Conservatives are telling Black Americans not to believe Democrats promising them reparations, but that they are being manipulated in a "cynical bait and switch" for votes.
"I would tell every Black American who believes that the Democrats will come up with a policy that will solve all their problems, and that money will solve all of their problems, to dig into the history," former Princeton professor, Dr. Carol Swain, told Fox News Digital. "Look at the people who are making those promises. Have they come through in the past? Why do you believe them now?"
The growing demand for reparations to atone for the harms of slavery is being led by politicians at the state and local level, with cities like Los Angeles, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Providence, Rhode Island; Asheville, North Carolina forming commissions to help create reparations pilot programs.
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On a federal level, Rep. Cori Bush D-Mo., alongside several other progressive lawmakers, unveiled the Reparations NOW resolution last week, calling for $14 trillion in reparations for Black Americans.
Swain said Democrats are supporting reparations "not because they care about Black people," but because they believe it will help them at the ballot box.
"The Democrats – this is what they do," Swain said. "They see this as a way to get Black Americans all excited about 2024, believing that if they elect a Democrat president, that somehow that person will push it through Congress."
"They promise the moon, they deliver nothing, and it's more of the same," she added.
Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock said the call for reparations is not new but is being brought back to life to further polarize an already divided America.
"We're just going to create one giant machete to chop this country in half, and the last thing we need is one more way to divide the American people," Murdock said. "It’s a cynical bait and switch designed to manipulate Black voters for the betterment of the Democrat Party."
North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson echoed Swain and Murdock’s sentiments.
"Once the vote is over, they'll say, ‘We're still working on it.’ The next vote will come around, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, we're almost there,’" Robinson told Fox News Digital. "It's just simply a scheme to gain votes from voters. That's all it is."
California Reparations Task Force recommended $1.2 million in payments to every qualifying Black state resident earlier this month. The panel's entire proposal is estimated to cost more than double the state’s overall budget. A proposed plan in San Francisco is estimated to cost over $100 billion.
"It's a foolish idea," Robinson said. "It’s not going to be possible to pay for these programs, and quite frankly, I don't believe the people who are talking about it want to pay."
Following the death of George Floyd which led to nationwide demonstrations, a group of Democratic mayors, Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), announced a partnership in 2021 to take action. Three of the 11 mayors who joined the coalition are from North Carolina.
"Crime is out of control and here are these mayors talking about paying reparations," Robinson said. "They need to be taking care of the hardworking citizens of their cities instead of coming up with these grand schemes to try to grandstand and virtue signal."
Both Swain and Robinson agreed the politicians giving lip service to reparations should instead be focusing on creating policies to restore a "degenerating society."
"These blue cities are going to throw away money, do whatever they can, because they cannot be trusted with the purse," Swain told Fox News Digital. "It would be so much better if they focused on improving the lives of the citizens, the Black citizens they pretend to care about."
She said Republicans need to do a better job speaking out against ideas like reparations.
"Unfortunately, there are a lot of Republicans that are so afraid of being called a racist they don't stand on principle," Swain said. "We need to stand on principle, and the principle should be nondiscrimination, equal opportunity, equal accommodations, equal protection under the laws."
Murdock said the debate over reparations "can't be killed quickly enough."
"It's a terrible, rotten, destructive idea, and the sooner we can dig a big hole, throw it in, cover it with six feet of soil and pave it over, the better," he said.
