Sen. Amy Klobuchar: Slavery Reparations Don’t Have to Be ‘Direct Pay’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is the latest 2020 presidential hopeful to discuss her position on direct reparations for the African-American descendants of slaves.

“I believe that we have to invest in those communities that have been so hurt by racism,” she told moderator Chuck Todd during Sunday’s morning edition of NBC’s Meet the Press.

Her plans for reparations, however, do not include financial repayment to Black Americans.

“It doesn’t have to be a direct pay for each person, but what we can do is invest in those communities, acknowledge what’s happened,” Klobuchar said. “And that means better education. That means looking at—for our whole economy—community college, one-year degrees, minimum wage, childcare, making sure that we have that shared dream of opportunity for all Americans. And I’ll tell you this: You know, we may look different, we may pray different, but we all have that shared dream of America. And that is not being sent to many communities right now in this country. And it is hurting not just them, it is hurting our whole country.”

Klobuchar’s stance is almost the same as the other Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Though they have not ruled out checks for the Black descendants of slaves, they would like to set up programs to ease the racial disparities in wealth, education and other functions of society.