It is here! From the time Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law implementing a task force on reparations in 2020, it was inevitable that this day would come. The task force has proposed that the state pay an estimated $800 billion to the state’s black residents.
The committee is called the “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans.” Its charter was to design reparations as a result of the “institution of slavery, including both the transatlantic and domestic ‘trade’ that existed from 1565 in colonial Florida and from 1619 to 1865, inclusive, within the other colonies that became the United States.”
The Task Force was required to “recommend appropriate remedies” for past slavery. While the task force was supposed to “study” the history of slavery, the law itself already laid out specific conclusions. For instance, it states, “As a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships, including, but not limited to ... Having nearly 1,000,000 black people incarcerated [and] an unemployment rate more than twice the current white unemployment rate.”
The task force has now proposed payments of up to $1.2 million per black Californian. The estimated $800 billion price tag is shocking to most, but should not be to Newsom. He is no stranger to the state blowing money it does not have in the tens of billions of dollars. The state is projected to spend $25 billion more next year than it has this year. It blew over $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic. Newsom’s “Climate Commitment,” whereby California will set off to unilaterally change the temperature of the globe, blows another $54 billion.
Those figures no doubt were on the minds of task force members who may otherwise have been concerned their proposal is too audacious. Newsom should have anticipated the number considering the makeup of the task force. It consists of nine members, all appointed by Democrats, five by Newsom himself. All but one is black. The other is Asian. No whites or Hispanics. Most would see a conflict of interest in such a makeup, but not Newsom.
The only requirement to receive money is proving you have a black ancestor who lived in the U.S. prior to 1900. For most this means a grandparent or great grandparent. You do not have to prove your ancestor was enslaved, despite the goal being reparations for slavery. The task force gets around this by noting that recent forms of discrimination emanate from slavery. This includes the practice of “red lining” by banks making home loans difficult, “over-policing,” “mass incarceration” of blacks, and cash bail.
But you do not need to prove you were actually impacted by one of these policies. California led the nation by passing an expansive civil rights act in 1959, prohibiting discrimination in virtually all elements of society based upon race. Thus, for blacks under the age of 80 in California, they have had access to reparations for discrimination in the court system. Many have sued and won damages under the law as well as subsequent state laws and the federal Civil Right Act of 1964.
Yet, under the proposal, these people would be paid again. As the left so often does, it simply lumps all black people together for purposes of the payments, regardless of individual circumstances.
You also do not need to show your ancestors lived in California. No surprise since California never had slavery! But just as California takes on the burden of solving the world’s warming climate, it also takes on the burden of healing the country from slavery that occurred in the southeast United States over 150 years ago, all on the backs of those currently alive and living in the state.
Eligibility to pay for the reparations is easy. You just must live in the state. The state does not have to prove your ancestors were slave owners. It does not even have to prove you had ancestors who lived in the U.S. in the 1800s. All you must do is live in the state today, and Newsom’s task force says your tax money should be given to black people. And no, there is no exception for those with ancestors who died in the Holocaust or were interned in camps during WWII. There is also no exception for blacks themselves. Blacks who cannot prove they had ancestors here before 1900 have to pay other blacks.
Clearly even California’s spendthrift politicians know the state cannot afford this. And, clearly, the proposal would violate the equal protection clause since government payments would be based upon the color of skin rather than proof of actual individual harm. And, clearly, implementing it would be incredibly divisive and cause a mass exodus from the state on top of the millions who have already left.
Thus, clearly, the task force should have never been established in the first place. “This has been a fool’s errand from the start,” James Gallagher, California Assembly Republican Leader, told Fox News. “Newsom has painted himself into a corner, and he’ll have to choose between signing off on a ridiculous policy that will bankrupt the state or admitting once and for all that this task force was nothing more than a political stunt.”
Since neither option is tenable, Newsom will likely choose to repeat the same stunt: establish a new task force to review and report on the proposal of the first task force.
