Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is calling for tax exemption for black Americans as a form of reparation.
Democratic congresswoman suggests black people be exempt from paying taxes as form of reparations https://t.co/iE27YbW2Qi
— New York Post (@nypost) April 10, 2024
In an interview with “The Black Lawyers Podcast,” this week, Crockett said she heard a celebrity propose exempting black Americans from paying taxes and thought, “I don’t know that that’s … necessarily a bad idea.”
“One of the things they propose is black folk not have to pay taxes for a certain amount of time because … that puts money back in your pocket,” she stated, adding, “But at the same time, it may not be as objectionable to some people” as “actually giving out dollars.”
Arguing that reparation in some form is necessary, Crockett said, “So many black folk, not only do you owe for the labor that was stolen and killed and all the other things, but the fact is we end up being so far behind.”
The freshman representative who recently won a Democratic primary in her Dallas district with 91.5% of the vote, then recognized that the proposal might not work as some blacks are already not paying taxes.
“If you do the no-tax thing, for people that are already, say, struggling and not paying taxes in the first place…” she began to explain.
When host J. Carter cut in to suggest that blacks who already do not pay taxes “may want those checks like they got from COVID” rather than a tax break,” Crockett said, “Exactly.”
She went on to call for consistency between the federal and state governments over the reparations plans. According to her, collaboration between the two levels of government is important, otherwise “everybody’s gonna run to whichever state and be like, ‘Yo, I need mine.’”
“And so we don’t want to see that — this is definitely something that needs to be thought through,” she stated.
Crockett further criticized “people that aren’t even willing to do the [reparations] studies, aren’t willing to invest to make sure we can roll this out the right way.”
