California’s committee to study reparations for African Americans was meeting in Oakland Wednesday to discuss what could be done to mitigate the generational harm of slavery and discrimination, and who would receive possible payments.
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The first-in-the-nation task force previously voted to limit reparations to Black California residents whose ancestors were living in the United States in the 19th century. This week, the group will talk about whether there could be additional eligibility requirements and what time frame reparations could hinge on.
The nine-member group appointed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and leaders of the Legislature were meeting in the City Hall of Oakland, birthplace of the Black Panthers. The San Francisco Bay Area city has a rich Black history but has shed its Black population as rising home prices forced people out.
The group will also discuss how the state may address its impact on Black families whose property was seized through eminent domain. The topic garnered renewed attention after lawmakers last year voted to return a beachfront property known as Bruce’s Beach to descendants of the Black residents who owned it until it was taken in the 20th century.
Kamilah Moore, the task force’s chair, doesn’t expect the group to come to any final decisions at this week’s two-day meeting.
“We’re still in the exploratory phase,” she said.
The task force has a July 1 deadline to complete its final report for the Legislature listing recommendations for how the state can address its legacy of discriminatory policies against Black Californians. The group’s work contrasts from similar efforts that have stalled in Congress.
Carroll Fife, an Oakland city council member, said at the start of Wednesday’s meeting that it’s time for public officials to “do right by Black folks.”
“This is the pressure that is needed to fight the fight that so many people who came before us tried to do,” she said.
Lawmakers in other parts of the country have pushed their states and cities to study reparations without much progress. But Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city last year to make reparations available for Black residents, and public officials in New York will try anew to create a reparations commission in the state.
Officials from Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities will talk about local reparations efforts during a panel Wednesday.
That will include Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad, vice-chair of Los Angeles’ Reparations Advisory Commission, who said the commission — created last year under then-Mayor Eric Garcetti — doesn’t have a date set in stone to complete its work.
The goal of the commission is to advise the city on a pilot program for distributing reparations to a group of Black residents.
“A lot of our first year has really just been laying the groundwork to have a strong commission,” she said.
In September, economists started listing preliminary estimates for what could be owed by the state as a result of discriminatory policies. But they said they need more data to come up with more complete figures.
Moore said the task force has not decided on any dollar amounts or what form reparations could take, but the public’s interest in those estimates shows optimism about the group’s work. The group hasn’t discussed where money for reparations could potentially come from.
About 30 people gathered Saturday at a Black-owned coffee shop in Sacramento for a reparations information session led by the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, said Chris Lodgson, an organizer for the group.
The coalition is focused on advocating for reparations for Black residents. It has been supportive of reparations largely targeted at the descendants of enslaved African Americans.
“Generally speaking, Black folks can support other Black folks in the things that they want and need even if not everybody is benefitting equally from it or directly from it,” Lodgson said.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former assemblywoman, authored the bill that created the state’s task force, and the group began its work last year. The bill was signed into law in September 2020 after a summer of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota.
NO REPARATIONS!!!
This is just another Black free ride ticket!!!
Take up the matter with the decedents of Slave owners!!!
Just like going down the hole in Alice in Wonderland.
And this time there would be no returning.
Insanity X 100
I think this is outstanding. Finally the democrats might have to pay up for all the slaves they bought and forced into hard labor. I myself want some form of reparation because my great great grandfather fought the democrat south for the freedom of the blacks in the Civil War!!! Also, I read an article a few years back that barry Hussein Soetoro’s great gramdfather HAD SLAVES!!! But since Barry is a card carrying communist fascist racist satanic democrat…..he’ll obviously get a pass!!! just imagine, people who never owned slaves forced to pay money (or ANY form of reparation) to people who were never slaves…the democrat logic at work!!!
there were no slaves in California, ever, why shoiuld i have to pay reparations when my family, nor I, ever owned a slave, and most were not in this country. tax payer will have to foot the bill, our government’s only source of income is us. during the Civil War 750,000 men died to stop slavery, seems like a big price to me
This is TOTALLY ABSURD.
What kind of ‘Kool-Aid’ are they drinking now?
START THE DEMOCRAT CIRCUS IN SACTO.
This is TOTALLY WACKO.
START THE DEMOCRAT CIRCUS IN SACTO.
Reparations for anyone who comes to America as a slave, indentured servant, or illegal/ legal emigrant is nothing more than the current generation seeking to continue as slaves to the system. The Blacks have used this for at least forty or fifty year (and perhaps since the removal of slavery at the time of the Civil War), since President Johnson created the Great Society, or whatever it was called, that said if the man is not around the woman and children will be taken care of by the government. The families of a great many of the Black community fell apart as the men did leave and the women were paid by government in a way that provided most of the basic necessities. Other programs supplemented that program through additional government money. Of course that ended up being the plan of action of many other people that saw how nice it was to be taken care of and have no responsibilities. The number now on such programs likely adds up to well over 100 million people in a population of around 350 million. WHEN DO WE INCLUDE RESPONSIBILITY ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE FOUND OUR GOVERNMENT TO BE THE POT OF MONEY , JUST WAITING TO HAND IT TO THEM???? If not fixed we are likely, sooner than later, to be living in a socialist system controlled totally by a few who will shortly thereafter take away just about everything, tell us exactly how to live and let those unwilling to take care of themselves die.
Given the fact that California currently has a multibillion-dollar shortfall in expected tax revenue receipts and this shortfall is expected to rise to an over US$25 BILLION-dollar shortfall by the end of the fiscal year, just how do these fools expect to fund this giveaway?
Never mind that this entire operation is fatally flawed, in that it is bribing one set of voters and demanding that another group of citizens, is held financially responsible today, for events that happened two centuries ago which were outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
I realize that this effort is the finest example of our current regime in Sacramento intelligence and as such I should park my logic and brain away and simply say “Yes Massah”.
But No.
We need to establish the State of New California and reestablish a Republican form of government as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and required by that Constitution to be in effect on every state of the Union of States who enter the Compact of the United States of America.
Come to Anaheim next month to participate in the State of New California’s 10th Constitutional Convention.
When: Jan, 12-14
Where: Sheraton Park Hotel, Anaheim
One more BIG nail in the clueless Newsom (president in waiting) coffin.
It would be wonderful if someone would do a study on how beneficial all the $BILLIONS in social justice give aways have been through the years.
While they are at it, it would also be good to know how much RACIST litigation there has been going on nationally since the democrat “rediscovery” of the white supremacy movement.
Minority lawyers across the country must be cleaning up?
WHEN will we get rid of using the past in order to make $$$$$? The Blacks, The Irish, The Jews, Females’, the “hicks”, latins, the poor, the uneducated and ON and On and ON……Holding on to the negative ivy only brings hatred and ulcers Unless one is making Money and yes its ALL about the Money! How does it work?
we the people ALL of Us regardless of race, creed, or anything else MUST pick up the tab in order to make others rich…..oops I forgot its their feelings of their Past and we were Not even born. Who’s next? who will use the past to profit from others?
Native American Reparations First!
Reparations Whoopee!
According to recent news, the California Reparations Task Force is considering a proposal that slavery reparations of $350,000 should be paid to every eligible black person. Like many of my fellow Mainers, I’m not sure this is such a great idea.
I faintly recall that some time ago I heard a local radio talk show conversation on this subject. If my faulty memory is serving me correctly, I think it went something like this . . .
Radio Talk Show Host: “. . . Okay, welcome back to Maine’s daily radio listener call-in show. If you’re just tuning in, we’ve been discussing the proposal – supported by many liberal Democrats – that the U.S. government pay reparations to Black Americans as our repentance for slavery which, by the way, was abolished over 150 years ago. The only computed cost of these reparations that we’ve so far seen was the amount crunched by BET founder Robert Johnson. Per the oppressed billionaire Johnson, Black Americans are entitled to receive $14 trillion which amounts to around $350,000 for every Black American man, woman, and child currently living. Man, that sure is a pile of cash that the federal government – I mean that our children – will have to pay.”
Host (continuing): “As for me personally, I agree with the reasoning of Walter Williams, past Economics Professor at George Mason University. Dr. Williams believed that slavery was a “horrible, despicable violation of basic human rights.” He agreed that, if we somehow could, we should force every slaveowner to pay reparations to each of the slaves that they victimized. He further lamented that it’s unfortunate that every slaveowner and every slave is now long dead and gone, and as a result, it’s not possible for us to now impose this compensatory justice.”
Host (continuing): “For the last hour or so, every one of our callers has expressed conservative opposition to the payment of reparations for sins committed by others deceased so very long ago. For a change, we’d like to please hear from someone, anyone, who favors the liberal Democrats’ proposed reparations.”
(telephone rings)
Host (again): “Hello caller. Welcome to ‘It’s Just Politics.’ Please tell us what’s on your mind.”
Joe B.: “Look, I’ve heard all the arguments against reparations such as slavery was around for 4,000 years and victimized every race including Caucasians, Africans, and Asians, most Americans today are descended from immigrants arriving after 1865; other nationalities that came to the U.S. including Jews, Chinese and Irish were also victimized in some way or another; before the Civil War some southern free blacks owned slaves; not even 2% of Americans of the 1850’s owned slaves and blah, blah, blah.”
Joe B. (continuing): “I suppose that a lot of that stuff makes sense. But my gut tells me that those people of today who are their direct descendants of slaveowners should be held accountable for the evils of their forebears. Therefore, all we need to do is these three things:
1. We positively identify those Americans alive today who are descendants of slaveowners. I think we could do this with government birth records, genealogy services, DNA testing, etc.
2. We positively identify those Americans alive today – whether they are black or white – who are direct descendants of people who were somehow direct or indirect victims of slavery. I think this is also doable by those same means just mentioned above.
3. We reasonably estimate the actual monetary damages that those descendants of the victims have incurred and empower our government to force those individuals identified under number 1 to justly compensate the entitled descendants of those victims identified under number 2.”
Joe B. (still continuing): See how easy this long-overdue justice could be accomplished? Of course, because of all the marriages and other stuff over the past century and a half, government-enforced DNA testing would have to be used to fairly factor in the percentage of whiteness or blackness of each individual accused of being the descendant of a slaveowner or claiming to be a descendant of any victim of slavery.
Host: “Are you kidding? And, by the way, are you white?”
Joe B.: “No, I’m not kidding! I’ve given this a lot of thought and I’m very serious. And, yes, I’m white. But why should that make any difference to anyone except to a racist? Some whites of today are just as much, or even more, victims of slavery as are some blacks of today.”
Joe B. (continuing): “Take Obama for example. Because his father came to the U.S. from Kenya as a student in the 1950s, he would have no claim as a descendant of a slave. However, on his white mother’s side, some websites report that he’s related to former slaveowners. Some claim that Obama’s even kin to Robert E. Lee – that disgusting Confederate General and big-time slaveowner. So, for example, under my plan, we would access Obama a reparations tax amounting to some fair percentage of his estimated $70 million net worth. Given their compassionate liberal nature, I doubt that he and Michelle would consider this unfair.”
Joe B. (still continuing): And, how about our beloved President? Authentic genealogical records leave little doubt that the Robinettes on his grandmother’s side owned and enslaved several African Americans. Joe’s parents were so proud of their Robinette heritage that Biden’s legal name is Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. I’ll bet Joe’s share of the reparation tax is going to be pretty hefty. But I’m sure that he and Jill won’t mind.
Host: “Really? There must be more to your scheme.”
Joe B.: “Yes, there is. I have documented proof that my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was the only child of a Union soldier who was killed during the 1865 Siege at Petersburg fighting to emancipate all slaves. As a result, his mother lost their 300-acre family farm – much of which is now downtown Bangor. Per the city records, my research proves that this land now has an assessed value of $64.5 million. Given that there are only twelve descendants of this son of a true Civil War hero currently alive, my share computes to $5.4 million.”
Host: ”Oh, now I understand your thinking. I suppose that after we pay reparations per your slavery perceptions, we’ll have to pay reparations to a bunch of others – for example, to the Chinese, and to French Canadians, and to Native Americans as well.”
Joe B.: “What?! I didn’t know the Democrats were considering reparation payments to Indians too! You know what, I can prove that I’m 1/64th Penobscot on my mother’s side. I got to go. I gotta figure out my share of Indian reparations. Whoopee!”
(telephone click)
Author’s note: Mark Bard, author of “Obligated Conservatism: Striving for a Love Thy Neighbor Society,” is a lifelong and now retired conservative. His email address is mabardpax@gmail.com.