We have previously discussed (here and here and here and here) the push for reparations in California that has been touted by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats for years. After the Democrats campaigned on the issue in past elections, I wrote a column about how this bill had come due after years of delay for study and recommendations. The legislature, however, just stamped the bill “return to sender” and shelved the two reparations bills with the reported support of Newsom. The reaction is not surprising that there has been a bait-and-switch by Democrats on the issue.
Last week, the California legislature did approve proposals allowing for the return of land or compensation to families whose property was unjustly seized by the government, and issuing a formal apology for laws and practices that have harmed Black people. However, the two bills to establish a fund for reparation payments – Senate Bills 1403 and 1331 – were tabled.
State Sen. Steven Bradford blamed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the result, stating that the governor made clear that he would veto them.
Newsom signed a $297.9 billion budget in June that included up to $12 million for reparations legislation. However, that is a drop in the bucket given the billions demanded and it is not clear how the money will be spent.
Adding to the anger is the fact that the legislature approved a bill to allow undocumented persons to receive no-interest loans of up to $150,000 to cover down payments on new homes.
It is now unclear what will happen next, though sponsors are saying that they will continue to push for legislation green lighting reparation payments.
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.
As discussed earlier, there are a host of legal and practical questions over the reparation payments that will have to be resolved. Even with passage, the bills would likely face constitutional challenges.
Newsom’s reparations bill reminds me of the old post WW2 “cargo cults”. The Pacific Island natives learned than when the big buzzing bird flew over, crates of food and strange goodies drifted down from heaven. From that period on, they did their special dances and rituals until the last of the old warriors looked skyward for “goods from the gods”.
When the last of “The old ones” drew his last ragged breath, he said, “Have faith, the Gods will deliver”…. and so it goes in California, except now the gods are the democrats.
I for one fully support reparations. I’m reaching for the American Dream and I have a plan. If they are approved I will move to California where I will open a wheel and tire shop, a baggy cloths store, a bunch of electronics stores, gold jewelry stores, and several liquor stores. After about 6 months when some of those businesses start to slow down I’ll close them and open a pawn shop and buy it all back at pennies on the dollar and resell it when the loans aren’t paid. I should make millions very quickly and pay my help very well.
Why keep pushing for the reparations bill for the African-Americans who were enslaved in the early years of this great country..?? In my opinion the reparations bill is just a money making scheme by group of people who are after the American taxpayers’ money who had nothing to do about the past slavery in America. What has the American taxpayers got to do with such political move to give money to those “dead” African-American slaves…I have full sympathy for those early African-Americans who went through the slavery period in America but that was then and this is now…And although this is now, slavery still around but in another form…In the old ways, it was done in the farm of rich American farm owners of cotton farms and other plantations…But those who suffered under the slavery period were gone…Do they have families left after they passed away…After all those hundred years? Come on fellow Americans…It’s always money, money, money…And money makes people dishonest and evil…Go out and find work because that’s the old American value…I came to America by enlisting in one of its armed forces and my first duty was to serve the officers like slave, but that was fine and an honor in my part to serve in America that way because I believe everybody must start their job at the bottom of the system and work his/her way up by learning the system and be loyal to what you do to reach your dream…You cannot get anything for yourself by extending your hands out for the silver platter that will be handed to you…You must work hard for you what you need and not expect the government to provide your needs for free…So stop the reparations…Let’s move forward…Those who we call slaves passed away a long time ago, maybe hundred years ago…It was a different time and different period in America, and don’t waste the American taxpayers money for a bill that will only divide the American people…Get the politics off the slavery period in America…!! An honest perspective.
If the Civil War was truly over slavery and human rights, why did President Grant, General Sherman, General Sheridan, Crook and colonel Custer (all Union civil war veterans) immediately move westward to practice their total war tactics on the indigenous peoples of the plains? Mass extermination is what Sherman called for, men, women and children.
And if not for men like him, we would have been colonized by European countries and we would be peasants plowing English fields behind Spanish horses for European kings, queens, and emperors. Sorry, Indians.
Not an answer to the question
It was over economics. Slavery was a fake reason, used for justification. Your points prove it.
I know it, the fight has not changed. We are all slaves now allowed to excel up the rank and file as long as we stay in synch with the Puppet Masters lies.
Slave reparations is wrong. The USA fought a Civil War that killed about 600k people and destroyed most of the south and parts of the north to free slaves. This was done over 150 years ago. Following the Civil War there were Constitutional Amendments that eliminated slavery and gave full citizenship to US slaves. If there are any US citizens that are living that owns US slaves they are criminals and it is not an issue for the country to pay.
California never lets truth get in the way of a good con job on black people.
When will Black Democrats wake up and realize that Democrats have swapped their cotton plantations for election plantations, holding black America back for their votes, patronizing them, talking down about them and brainwashing them into believing they have to vote Democrat for the scraps they provide, all while destroying the black family and black achievement. Democrats keep them dependent on government purposely in exchange for votes to help them fill an insatiable quench for authoritarian power and control over the masses. It’s the most sick and twisted Faustian Bargain mankind has ever seen.