*Dr. Phil McGraw, discussing the idea of slavery reparations on his daytime talk show two weeks ago, made headlines after calling a proposal put forth by one of the guests an “absolute disaster.”
The panel assembled for the episode included Duke University professor, Dr. William A. Darity, co-author of the 2020 book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century. He said the government should commit $14 trillion toward reparations for the 40 million Black American descendants of enslaved people, which the professor noted equals about $350,000 per person. The total would help to eliminate the roughly $840,000 racial wealth gap between Black and white households that has its roots in slavery.
Dr. Phil cut off Dr. Darity, saying, “My name is on the wall here,” then went on to say that giving $350,000 is a terrible idea because most would squander the money and end up broke.
“I can tell you from a psychological perspective, if you take $350,000 or $840,000, and you write a check to any group of people, Black, white, poor, homeless, whatever, you give any group of people that much money and say, ‘There you go, best of luck,’ you come back in six months, they’re going to be broke,” Dr. Phil said. “Whatever reparations are done, that would be an absolute disaster, as opposed to guidance and help in creating generational wealth, as opposed to income.”
Darity acknowledged there would be some “mismanagement of funds,” but said the government gave “white citizens” land grants under the Homestead Act of 1862 after the Civil War, stimulus payments during the Great Recession and pandemic relief funds to families during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Dr. Phil responded, “Look at the fraud that just occurred with all of the money that was given in support of COVID!”
Needless to say, “Dr. Phil” became a trending topic on Twitter shortly after the episode aired on April 18. Social commentator Dr. Rashad Richey, on his Young Turks show “Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey,” blasted the TV personality’s stance, saying: “Don’t you dare allow this con artist to persuade you away from the real conversation. He masquerades like he is some sort of redeemer by exploiting the problems of everyday human beings and typically not providing the wholistic support required to create a generational remedy for the dysfunction.”
Richey reminded folks that Dr. Phil owes his TV career to a Black woman, Oprah Winfrey, who introduced him to national audiences on her daily talk show.
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