NNPA NEWSWIRE — According to internal VA data obtained by the Washington Post, from 2002 to 2020, Black applicants for disability benefits were denied 30% of the time. White applicants were rejected 24% of the time.
By BlackPressUSA
Black Information Network | Atlanta Daily World
A new lawsuit filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) claims that the US government has long discriminated against Black veterans.
The suit was filed on Monday (November 28) by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic (VLSC) on behalf of Vietnam War veteran Conley Monk Jr, whose applications for education, housing, and disability benefits have been denied since his return from the war, according to The Hill.
According to the lawsuit, the VA’s discrimination has left Black veterans without benefits more frequently than white veterans.
The lawsuit, according to Yale’s VLSC, could “provide a legal pathway for Black veterans to seek reparations from the VA.” “This lawsuit seeks to hold the VA accountable for years of discriminatory conduct,” said Adam Henderson, a law student working on the case with the VLSC, according to the Hill.
“VA leaders knew, or should have known, that they were administering benefits in a discriminatory manner, but they failed to address this illegal bias,” Henderson added. “Mr. Monk — and thousands of other Black veterans like him — deserve compensation for the harms caused by these carelessly administered programs.”
According to internal VA data obtained by the Washington Post, from 2002 to 2020, Black applicants for disability benefits were denied 30% of the time. White applicants were rejected 24% of the time.
According to VA press secretary Terrence Hayes, the organization is battling “institutional prejudice.”
Black veterans have been wrongfully denied access to VA treatment and benefits because of intolerable disparities in VA benefit determinations and military discharge status resulting from racism, according to Hayes. “We are trying hard to make these mistakes right,”
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