I pulled up to Socialism 2026 in Chicago after seeing a session called:
“Ocean Deep Solidarity: Reparations, LANDBACK, and Collective Liberation.”
And I have questions.
Why are reparations for descendants of American slavery continuously being folded into everybody else’s political movement?
American Freedmen have been waiting for generations. H.R. 40 was first introduced in 1989—and we’re STILL talking about studying reparations.
Meanwhile, government has shown us how quickly it can move when politicians decide something is an emergency.
Chicago’s New Arrivals Mission reported nearly $640 MILLION in spending from August 2022 through December 2024.
Illinois separately reported $478 MILLION provided or committed toward its asylum-seeker response for FY2023–FY2024. Those figures overlap, so I’m not adding them together.
At the same time, at least 22,000 CPS students experienced homelessness during the 2024–2025 school year.
Then Rep. Pramila Jayapal used the word “reparation” while discussing migrant children and families she says were traumatized by immigration enforcement.
So I’m asking:
When does the urgency come for American Freedmen?
Why are politicians fighting federal immigration enforcement while Chicago families are asking for safer communities and accountability?
Where did the money go?
Who benefited?
What happened to Black homeownership, businesses, population and generational wealth?
And what has happened economically under the sanctuary-city and progressive policies we’ve watched expand since roughly 2019?
This isn’t about hating immigrants, Native Americans or anybody else.
It’s about refusing to dilute the specific historical claim of American Freedmen.
And maybe it’s time to do more than protest.
Collect the budgets.
Collect the contracts.
Collect the ordinances.
Collect the spending records.
Document the economic harm.
Identify the law.
And if the evidence establishes a federal claim:
PRO SE. SUE.
Not with slogans.
WITH RECEIPTS.
Dick Gregory said it best:
SAVE YOURSELF.
#ZoeRant #Socialism2026 #Reparations #AmericanFreedmen #Chicago #ChicagoPolitics #SanctuaryCity #ICE #CPS #ChicagoFlipsRed
