Last May, a California reparations task force approved a package that, if passed by the legislature, would cost taxpayers an estimated $800 billion, or roughly 2 ½ times the state’s annual budget. In addition to cash compensation, the panel demanded a formal apology from the state and policy changes to “address various forms of racism.”
In order to qualify for a payout, recipients “must be a descendant of enslaved or free Black people who were in the country by the end of the 19th century,” according to the New York Post.
Although the proposal did not state the size of the payments, an earlier version called for eligible blacks in the state to receive cash (or its equivalent) reparation payments of a minimum of $360,000 each to make up for “health harms, housing discrimination, mass incarceration and over-policing, unjust property takings, and devaluation of African-American businesses.”
You may recall that potential recipients, carried away by the moment, argued that the amounts being discussed were far too small. One attendee, Rev. Tony Pierce, raised the famous Reconstruction-era promise to former slaves of “40 acres and a mule.”
“You know that the numbers should be equivocal to what an acre was back then. We were given 40, OK? We were given 40 acres. You know what that number is. You keep trying to talk about now, yet you research back to slavery and you say nothing about slavery, nothing. So, the equivocal number from the 1860s for 40 acres to today is $200 million for each and every African American,” he said.
Others threatened to withhold their votes for President Joe Biden unless reparations become a reality. One man demanded: “Reparations is [sic] now. Pay the debt. Cut the check. Or, no reparations, no vote in 2024.”
One woman said, “If you are running for office, do not think you are going to win your election if you do not have a concrete plan for reparations.”
She called out, “Biden. Do not seek a second term unless it’s accompanied by an executive order for reparations for descendants of American [inaudible] slavery.”
As to why California, which joined the country as a free state in 1850, should fork over billions in reparations, the draft recommendation noted that the state “did not pass laws at the time to guarantee freedom. The recommendation pointed out that for a decade after emancipation, California continued to allow the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, which called for the capture and return of runaway slaves.”
But where would Americans who never owned slaves find the cash to pay reparations to Americans who never were slaves? Well, Denver Democratic councilwoman Cande Cdebaca, had an idea. Why not impose a reparations tax on white businesses?
Speaking before the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, Cdebaca said: “Capitalism was built on stolen land, stolen labor and stolen resources. … You could be collecting those taxes from white-led businesses all over the city, and redistributing them to black- and brown-owned businesses.”
It was, of course, an outrageous proposal. One wonders if any members of the group bothered to tell her that such an act would be unconstitutional or that the land was originally stolen from Native Americans.
As crazy as these recommendations were and remain, The Sacramento Bee reported that California lawmakers fully expected Senate Bills 1331 and 1403, that would have “create[d] a new agency and also a fund to help implement policies recommended last year” by the task force, to pass before the state’s legislative session ended at midnight on Saturday.
Unfortunately for them, California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed changes to the bill that would fund the reparations. According to the Bee, “the suggested amendments would have scrapped the creation of that agency, but would, instead, set aside $6 million for the California State University system to lead a study of reparations and recommend a process for determining someone’s eligibility for them.”
Needless to say, Newsom’s amendments “were rejected by its [the bill’s] author.”
A state senator told Politico that the governor’s office “cited cost pressures during a year in which the state had to trim billions from its budget.”
Another state senator said, “Newsom’s aides pushed to dramatically narrow a proposal for a new state reparations agency. The changes mean the state would instead simply authorize the further study of the issue.”
According to the draft amendments obtained by Politico, the suggested changes included: “Sending $6 million to California State University to study how to implement recommendations from the state’s task force on reparations, including how to confirm the status of a person seeking reparations. The draft changes remove the bill’s core purpose: creating a new Freedmen Affairs Agency.”
As you might expect, supporters of the bills were not too happy. Speaking to reporters in the video below, one young woman warned, “The governor needs to understand that the world is watching California. And this is gonna have a direct impact on your friend, Kamala Harris, who is running for president. This is going to have a direct impact. So, pull up the bills now, vote on them, and sign them.”
“We’ve been waiting for over 400 years.” she added.
Wow.
One X user, who goes by the handle @ImMeme0, cut right to the chase. He wrote: “Someone needs to tell them that they are being replaced with illegals who are getting $150,000 for home down payments.”
Yes, they really thought they would receive reparations. And why wouldn’t they? In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in May 2020, cries of America’s systemic racism replaced sanity among the woke. Riddled with shame over their “white privilege,” liberal white Americans were searching for ways to atone for their racist pasts. Mainstream institutions, from media outlets to the military, wanted the public to believe that white supremacy in the U.S. was an existential threat. And calls for reparations became all the rage.
But that was then. Over time, liberals’ racist fever subsided. And in 2024, even the Gavin Newsoms of the world are forced to admit that reparations, on a grand scale, are a non-starter.
Besides, @ImMeme0 is correct. Democrats have already moved on to their next reckless mission: Importing a huge new bloc of illegal immigrants whose ability to eventually vote in U.S. elections will keep them in power for generations to come.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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