Thread by @TracyJan

.@WhipClyburn proposed a race-neutral anti-poverty program a decade ago. Presidential candidates recast it as compensation for slavery.

My latest #reparations story ahead of the #SCPrimary

washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…

@WhipClyburn Clyburn's program, known as 10-20-30, allocates 10% of funding from any given federal program to counties where 20 percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for 30 years. That includes the rural, Southern "Black Belt" as well as white communities in Appalachia.

@WhipClyburn But the formula skips over many urban, high-poverty, predominantly black neighborhoods that exist within wealthier counties -- including parts of Columbia, SC, Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland, Oakland and Montgomery, AL, according to a @washingtonpost analysis.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost In fact, @alyssafowers' analysis shows that of the 460 counties now considered eligible for the money, 18 percent are majority black and 58 percent are majority white.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers Yet, several Democratic candidates now point to Clyburn's program when asked about their support for #reparations. And Clyburn, who has long opposed cash compensation for African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved, has embraced that rebranding.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers .@WhipClyburn & @CoryBooker have introduced bills to expand 10-20-30 to include high-poverty Census tracts, a moved that in South Carolina would triple the number of African Americans living in such areas. The change would benefit whites even more, quadrupling their numbers.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers @CoryBooker .@BernieSanders, who opposed #reparations as “divisive” in 2016, told @wolfblitzer during @CNN town hall that 10-20-30 could be a form of reparations to “end institutional racism in this country” & “improve lives for those people who have been hurt from the legacy of slavery.”

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers @CoryBooker @BernieSanders @wolfblitzer @CNN .@amyklobuchar told the @nytimes editorial board that “investing in communities that have been in poverty” for decades could be a form of reparations. As president, she said she would sign the @WhipClyburn @CoryBooker bill.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers @CoryBooker @BernieSanders @wolfblitzer @CNN @amyklobuchar @nytimes .@JoeBiden also vowed to help pass Clyburn’s 10-20-30 initiative if elected, saying while campaigning recently in Orangeburg that it “will go a long way to ending the legacy of systemic racism.” (Tho during the NH debate he called it "10-15-30".)

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers @CoryBooker @BernieSanders @wolfblitzer @CNN @amyklobuchar @nytimes @JoeBiden But framing 10-20-30 as redress for slavery has drawn criticism for its limited scope. “A lot of people want to call everything reparations. But reparations should be race-specific because the injury was race-specific," said Ron Daniels, convener of @ReparationsComm.

@WhipClyburn @washingtonpost @alyssafowers @CoryBooker @BernieSanders @wolfblitzer @CNN @amyklobuchar @nytimes @JoeBiden @ReparationsComm Duke economist @SandyDarity says it “does not begin to qualify as a reparations program” because it does not ensure black wealth accumulation to address pervasive economic inequality.

“It’s a way of ducking the question,” he said.