Larry Elder, a black conservative radio host and politician, is advocating for reparations for slavers who had their “legal property” taken away after the Civil War.
Elder, 69, appeared on The Candace Owens Show in July, alongside the show’s namesake host, to discuss race relations in America.
After Owens mentioned the abolition of the slave trade, the topic of reparations came up, sparking debate about the logic behind supporting compensation for former slave owners.
‘Do people really want to talk about reparations when they talk about it?’ ‘Whether you liked it or not, slavery was legal,’ Elder explained. Reparations are frequently discussed in terms of providing funds and other resources to black communities rather than slave owners, and are supported by a number of lawmakers and advocacy groups.
During the interview, Elder claimed that slave owners lost a significant amount of money and resources as a result of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment, which partially abolished slavery in 1865.
‘When you look at the amount of money in today’s dollars, it’s a lot of money,’ he said.
Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, he noted, ‘compensated slave owners’ with ‘substantial sums of money’ after they lost their ‘legal property.’
‘That’s why there was no war in the United Kingdom – the slave owners got a lot of money,’ he explained.
Following the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom in 1833, leaders provided former slavers with £20 million in compensation from the British Slave Compensation Commission, according to Yahoo News.
Elder also argued that racism is not the most serious issue confronting the black community, but that the absence of a father in the home is far more damaging.
‘A child today is less likely than a child during slavery to be born under a roof with a biological mother and biological father,’ he said. ‘In 1965, 25% of black children were born out of wedlock. That figure has now risen to nearly 70%. That cannot be blamed on slavery.’
‘Forget about Larry Elder,’ he continued. Obama claims that a child who does not have a father at home is five times more likely to be poor, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to end up in jail. It is, by far, the number problem.’
Elder’s interview with Owens has gotten a lot of attention as he campaigns to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in California’s recall election. The radio host is well-known for repeatedly denouncing the existence of systemic racism, as outlined in a letter he wrote earlier this year to Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA).
‘Black leaders refuse to acknowledge the good news: racism is no longer a potent threat in American life,’ it reads in part. The majority of blacks remain solidly middle-class, with blacks starting businesses at a faster rate than whites. If it were a separate country, the black domestic product would place it among the top fifteen wealthiest nations in the world.
Datig stated that she waited until recently to come forward because she did not believe he would be competitive. Throughout his campaign, Elder has been chastised for decades of comments undermining racism and sexism in America, claiming that African-Americans and women “complain too much.”
The black conservative was also chastised for his anti-African-American remarks in his books and radio talk show, which began in the early 1990s and brushed aside discussions of police brutality during the Rodney King riots.
According to a FiveThirtyEight poll released last week, Elder maintains his lead among gubernatorial candidates, with approximately 22.6 percent of voters choosing him to succeed Newsom.
Newsom faces a tight race, with 51.1 percent of voters supporting his retention as governor and 45.3 percent calling for his recall.
If Newsom is recalled on September 14, the candidate with the most votes will be sworn in as the new governor.
This is the state of California’s second recall election. The first time this happened was in 2003, when Gray Davis was ousted from office just months into his second term, with 55 percent of Californians voting to do so. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger received 48 percent of the vote in the recall election, allowing him to ascend to the presidency.
