Berkeley
Presidential Candidate Williamson Calls for Slavery Reparations
Democratic presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson on Monday promised if she’s elected, she’ll seek reparations for slavery and will infuse politics with more spirituality and less corporate money.
During a town hall meeting Monday at Detroit Unity Temple in Detroit, Williamson railed against “the false God in America … our corporate overlords … (who) have destroyed America’s middle class.
“Ladies and gentleman, it’s time for the people to step in,” said Williamson, 66, a best-selling self-help author and spiritual teacher who lived in Metro Detroit from 1998 to 2006. She is one of at least 22 Democratic candidates running for the presidential nomination.
Williamson’s platform calls for reparations for slavery, to repeal the Trump tax cuts and to “close those corporate loopholes.”
In calling for slavery reparations, Williamson said: “It’s been 60 years since the 1960s, and it’s time to take the next step.
“What followed slavery was what we would call domestic terrorism,” she said. “What do you call the Ku Klux Klan … what do you call institutional white supremacy but domestic terrorism?
“We’re sliding backwards. Mass incarceration means we’re sliding backwards,” she said. “We’ve had an explosion of voting suppression efforts, and we know who they’ve been aimed at.
“Reparations won’t mean slavery didn’t happen, and racial tension will not be all gone. But you … deal with it. You atone and you make amends,” she said. “If someone stole $1,000 from me, I would appreciate the apology — but I would also want my money back. That’s why I believe there should be reparations for slavery.”
Williamson praised Germany “because they have paid reparations (to Jews) … when you’re in Germany today, you can feel how much the guilt over the Holocaust is gone. Let’s pay reparations for slavery, and find the love,” she said.
As part of her swing through Michigan, on Saturday, Williamson spoke at Rhema International Church in Harper Woods about criminal justice reform and policing in predominantly African American communities.
A press release from Williamson’s campaign said she is focused on “health care, race in America and her proposal for a U.S. Department of Peace- Building.”
Williamson said Trump is “harnessing hatred and bigotry. There’s only one way to counter that: to harness love.
“I think the people who lead from fear … are a small minority,” Williamson said. “But what’s happening here in America is we’re being led by a minority. The problem isn’t that more people hate than love, but those who hate, hate with conviction.
Khamadi Panther, 48, said he drove to Detroit from his home in Flint to hear Williamson.
“To come this distance, I’ve obviously heard her before, and I like her platform,” Panther said. “I like that she wants to take a spiritual approach to politics, and that she’s focusing less on the capitalist side of America. She wants to fix the distorted distribution of wealth and declining civility. It’s what America needs.”
