In response to the letter " Bill slavery reparations to the Democratic Party " published April 26th:
In life, I have chosen to not define myself by a specific party or political group. However, my beliefs and values generally lean toward democratic, but that does not mean I follow the beliefs of the Democratic Party of the 1800s. Yes, freedom for slaves came through a Lincoln-led group of Republicans, but that does not mean those Republicans supported and continue to support equality for all.
That being said, it is important to note that the ideology that supported slavery is not the current ideology of the Democratic Party. Also, the past ideological party that opposed slavery has transitioned into the current ideology supporting racist agendas. Looking back, the History News Network explains that once African Americans were given their equal right to vote, a majority voted with the GOP – 70% of African Americans voted Republican in the 1932 election. However, in the late 1930s, the Democratic Party started making actual tangible gains, showing that 71% of African Americans voted for FDR in 1936 – a Democrat and the most dramatic shift of American voters within four years in history.
These statistics look nice, and they mean a lot, but, in reality, slavery reparations need to be made by the U.S. government as a whole. Not by Republicans or Democrats, by both. African Americans have been subjected to generations of systematic discrimination at the hands of the government and it is time that the entire government pays for it.
