We have been following the recommendations of reparations for black residents of San Francisco, including a proposed payment of $5 million per resident payment. The Board of Supervisors met Tuesday and reportedly gave unanimous support for reparations. Among the possible forms of reparations, the Board is considering a guaranteed annual income of $97,000 for 250 years and a home “for just $1 a family.”
The city council voted unanimously to create the reparations committee in 2020. The African American Reparations Advisory Committee voted to give $5 million to each eligible Black resident as reparations.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) created his own Reparations Task Force, which just reached its own recommendations for $223,000 per person. Others have insisted the figure should be $350,000 for individuals and another $250,000 for Black-owned businesses. One California politician insisted the figure needs to be $800,000 per person, reflecting the average cost of a home in the state.
Even Disney has gotten into the act with a controversial children’s episode in which cartoon children demand reparations.
Notably, California’s law expressly states that this money should not be treated as compensation for federal reparations. Some congressional Democrats have pushed for similar federal reparations and passed a bill out of the House Judiciary Committee in 2021 that failed to receive a floor vote. BET founder Robert Johnson has called for $14 trillion in federal reparations.
The proposals now put the San Francisco politicians in a bind after declaring that reparations are a moral imperative. Some are already saying that they will not accept reduced awards. One well-known California activist declared: “It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free. We’re not asking; we’re telling you.”
San Francisco is already facing a $728 million budget shortfall.
The Board notably did not approve the proposed $5 million payments and some members issued statements that bordered on the incomprehensible. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman spoke to “those of my constituents who lost their minds about this proposal, it’s not something we’re doing or we would do for other people. It’s something we would do for our future, for everybody’s collective future.”
Unpack that for a moment. “It is not something we’re doing . . . it’s something we would do for our future.” That sounds a lot like wanting to be seen as approving reparations while not approving reparations.
Virtue signaling has ended with the formal proposal. If the Board was not playing black voters by dangling the possibility of reparations, it can now prove its commitment by approving these payments. Of course, it would likely bankrupt the city, but that was not a concern when people like Mandelman were declaring their support for reparations. After all, if this is a moral imperative, it would seem that the “future” can’t wait for Mandelman and his colleagues.
The first slaves were European. The first people subject to DIEversity were European. Reparations with diversity, shared responsibility (e.g. progressive prices) for everyone… equitable and inclusive.
I think it is wonderful. I think any white person owning a home worth over $2 million in SF should be required to turn that abode over to an African American. As well as their luxury EV cars and any other luxury amenity they were able to acquire through white privilege. No private schooling for their children and they should not be allowed to move out of the city for 20 years to ensure that they cannot escape paying these reparations. I think all virtue signaling should be transformed into actual law and let us see how these progressives react.
I’m thinking every board member who votes for reparations pay from their personal wealth until it’s exhausted. You know, practice what you preach, leading by example, etc. Then, do private fundraising, taxable of course, to make up the difference. Surely Gates, Soros, and other Leftist billionaires want to contribute their personal wealth to the cause, too, yes?
Does Angela Davis live there? She has a lot of white privilege in her past. She should right at the front of the line with this. She should share her fair share of white privilige wealth.
Angela is related to one of the passengers on the Mayflower. So am I. Hey, maybe were cousins. A lot happens in 400 years.
Maybe San Francisco can just put it on their credit card.
Or mail in the check and “forget” to sign it.
We already knew that the leadership in and from most of California was absurd and counter culturally nuts, now they’ve confirmed that belief. You can’t fix their kind of ideological stupidity.
https://stevewitherspoonhome.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/cantfixstupid.jpg
I hope this ill-considered policy leads Hispanics in California to reconsider their foolish support of the Democratic Party.
Well it’s illegal but let’s see what happens when they have to pay for it.
The progressives made this statement, let them pay the invoice.
I would move me and my money someplace safe.
“I would move me and my money someplace safe.”
Which is exactly why there is a mass exodus from California. Better people flee People’s States.
Idiocy.
Clown show😂
That’s wonderful because now black people will flock to California and leave other states in droves. They will not be missed.
Amazing, that it is all fiat money, and more of it doesn’t make it valuable. There is no money, but that never stopped our government before.
Somehow I just don’t think the voters will go for this. But it is California so you never know.
I’m not one to boost California but, as you pointed out, it was never a slave state. If there are specific incidents of discrimination or illegal actions by the state or it’s municipalities and governmental entities then prove them in court and see what happens.
How does one explain such thinking by the Loons on the Left….and the includes the Governor, the SF Board of Supervisors, everyone who supports this insane idea….and the Media who are pointing out how utterly impossible and baseless this whole Reparations Movement is and why it should be pilloried on the gallows of reality but is not? This is the kind of agenda that results in the destruction of a sane just society.
Free money for 250 years and a home for only $1 dollar. Great optics for their upcoming reelection campaigns. Of course, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors support reparations because they know up front that they won’t have to pay for them. They are already $728 million over budget but hey….it’s votes. Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
“[T]he [SF] Board is considering a guaranteed annual income of $97,000 for 250 years and a home ‘for just $1 a family.’”
When communists took power in Russia, they seized property and wealth, and redistributed it.
When tribalists are in power in SF, they seize wealth and redistribute it.
Morally, there is no difference.
Along with this goes the delusion that the tax base will remain to support it. Any worry about the next ‘Big One’ destroying the city should be put in its proper perspective. The ‘Big One’ has already occurred.
I think it’s cute how an activist states that “we worked for free” even though that is just silly. I understand California’s befuddlance with this issue though. In Hollywood, time travel and temporal displacments are real, so the activist’s statements make perfect sense. Carry on.
Where are the reparations for civil war veterans families whose men were killed in action freeing the nation from slavery?
Fine. Put it up to a vote and see what the city residents think if it. If I was black I would be embarrassed. Both for themselves and the city.
so will all laws from now on…just be BASED ON RACE, Gender, political leanings, etc?
You know…like German National Socialists in the 1930’s?
guyventner: That is an excellent point that no one has yet picked up on. This isn’t just about money for so-called victims. It’s about a larger shift in wealth, power and legal claims to a race-based group that will never be satisfied. If this goes through, not only will reparations claims spread throughout the country, but they will be leveled far into the future — every 10 years we’ll get hit with “more.” Of course, no one will suggest that they deduct half a century of welfare payments and affirmative action benefits from that $5 million. This is the scam of the century.
so basically Democrat government RUN BASED ON RACE…like it has from before the Civil War!
I want to SUE for the trillions WASTED on these ungrateful PEOPLE!
Who is next ? California was a Free State no slavery! People that did suffer were Hispanics who lost land ect. they had when California was part of Mexico. No reparations board for them!
Crazy state with even crazier politicians. Newsom for President, wouldn’t win a dog catcher election outside the state!