Reparations for descendants of slaves is in hot debate in California, again. I cannot believe that CA is actually considering this. CA Bill AB 3121 enacted in 2020 tasks this new “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans”. “AB 3121 charges the California Department of Justice with providing administrative, technical, and legal assistance to the Task Force.”
Makes no sense
What really baffles me is that California was admitted to the union on September 9, 1850 as a free state. So why is a state that never supported owning slaves considering making taxpayers who never owned slaves pay people who never were slaves? Let’s say there were slaves in CA, I am sure there certainly was. How is someone going to prove they are a descendant of a slave? I am sure some people might have good documentation to prove themselves, or is CA just going to pay anyone that makes the claim.
Slavery happened and we can’t take it back
Look, I am ashamed for our country that slavery was allowed in the past and went on for so long. However to me why should taxpayers pay for something they did not do to someone who was not a slave? Slavery ended over 150yrs ago with the passage of the 13th Amendment.
I have read numbers from what people think the reparations should be, it ranges from $200k-$350k per individual. Then there is San Francisco, San Francisco was considering a “one-time payment of $5 million to each Black resident of the city deemed eligible as recompense for the “decades of harm they have experienced.” according to a New York Post article dated in Jan 16, 2023
Pandora’s Box?
The task force has until July 1, 2023 to report and make recommendations to the state legislature. So over the last 3 years how much taxpayer money have they spent? I can’t imagine how much it would cost if they approve reparations. I think reparations for descendants of slaves is a bad idea. To me it opens Pandora’s box nationwide. With CA having so many other problems such as crime, homelessness, inflation, budget deficits etc they really need to fix those first before even considering reparations.
