H.R. 40 has been bouncing around Congress for thirty-two years with little support.
But yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance the bill that could spend $20 million to study reparations for descendants of African slaves.
Specifically, the bill focuses on, “approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States”
There was no mention of reparations for the 500,000 or more Irish indentured servants, many of whom were sentenced to servitude and forcible shipped to the Colonies starting in the 1600’s.
Unlike African slaves who were treated as chattel, if the Irish survived the terms of their servitude or sentence, they were freed.
While progressive activists and groups feign outrage when a correlation is made between African slaves and Irish indentured servants, the underlying premise remains the same: human beings were forced to work without compensation and kept as living property of plantations in America.
Regardless of that history, Congress is not considering reparations for the decedents of Irish whites forced into servitude.
The Judiciary Committee is led by one of the Democrats’ most liberal members, Jerry Nadler, and 13 of the 23 Democrats on the committee are minorities – not at all representative of the American public.