their clothes hide a lot. Which concerned us, especially with their sensitive skin. Thats why we always look for new Tide Hygienic clean free. It removes the visible and invisible dirt. Its got to be Tide Hygienic clean free. Every Black Neighborhood had or has a store like this. Community book center, a gathering space, a hub for activism and a place to talk shit. That Son Of A Bitch is crazy. Theres a lot of angst. Theres a lot of anger. Theres a lot of hurt. Not just financial but, you know, a lot of folks, especially elders, you know, that passed after the storm. People say, well, they died from heartbreak. I really believe it was exacerbated by the situation. The lack of response. Were adjusting to the new orleans. I see you over there listening. Ear hustling. I am. This is my spot. This is your spot. If you want to step on into this. All thats been said is affecting not just the physical body but the spiritual body. Thats why coming here matters. We have some of the most amazing conversations here. Mama jennifer is like my other side. Okay. Hi. Kamau. How are you doing . Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. If anyone wants to join us at the table, this is you know. What is your role here . You know what . I havent the foggiest idea. What my role is, chris . Keep that shit together. I keep that shit together. This is a classic black book store conversation. Fast moving. Dropping knowledge or pretense. Whether you can keep up or not, believe me, it is all about reparations. Thats pretty much what every conversation in a store like this is. This is a port city. This is a slave state. Yes. Ive heard it said. It is a slave state. Not it was a slave state. It is. Let me be very clear present tense. Look at the gentrification. When people move into communities they change the tax base. So people cant participate new taxes, so they have to leave their community that theyve been a part of for generations. And then people that i was so used to seeing in the streets, i might see them at the grocery store, where you been . And they say i couldnt afford my house anymore. Some neighborhoods in new orleans are currently seeing up to 300 increase his in property value. Many long time residents cant afford the taxes that come with this increase so theyre forced to sell and move. Just another way that lower income people get pushed out of neighborhoods theyve lived in for generations. Damn. So heres my question. If i give you the magic Reparations Wand and you can wave it and make it all happen, what do you do . Build my community more. I would love to have more mom and pop. The thing about reparations like a future thing. Its like you want reparations to repair the black communities to where they were. Every Black Neighborhood had its own Downtown Section with blackowned businesses that served the community. Could i chime in . Of course you can, brother. This is the Conversation Version of a New Orleans Jazz jam session. People come and go, the songs change but the music, aka the conversation keeps going. When black folk had communities and they were thriving, policies and programs were implemented so that was destroyed. So a component of it has got to include policies and procedures and equitable or fair treatment. And in order to get to that everybodys got to sit at the table. Black, white, yellow, brown, woman, man i see a chair being pulled out. Is that yes. Somebody coming . When you put that big table together of everybody there, youre like black people, white people, i was like do we have to put the orange guy at the table . Could we leave for me he has to be there. You know, thats why we have the space. So we can discuss that. Yes. Is there things you feel you havent heard or you feel like specifically you want . I would invest toward eliminating the Current School system that has 100 Charter Schools. All the Public Schools are Charter Schools . Every last one of them. And thats by design. Louisianas Recovery School district, r. S. D. , was created after Hurricane Katrina and tasked with improving standards at schools across the state. Their solution, close down every Traditional Public School and replace them with public Charter Schools. Today, 100 of the new orleans Public School students go to Charter Schools and theyre often a long commute away from home. What In The Name Of john oliver is happening . And the other weakness of not having neighborhood schools, children get up at 5 30, 6 00 in the morning, to be at the bus stop at 6 30 to get to a school that starts at 8 00. If the bus doesnt pick them up, that means that the parent has to find a way to get that child to school. The child doesnt have a way to go to school, then the child then begins this other decline truancy. Because theyve been displaced out of the education process. As a child, i walked to school. I passed all the neighborhood businesses. The Corner Grocery stores, the barber shop, the pharmacy, all of these places were owned and operated by people that looked like me. So my role models for entrepreneurship was rooted right there in my own community. You take that away, youre dividing community. And children dont have a sense of place in community anymore. Believe me, if those black folks ran this country, we would all be in a better place. Move the white house to a community black center. Mama jennifer, 2020. I shouldnt have to tell you who this is. Branford mar sal sis is a grammy awardwinning jazz musician. His family is new orleans royalty. No matter how successful they get, they always come back to new orleans. So when katrina hit, he and other new orleans musicians didnt wait for the government. They saw the ninth ward under 12 feet of water and got to work. Harry connick and i together with Habitat For Humanity decided we were going to use this particular neighborhood to build a lot of homes. Its going to be about 70 houses, about ten elderfriendly duplex apartments. We use it as an opportunity to get homes for musicians because its hard to get a house when you are living in the gig economy. By gig economy, he means the old school gig economy. Musicians playing gigs. The heart of Musicians Village is the Ellis Marsalis center for music. Im proud of the fact the school serves the community. Yeah. Everybody. Everybody. Whats that . Gel is blind. Theres one kid in there with down syndrome. And i have an autistic brother so it is great that there is a place they can go. A place for the community. Yeah. Thats beautiful. And were not trying to train musicians here. Were trying to use the discipline of music to help these kids get a grasp on understanding general concepts to succeed in whatever it is they want to do. Branford also has a diy approach to reparations. I believe you have onerous laws. We can spend our time protesting the law or we can work to nullify the law. All of these states are fearful of minority votes now. Shutting down polling stations and creating all these onerous situations. This goes back to what me and nikole were talking about. When black folks were enslaved, we werent allowed to vote. As soon as we werent enslaved, the United States worked to stop us from voting. From literacy tests to poll taxes to gutting the Voting Rights act in 2013 and more. They realized in North Carolina where i live the majority of black citizens vote after church on sundays. So they made, first it was, well, early voting except on sundays. Theyre trying to win, man. Theyre scared to death. You said you believe in action. Sort of instead of spending time talking about maybe thinking about this reparations thing just get out and do something. Yeah. I believe in that. [ applause ] bravo encore encore. What else did we clear . To make mouthwatering masterpieces. Order our new Flatbread Pizzas for dinner tonight with delivery or pickup. Only at panera. Sleek curly we all want to fight frizz Garnier Fructis antifrizz serum argan oil plus kerasystem up to 72 hours frizz control 97 Humidity Protection Fructis anti frizz serum by garnier, naturally we know its going to take many forms of energy to meet the worlds needs while creating a Cleaner Future for all. At chevron, were lowering the Carbon Emissions intensity of our operations, investing in lowercarbon technologies, and exploring Renewable Fuels of the future. We work hard to care for the homes we love. But its only human. To protect the one we share. [announcer] welcome to intelligent indoor grilling with the ninja foodi for smart xl grill. Ve. Just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. It also turns into an air fryer. Bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you. You know when your dog is itching for a treat. Itching for an outing. Or itching for some cuddle time. But you may not know when hes itching for help. Licking for help. Or rubbing for help. If your dog does these frequently. They may be signs of an allergic Skin Condition that needs treatment. Dont wait. Talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp. Com. I couldnt think about talking about the current discussion of reparations without talking about the Group American descendants of slavery, or a. D. O. S. Much of the talk of reparations ive seen online has come from their hashtag. Founded by attorney Antonio Moore and political commentator yvette carnell. A. D. O. S. Isnt trying to have a kumbaya discussion. As jeavette lets people know in her weekly show breaking brown. An individual experience of racism in this country is not the same. I dont want to see another black face in the white house. Especially if youre not advocating for me. Democrats are opening the borders. Theyre killing us anyway. And you want my vote . Oh, honey, no. I havent been this nervous for an interview since well, theres been a lot. When we first started putting this show together, your name came up. I was like id like to get her in this. I think its important. When we talk about reparations, not all black people think the same on reparations. One of the things i say is were not on the same page in terms of what we think about reparations. I think you have to first of all decide whos in and whos out. You have to decide, who is included when you do reparations. That is the people who bear the cost. Those are descendants of american chattel slaves. Slavery in this country. So there has to be some economic redistribution to american descendants of slavery. And thats one of the things thats kind of gotten me in trouble. People are like oh, youre excluding other black people. No, you have to decide. If youre somebody whose family emigrated from the caribbean in 1900, youve been here for 119 years, 120 years. On some level, youve experienced americas policies against american descendants of slaves even if your family did not participate. I always feel like you know, your race is often determined by what the police think you are when they pull you over. I think its because its not just about like experiencing racism. Its about who built the country and who has been kind of bottom cast. There wouldnt be an america without slaves and we are the descendants of those slaves. Thats why we have a black agenda. Our black agenda includes everyone. Its just reparations thats just american descendants of slavery. A. D. O. S. s approach to reparations has drawn a lot of criticism. They have been called out for Online Harassment by many people including msnbcs joy reid and members of their group have been accused of doxing, publicly disclosing personal information of people they disagree with. A. D. O. S. In the world is a very confrontational you know, we invited people on the show who were like if yvettes there i cant be there. You know what i mean . And im like, wait, should i be there . You know what i mean . Theres a sense of like if people arent down with a. D. O. S. Especially black people a lot of times. Then a. D. O. S. Might come tore you. Why not be down with us . Im laughing because it sounds like an offer you cant refuse. Its not like were some radical group. Its not just reparations. The black agenda as well. So why wouldnt you be down with us . A. D. O. S. Has also been accused of being antiimmigrant. Oh. I get it. I knew i was going to bring up something youd heard before. Weve seen immigration studies, right . And they say immigration dont impact american employees. And then a lot of times youll see one asterisk. And itll say, except for those people who dont have degrees. And then it will say a lot of those people are black men. Unskilled. Well, theyll concede like it does impact black men. The only thing that we have said is that we have to get serious about what this country should look like in terms of immigration levels, how those impact other communities. Which is our community. Black men is our community. We have said that you have to have a serious conversation about that. You cant just say i want open borders and everybody gets to come. Countries have borders. Its just what it is. And you have to have an adult conversation about what. What is a. D. O. S. s plan or outlook for reparation . How does it look . What is the strategy . Well, first we have to rewrite hr40 and we have to hook it with money. We have to have a Dollar Amount attached to that. Starting in 1989 congressman john conyers jr. Would repeatedly introduce hr40, legislation seeking to establish a commission to study reparations. After he left congress, representative Sheila Jackson lee took over the task of saying can we talk about reparations . So far the answer from america has been ha, ha, ha, no. Yvettes not buying it. You can come up with a bill for everything else. Nobody has any problem talking about how many trillions are going to be for medicare for all. So you have to come to we with the same kind of plan you come to every other group with. You have to come to me with a budget. And i think this Election Year is a good way for us to hold candidates accountable. A lot of the critique of a. D. O. S. Has been a. D. O. S. Is telling black people not to vote and if black people dont vote then we end up with four more years of trump. If everybody has to live with it another four years because we dont come out in droves and support a candidate who isnt going to do anything specifically for us, thats not our fault. Trump is not my reparations. We havent encouraged anybody to stay at home but we have encouraged democratic down ballot. Which means just vote the down ballot. You vote the down ballot. You vote for democrats but the top of the ticket gets no love. Unless you come to us and say we have a reparations plan, which includes financial outlays of money. We have a budget attached to this. Thats what were pushing for. Mmhmm. So abe and art can grow more plants. So they can hire vilma. And wendy. And me. So, more people can go to work. So, more days can start with kisses. When you buy this plant at walmart. Dignity. This thing you can neither see nor measure. But that demands the return of small moments illness attempts to steal. Dignity demands a rapid covid test, because we all need an answer to move forward. Dignity demands your heart stays connected to your doctor, so you know its beating as it should. It demands a better understanding of your glucose levels, so you can enjoy movie night. And knowing your baby is getting the nutrition he needs, no matter how you choose to feed him. Dignity is not effortless nor easy. 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According to the New York Times, the government paid out about 1. 3 billion, that came to less than 1,000 for each indigenous person. Not good. In 2015 the city of chicago gave 5. 5 million in what it called reparations to 57 people. Most of them black. Who had been victims of torture by the Chicago Police department. In 1990 Japanese Americans who the United States interned in camps during world war ii for no good reason were awarded 20,000 each in reparations. More than 80,000 people claimed them for a total of 1. 6 billion. So my awkward question is, if formerly interned japaneseamericans got over A Billion Dollars for four years of imprisonment, then how much should black folks get from 1619 up until right now . You know, this episode is about reparations and the u. S. s debt to africanamericans. I need somebody who can speak to hard cold facts. Can also talk about systemic oppression. Maybe even come up with a culture that has dealt with that. So i said we need a german. We have our baggage. Reporter Thomas Kramer is a professor of Public Policy at the university of connecticut, where he investigates the psychology of race. I was always interested in things about Race Relations and racial attitudes, merely because of growing up in germany and learning about the holocaust in every school subject. What kind of payments were Holocaust Survivors given . The reparations deal between west germany and israel had multiple components. Some were payments to the state of israel for Rehousing Refugees after the war. And it was also helping the israeli economy to get restarted. Germany would pass reparations to individual survivors of the holocaust. It was a symbol that germany meant what it was saying. That it was trying to change its ways. Even though only symbolically because no pension can ever make up for your entire family being wiped out and your own suffering. So with all that knowledge the professor has a pretty different view of americas history than most White Americans. When i first came to the United States, i immediately felt responsible for slavery as well as a White American for the simple reason that slave labor laid the groundwork for the Great American economic success, and i benefit from that success. Okay. Youve heard a lot of talk so far. But ultimately, reparations is about a number. How much money does the United States of america owe black folks . Sit down. Its a big number. Using the closest i could find to an estimate, what a slave would have charged at the time for one hour of work, thats like 11 cents an hour. Some crazy talk about minimum wages. He then figured out how many hours all enslaved africans, men, women, and yes, children, worked in the United States until 1865, when slavery was officially abolished. He multiplied the amount of time they worked by average wage prices of 11 cents an hour. Damn. And then a compounding Interest Rate of 3 per year to make up for inflation. And you get a whopping number. 19 trillion. Roughly the size of one years worth of the u. S. Gdp. A huge number. Its a huge number. And very conservative. Yeah, its a big number. But remember, that just gets us to the end of slavery. Reparations is also about all the awful things the u. S. Did to black folks after slavery. While this is a hugesounding number, it is the type of huge number the United States deals in. It aint impossible. And the United States has actually already given reparations for slavery. Yep. When slavery was abolished, america paid reparations to slave owners in washington, d. C. , like 300 per slave. Im sure that was a substantial amount of money at the time. And it just boggles the mind that was actually done. We actually paid up. Our Slavery Reparations went to the owners. Oh, my god. Hold on while i scream into a pillow. 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So you can feel lighter and more energetic metamucil. Support your daily digestive health. And try metamucil fiber thins. A great tasting and easy way to start your day. Wanna help kids get their homework done . Well, an Internet Connections a good start. But kids also need computers. And sometimes the hardest thing about homework is finding a place to do it. So why not Hook Community centers up with wifi . For kids like us, and all the Amazing Things were gonna learn. Over the next 10 years, comcast is committing 1 billion to reach 50 million lowincome americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything. I hope youre ready. cause we are. In 1838, 272 enslaved africans were sold by the jesuits, who were supposed to be the good catholics, from plantations in maryland to four louisiana plantations, in order to save George Town University from financial ruin. Today, i am visiting karen harper royal. She is a tdescendent of the 272 africans sold to georgetown. She regularly hosts gatherings for other descendants to host the connection between extended family. Should have brought something. Hi. Hi. Kamal. Nice to meet you. Im not even in, yet. Okay. All right. Our cousin dotey arnold. And the man of the house. And our cousin, peaches. Okay, okay, all right. We got two more cousins over h here. Theyre deep in conversation. I dont want to interrupt. No, no, they are probably trying to figure out how theyre related. We gonna put some grits in the thing. I hope youre hungry. I am. I am. Southern cheese grits, i am in heaven. And its heart healthy, right . Saturdays dont count. Thank you, guys, for coming. Yall, want to say a little grace . Father, god, we come to you with heads bowed and hearts humbled. Thanking you, lord, for this assembly. Thank you for this fellowship, lord, for karen, who has allowed us to come together. In jesus, amen. Amen. Karen, this looks like you put your foot in it. I put both feet in it. Yeah. Who doesnt do you keep up with him . Well, yeah, because we have been best friends since, like, 71. But, yeah, i just love francis. So you two havent met until today . No, its our first time. So, nobody here knows each other . No. We all know karen. If that helps. Shes the common denominator. Well, i know karen because i met her about ten minutes ago. So we all in the stamame spot. I believe, that probably everybody in the room here has some kind of connection. I mean, these family trees are pretty nknotty. They are tangled roots because thedescendants of those ancestors deep in louisiana cheryl is from maryland. Wasnt it you, who said you saw this group of people you were related to in louisiana. You didnt know how or why . Exactly. What i had my dna done, i had the dots in d. C. , maryland, virginia, being like a fifthgeneration washingtonian. I got that. I understood that. But then, there were dots here, in louisiana. And i was like, well, how did they get down there . And then, when they made the connection to Georgetown University and how all that took place. Because i had gone to Georgetown University. And had i known, sitting in those classrooms, the connection and that the doors were still open because my relatives had been sold. And it was just surreal. Im going to always feel some kind of way about that. Reporter in 2019, an effort led by students at Georgetown University resulted in the school committing to raising 400,000, annually, for the descendants of the 272. The descendants, led by karen, wanted to be included in the conversation about how this money should be used. I thought we got to do something. We created what we call the descendants declaration. We go there for their announcement. They do their really beautiful presentation. We must acknowledge that Georgetown University participated in the institution of slavery. And then, they pass around the mic for q and a. They shouldnt have done that. So, instead of just sit there and ask them the question. We all stood up. And went to the front of the auditorium. And then, i read the declaration. From the legacy of slavery. People thought we were part of the program but we just kind of made ourselves a part of the program because thats our house. Yeah. You know . Thats our house. And thats the history of black folks in this country. We got to make ourselves part of the program. But again, even this group, which is bonded by a lot, has different ideas of what reparations should be. Historian. Am i am i on Instagram Live right now . I dont do any social media, at all. Any thoughts . You want me to take you while shell give it to you, too. Absolutely. Its funny. That is too funny. I think that, a lot of time, money, interest, and support, needs to be put into the medical arena for black people. So, we can have more doctors to go to moving forward and thank you. The Prison System is just modernday slavery. Uhhuh. Like, we seriously have to address that. Like, the whole system has to be reevaluated and redesigned for equity. I dont think we will ever be able to move forward, until we can educate people why this is their responsibility, even though it happened way before they existed. We will never be a successful country, really successful, until we, both, can look at the problem. And see that theres some damage that has been maybe, we can never repair. But at least, we have to try. So, what should reparations look like . The answer is, yes, all of it. Better schools, better housing, better protections under the law. Gucci bags. Actually, granting us the same rights and privileges as your averagewhite tourist on bourbon street. So, you, out there, right now, if you are afraid of the conversation, dont be scared. Jut sit down. Its time to have it. We have got a seat for you at the table right next to the orange guy. That seats always open. Hello and welcome to our viewers here, in the United States, and all around the world. Im michael holmes. Thanks for your company. Ahead here on cnn newsroom. A royal remembrance. We are Learning Details of prince philips funeral scaled back because of covid restrictions. A worrying surge of newcovid cases in michigan. The u. S. Government sending reinforcements to administer vaccines. And you want democracy . We want democracy. We dont want a military coup