NFL legend Burgess Owens testified in front of Congress on June 19, saying if Black Americans should get compensated for slavery, like what the current congressional bill for a study on reparations seeks, it should be from the Democratic Party—not the tax payer.
Burgess testified along with others at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on slavery reparations.
“How about the Democratic Party pay for all the misery brought to my race,” Owens told Congress. “I learned a long time ago that slavery is not a gene in the DNA helix. It’s our actions, it’s our attitude, it’s our belief.
“I do not believe in reparation, because what reparation does is it points to a certain race, a certain color, and it points to them as evil, and to points the other race, my race, as one that has not only becomes racist, but also beggars.”
I’m told Republicans will have two witnesses at Wednesday’s #Juneteenth hearing on #reparations study. The first is @BurgessOwens, former Oakland Raiders player and Super Bowl champion. He recently wrote this op-ed rejecting reparations: https://t.co/gIO1RHcEUO
— Errin Haines Whack ???? (@emarvelous) June 17, 2019
Owens played with the NY Jets and with the Oakland Raiders when they were both in Oakland, and also later after they moved and became the Los Angeles Raiders. He won a championship with the Raiders. According to his website, he retired from the NFL in 1983.
While Owens does not support reparations in the form of payments to the descendants of slaves from tax-payers, he said he did support other approaches to compensation such as restitution, which is intended to provide support to victims in a more holistic approach.
“I do believe in restitution,” he said. “Let’s point to the party that was part of slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, that has killed over 40 percent of our Black babies—20 million of them,” he said of the Democratic Party.
U.S. gov’t did not own slaves. Republicans did not own slaves. Democrats did. Democrats passed and enforced Jim Crow. Democrats founded the KKK. Slavery ended 150 yrs ago and lasted, after America became a country, for 78 yrs. To pay for #reparations, will dems sue themselves?
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) June 19, 2019
“[In the] State of California, 75 percent of our Black boys cannot pass standard reading and writing tests—a Democratic state. So yes, let’s pay restitution,” Owens said.
NFL legend @BurgessOwens tells Democrats THEY should be paying reparations to black Americans.
I do believe in restitution. Let’s point to the party that was part of slavery, KKK, Jim crow, that has killed over 40% of our black babies, 20 million of them.pic.twitter.com/aVtmjBboDF
— Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) June 19, 2019
“I used to be a Democrat, until I did my history and found out the misery that that party brought to my race,” Owens said. “Ideologies don’t change, people do.
“We’re fighting for the hearts of our nation against socialism, Marxism, and the evil it has brought to us in the stealing of our history.”
Owens went on to reference the impact of the hidden hand of ideology that continue to influence Democratic Party-controlled localities across the United States today.
“Karl Marx said it best … the father of socialism, an atheist, anti-semite, and a blatant racist, yet we teach his philosophy in our school system today. He said it: the first battleground is rewriting of our history. You steal our history, you steal our pride in our past, our appreciation for our present, and our visions for our future, and every single urban city in our country is now experiencing that loss,” Owens told Congress.
Get the word out gang.. Our nation and the Black community in particular is owed “Big Time” for over a century of Democrat Party imposed misery#MakeDEMSpay https://t.co/ZrhZIeE7xc
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) May 28, 2019
Owens was one of the first three black Americans to play on the University of Miami’s football team, according to his website. In college, he was honored as an All-American defensive back, selected as a most valuable defensive player in the North/ South Senior Bowl. He was also most valuable player of the Coaches All-American Game.
Owens is the author of “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps,” and “Why I Stand: From Freedom to the Killing Fields of Socialism.”
