Cory Booker has complained that supporting something called “reparations” has become nothing more than a box for the Democratic candidates to check off. There is a reasonable basis for his complaint, and not just because he, unlike the others, has actually approached the racial wealth gap as a problem to be solved through sound public policy, not a matter for guilt and apologies. The root of the problem is the class/identity split.
If you’re an identity politician within the Democratic Party, you probably genuinely support reparations. If you’re a class-based candidate, you view reparations as a check you hope will never be cashed, because you know it will cost you millions of votes from white workers in 2020. That’s the kindest spin I can put on Bernie Sanders’ support for legislation creating a process to discuss reparations; it is otherwise totally inconsistent with his approach to politics and his plan for the “revolution.”