A descendant of slaves running for Congress is calling on President Biden to give qualifying Black Americans $2.8 million in reparations for the lasting effects of slavery.
“Reparations is about a debt that is due,” Gregg Marcel Dixon, who hopes to unseat Democratic Rep. James Clyburn in South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital.
For 31 years, Dixon lived with his great-grandmother who was raised by former slaves, according to a campaign ad he posted on Twitter.
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He told Fox News Digital that his ancestor Quash Fripp fought in the Union Army during the civil war.
Dixon said he believes that Biden—who he referred to as “Slow Joe Crow Biden” for the duration of the interview—can take action with executive order to bring back the Freedmen’s Bureau agency that was tasked with assisting former slaves after the Civil War.
“Donald Trump had plans where he was going to invest at least $500 billion into the Black American community, he was going to start the Department of African-American Affairs to focus specifically on our needs, he was talking about the damage that illegal immigration causes to black Americans,” he said. “It’s way more than what we’re getting now and what any other presidential candidate has offered,” Dixon said.
Dixon said that he thinks that Americans who identify as Black and can trace their lineage to slaves are owed $2.8 million in government bonds, adding that the amount should go up each day the reparations are not given.
Interview with Fox News (Fox News Digital)
He called giving immediate direct payments “insane,” citing inflation that would follow with giving tens of millions of people a large sum of money.
“My plan calls for recipients to get $2.8 million in cash bonds,” he said. “It would be paid monthly per interest on the cash bonds and once the bonds have matured.”
“When Germany gives direct payments to Holocaust survivors they don’t say ‘OK, give me a business plan,” he said. “It is insulting for people to talk about how Black Americans are going to spend our money.”
“If I decide I want to spend my money on video games or things people feel are insignificant, that’s my business, but history has shown Black Americans have always been very resourceful with our money,” Dixon said.
“Reparations ultimately is something that comes from the federal government,” he said. “A lot of states simply don’t have the tax revenue to pay what is owed. The federal government does.”
Dixon said that reparations are not about stopping racism, but about paying a debt. He cited other cases where the federal government gave reparations, including payments, to Japanese Americans interned during World War II through The Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
Gregg Marcel Dixon’s family. (Courtesy of Gregg Marcel Dixon)
“It is not to fight against racism, it is not to punish White people, it is not race based,” he said, adding that the United States failed to compensate former slaves during Reconstruction.
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Dixon was defeated in the 2022 Democratic primary for Clyburn’s seat, only gaining 4.5% of the vote.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Dixon said he is currently suing Clyburn over accusations of conspiring to force the termination of Dixon from his teaching job.