Perspective: CA’s proposed reparation payouts too risky

Newsom wants to award state-funded “sorry money” to Black descendants of enslaved people. In the California Globe, Evan Symon breaks down the folly of slavery reparations: They’re objected to by most CA’ns, legally challenging to establish, and partially disregard past suffering of other minoritized races/ethnicities.

“There’s an entire legal nightmare to putting reparations in place, but putting aside that massive hurdle, there is a lot to overcome if the Task Force even hopes to have a chance of reparations coming into play,” said legal adviser Richard Weaver to the Globe on Wednesday.

“First of all, few people want it. 62% of the U.S. opposes them, and that number has been growing. Also, 6% of California is black, and that will be broken up further by those who had slave ancestors, so a lot of Californians are going to feel slighted on this. Especially since this whole things is rooted in slavery and California was a free state. Has there been discrimination in California against blacks and injustices committed? Yes, of course there have. A lot. But the same can be said of Latinos, Native Americans, Asians with the Chinese and Japanese especially being singled out in the past, Catholics, Jews, and many more. And some have been as sweeping as blacks too. The average Californian at least has some cursory knowledge of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the genocide against the Natives here in the mid 1800’s, and others.”

“For many, overcoming these things and working together have been a point of pride to many Californians. We’re the most diverse state with powerful elected positions being held by just about every race, gender, orientation, and creed throughout the state. So diverse that California keeps rejecting affirmative action for college placement and corporate board forced diversity measures because of just how fast the state is making things equal by itself without laws.  Californians are going to look at this, as well as recent struggles like inflation going up, gas going up, and COVID-19 economic recovery, and see that everyone has really been affected recently, so why should this pass. That’s what many think.”

This article originally appeared in the California Globe. Read the whole thing here.

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