Herschel Walker On Reparations: “We Use Black Power to Create White Guilt”
Legendary football star Herschel Walker said Black people shouldn’t get reparations from the government.
Speaking on a virtual subcommittee hearing on the proposed “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act” — the former pro-football running back spoke against the Democrat-led measure, telling lawmakers that “we use black power to create white guilt.”
Walker, who campaigned for former Republican President Donald Trump in the previous election, said he is opposed to the reparations proposal for practical and moral reasons.
“We use black power to create white guilt. My approach is biblical. How can I ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me if I can’t forgive my brother?” Walker told a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee Wednesday.
“I never want to put any one religion down; my religion teaches togetherness. Reparations teach separation,” he said, explaining that slavery ended 130 years ago.
For practical reasons, the former Dallas Cowboys player said such proposals would end up requiring African-Americans — like himself — to resort to using a genetics company to calculate the rate of reparations they could get based on the percentage of their being Black.
Walker also argued that aside from White Americans, African-Americans also took part in the slave trade which the US abolished in 1865 or 156 years ago.
“America is the greatest country in the world for me, a melting pot of a lot of great races, a lot of great minds that have come together with different ideas to make Americans the greatest country on Earth,” the Heisman Trophy winner and NFL legend added.
“Many have died trying to get into America. No one is dying trying to get out.”
“Reparations — where would the money come from? Does it come from all the other races except the black taxpayers?” Walker asked. “What percentage of black must you be to receive reparation? Do you go to 23andMe or DNA test to determine the percentage of blackness?”
The football star also noted that Black Americans didn’t all come to the country at one point — and insisted that not everyone of them were part of the slavery.
Emancipation proclamation
“Some American ancestors just came to their country 80 years ago,” Walker said, in this case noting that this meant “their ancestors were not even in America during slavery.”
“Some black immigrants weren’t here during slavery, nor their ancestors. Some states didn’t even have slavery,” he added.
“We as black Americans have always wanted what the Constitution stated: All men, black white and today Latino, Asian, Italian, etcetera, should be guaranteed” the rights of “life freedom and the pursuit of happiness.”
“Years later after slavery ended, Dr. King said, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was a great beacon of light but one hundred years later, we’re still not free because of segregation and discrimination. Today, I call that reparation,” Walker added.
He went on to relate his conversation with his mother in her 80s about reparations — presenting her words as he spoke.
“I do not believe in reparation. Who is the money going to go to? Has anyone thought of paying the families who lost someone in the Civil War who fought for their freedom?” Walker said, of his mother’s words.
The guilty party
“Your Dad and I taught you … to provide for you and your family through a good education and hard work. If you give a man a fish, you feed him a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him a lifetime. Reparation is only feeding you for a day.”
The NFL legend also questioned “who is the guilty party?” in determining the reparations, still echoing his mother’s words.
“Who is the guilty party? Should we start at the beginning where African Americans sold your African American ancestors into slavery? And to a slave trader who eventually sold African American ancestors to slave owners?” he said.
Walker explained that “reparation is a fee or a correction for the terrible sin of slave owners, government, and others, but we punish the non guilty party” — referring to how reparations could cause further “division [and] separation with different races.”
“I feel it continues to let us know that we are still African American rather than just American.”
