California lawmakers have introduced the nation’s first reparations bill aimed at redressing America’s legacy of racial discrimination. There’s just one small catch. The proposed compensation does not include any actual cash payments.
The move is the culmination of a process that began in 2020 after the Black Lives Matter riots when Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill creating a commission to consider and recommend reparations. There were no white members on the committee.
California, which entered the Union as a “free” state in 1850, had no history of legal slavery within the state. But supporters say slavery continues to impact black Americans in general and point to other racist policies in the state.
The committee deliberated for months, producing increasingly outrageous estimates of compensation. For example, $1.2 million per black resident, or (later) $800 billion overall, about 2.5 times California’s annual budget.
Other proposals were similarly controversial, such as separate schools for black children (which, ironically, would create a new Jim Crow system in California).
Newsom began taking a more cautious and skeptical approach to the committee’s work.
Congress will now consider several bills to implement some of the committee’s recommendations, but none of them would include cash payments. politikoexcept in the case of the return of property seized under a prominent domain.
politiko I got it. Wednesday:
The 14 measures introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus concern education, civil rights and criminal justice, including reviving a long-standing effort to limit solitary confinement, which until last year prevented people from leaving the state Capitol. include.
It does not include any financial compensation for descendants of black slaves, making it a polarizing proposal. A calm response came back. from a number of state Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
One suggestion is: politiko It observes that it may face constitutional challenges.
Democratic Rep. Corey Jackson, who represents a district north of San Diego, said California would allow the state to fund programs aimed at “extending life expectancy, improving educational outcomes, or lifting specific populations out of poverty.” It proposes asking voters to amend the Constitution. Is based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or marginalized sex, gender, or sexual orientation. ”
Separately, California voters will consider a referendum this fall that would grant the state an “exemption” from the constitutional ban on using race in state government. This is the latest attack on Proposition 209, which has been championed even by voters in this deep blue state.
These bills are the first legislative efforts by states to adopt reparations. Several small cities have done so, the first being Evanston, Illinois, in 2021, which provided small housing subsidies to Black residents who had experienced housing segregation in the past.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of a new biography, Rhoda: “Comrade Cadderly, you are abnormal.”. He is also the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
