Dr Phil McGraw hosted a discussion this week on slavery reparations on the Dr Phil show, and called a proposal from one of his guests “an absolute disaster”.
The episode included input from a Duke University professor; a woman descended from both a slave and a slave owner; a political writer; a former Los Angeles mayoral candidate; an anti-racist educator and civil rights activist who opposes reparations.
Duke Professor Dr. William A. Darity is co-author of the 2020 book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century.
Darity told Dr. Phil that the US government should commit $14 trillion for reparations to the 40 million black Americans who are descendants of slavery. The professor noted that the tally equates to about $350,000 per person, to eliminate the racial wealth gap between black and white households, which he says is about $840,000.
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Dr. Phil interrupted Darity and said, “My name is on the wall here.”
The TV host went on to say that sending people $350,000 was a horrible idea because most would waste the money and end up broke.
“I can tell you from a psychological standpoint, if you take $350,000 or $840,000 and write a check to any group of people, Black, white, poor, homeless, whatever , you give that much money to any group of people and say, ‘There you go, good luck, you come back in six months, they’re going to be broke,’ Dr Phil told the audience. “Whatever repairs are made would be an absolute disaster, as opposed to advice and help in generating generational wealth, as opposed to income.”
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Darity acknowledged there would be some “mismanagement of funds”, but he said the US government issued land grants to “white citizens” under the Homestead Act of 1862 after the Civil War. He also mentioned stimulus payments sent during the Great Recession and pandemic relief funds given to families during the COVID-19 crisis.
Dr Phil replied, “Look at the fraud that just happened with all the money that was donated to support COVID!”
After the April 18 episode aired, Dr Phil trended on Twitter and he was lambasted by political and social commentator Dr Rashad Richey on his show Young Turks. Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey.
“Don’t you dare allow this scam artist to talk you out of the real conversation,” Richey said of Dr. Phil. “He poses as some sort of redeemer by exploiting the problems of everyday human beings and generally failing to provide the holistic support needed to create a generational cure for dysfunction.”
Richey said Dr. Phil owes his television career to a black woman, Oprah Winfrey, who introduced him to national audiences on her daily talk show. Richey went on to criticize Dr. Phil for cutting Darity.
“You have to be careful here. Facilitating the conversation is one thing, trying to resume it is another,” he said. “Professor Darity had good points and he was doing a calculation based on the question he was asked.”
Richey also said of Dr Phil that some people on social media are “dragging him to hell” for saying the repairs would be an “absolute disaster”.
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