The Alternate Times

By Jorge Lopez Morales

September 9, 2029

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met today with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who chairs the Commission on Reparations, to discuss the commission’s recommendation for disbursing $900 billion to the descendants of enslaved people.

“We understand that these direct payments to remedy the horrors of slavery will likely be less than what is deserved,” said Ocasio-Cortez to reporters afterward. “My hope is that this is a starting point, and my administration’s civil rights and anti-poverty initiatives will form the other legs of the reparations stool.”

Congress authorized the commission in February, which held four months of field hearings around the country before compiling its draft recommendations. The commission, which consists of economists, sociologists, historians, and civil rights leaders, was tasked with creating an equitable framework for direct cash payments to the descendants of enslaved Africans.

Using data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Yale University, the commission was also able to identify the corporations that historically benefited from enslavement and the Jim Crow economy. They will pay the largest share of the reparations.

“We recognize that many more people would’ve been eligible for this relief, but for the fact that many of them now are in the New Confederacy,” said Kagan. “While the commission is happy to lend its assistance should that country wish to embark on this kind of project, I have no reason to think they will at this time.”

Ocasio-Cortez said that the reparations program could serve as a template for another initiative she proposed on the campaign trail: Reparations for those wrongfully detained, deported, or brutalized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement militia members between 2025-2029.