Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell brushed aside a question about whether he was aware that two of his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners before the Civil War by comparing himself to former President Barack Obama.
‘You know, I find myself once again in the same position as President Obama. We both oppose reparations. And we both are the descendants of slave owners,’ he told reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday.
McConnell’s past family history was revealed by NBC News on Monday and he was asked if that affected his stance against paying reparations to the descendants of slaves.
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The former president was also reported to be a descendant of slave owners.
One of Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall via his white mother, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Kentucky, the Baltimore Sun reported in 2007.
Herein lies one of the fundamental flaws with the concept of slavery reparations. Who pays and who gets paid? Does Obama have to pay himself?
The greatest reparations we can offer to any oppressed people is to create and maintain a just society.
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