Why I Don’t Want and Don’t Deserve Reparations

In this new video from Prager University Burgess Owens explains “why I don’t want and don’t deserve reparations”:

The Reparations Movement – a government payout to descendants of slaves – is making a comeback. Super Bowl star Burgess Owens, who happens to be black and whose great grandfather was a slave, finds this movement both condescending and counterproductive. He wants no part of it. In this video, he explains why.

From the transcript:

My great-great-grandfather, Silas Burgess, came to America shackled in the belly of a slave ship.

He was sold on an auction block in Charleston, South Carolina, to the Burgess Plantation.

Orphaned by age 8, he was, fortunately, surrounded by elder slaves who, though physically chained, mentally envisioned themselves as free men. They escaped, taking young Silas with them, making their way to West Texas.

Silas worked hard and saved his money. Eventually, he became the owner of 102 acres of farmland, which he cultivated and paid off within two years. I proudly carry the name of my first American ancestor—who, like millions of others drawn or brought to our country, struggled past overwhelming obstacles to live the American Dream.

Silas founded the first black church, the first black elementary school in his town. He was a Republican, a Christian, and a pillar of his community. He was proud and industrious and taught his children to be the same.

Now, because great-great-grandpa Silas was once a slave, so-called “progressives” want to give me money.

Never mind that, like him, I am an entrepreneur who received an excellent education, built businesses, raised a remarkable family and, unlike most white Americans, earned a Super Bowl ring.

Because of work I’ve never done, stripes I’ve never had, under a whip I’ve never known, these progressives want to give me money I’ve never earned. The fact that this money will be forcibly taken from others who also dreamed, worked and sacrificed for it, I’m told is not my concern.

But it is.

At the core of the reparations movement is a distorted and demeaning view of blacks and whites.

Read more: PragerU