Panderer-in-chief Governor Gavin Newsom recently spoke to a black audience and said, “I'm like you. I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy...” Newsom then waxed about not being able to read a prepared speech. [A note to Mr. Newsom: if you can't read, you can't be president. And you shouldn't be a governor.]
In the 20th century, California was the go-to state for many. In the 21st century, under Newsom, it has become the must-leave state, replete with over-taxation, over-regulation, sidewalk encampments, high crime, crumbling cities, brownouts, burnouts, water problems, and a penchant for an impossible trillion-dollar shakedown. Among his endless erroneous notions, Newsom believes that California should pay reparations to black citizens.
Let the Folly Begin
In 2024, the Reparations Priority Bill Package was signed into law, following the conclusion of the reparations task force in 2023, which had been established by Newsom in 2020. Last October, Newsom approved a state slavery reparations agency.
At various intervals along this five-year journey to nowhere, heated debates on reparations for black Californians transpired. Initially, the task force suggested $220,000 per person, then upped it to $360,000 per person. Later, the task force recommended up to $1.2 million per person and presented more than 115 recommendations related to compensation for blacks. Thereafter, activists demanded $200 million for every African-American, which, by strained calculations, supposedly is the present day equivalence of 40 acres and mule!
Al Sharpton and the late Jesse Jackson, kings among shakedown artists, along with all the corrupt former BLM executives, must have been drooling. Nevermind that since 1860, few U.S. families anywhere in America have ever amassed or maintained such sums.
The Ultimate Shakedown
Based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 2.3 million people in California identify solely as African American or black. If each of these people receives $1.2 million, the California reparation bill would equal $2,760,000,000,000 ($2.76 trillion). The state's entire annual budget is $495 billion. So the 'reparations debt' would be nearly six times the annual budget.
At $1.2 million per black person, if California could raise an additional $1,000,000 an hour, 24 hours a day, non-stop, it would take only 315 years to reach $2.76 trillion. At $200 million per black person, if the state could somehow raise $10,000,000 per hour, 24 hours a day, non-stop, it would take 5,000+ years to pay the 'reparations debt.'
Even at ‘merely’ $1.2 million per person, count on a mass migration to California. Why not? It would be “game on” for every state squatter or race-faker in existence.
Should we fret about such bothersome economic details? Does it matter that since 1965, the Federal Government has spent more than $23 trillion on poverty, affirmative action, and equal opportunity-type programs? Black Professor John McWhorter has convincingly explained that reparations have already happened.
Slavery, No; Discrimination, Yes
Beyond the insane sums cited above, other troublesome issues linger: California was not a slave state, although instances of slavery did occur through loopholes, federal laws, and court rulings. And, undoubtedly, some former slaves relocated to California.
Consider this quandary: During the time of slavery, free blacks in the U.S. owned black slaves. So, now what? Document that your ancestors were slaves, owned by white people, to cash in? If they were owned by black people, however, would you receive nothing? Or half? Or some other fraction?
Regarding past discrimination, it is undeniable. Yet, darker-skinned and yellow-skinned U.S. citizens who have emigrated here within the last generation are doing well, according to the American Community Survey, part of the U.S. Census Bureau. How is reparation accounting impacted as Pakistani, Indian, Malaysian, Sri Lankan, and Filipino Americans in California and nationwide have higher median family income than whites?
Who Gets to be Included?
Other groups endured discrimination in major ways. The Chinese, in San Francisco and statewide, suffered decades of discrimination, as did Mexicans, Latin Americans, and American Indians. In some respects, such discrimination continues. People with disabilities and woman faced, and face discrimination.
For generations, women were discriminated against, certainly in terms of businesses they might have operated or tried to launch, in property rights, and even in family rights. To this day, California women are challenged by enduring gender and racial barriers. How much money do they get?
As to the issue of "who is black?", should California resort to the racist doctrine about "one single drop of blood?" Thus, if you have any black ancestors, you're considered black? Or, do you have to pass a contemporary standard? It's a conundrum that cannot be solved.
Boiled down, the wokesters’ favorite target remains white males. Apparently, white males never endured hardships and caused everyone else to suffer. Yet, compared to women, these males have historically had higher suicide rates, shorter life spans, higher incarceration rates, and a greater incidence of mental illness.
Putting the Issue to Bed
The notion of reparations, beyond being the all-time shakedown, is a ludicrous attempt to redirect and correct every part of history, a key Leftist agenda item. Yet such a correction cannot be made: Tall people have higher lifetime earnings than short people. Active people fare better than inactive people. Educated people have the odds stacked in their favor, and so forth.
Should we emulate Kurt Vonnegut's plot in his short story, Harrison Bergeron? In it, equality reigns supreme: no one is permitted to be stronger, better looking, or smarter than anybody else. If you're strong, you must proceed in life with one hand literally tied behind your back. If you're attractive, you need to wear a mask
What if some fair and effective way could be established to distribute a reasonable sum to verifiably black people whose descendants have long been discriminated against? Would that put this grievance to bed for all time? Doubtful! Some other time, some other ultra-woke California governor would succumb to a new round of entitlement claims and gripes.
In short, the issue will NEVER be put to bed.