California’s ground-breaking reparations committee has finally produced their initial recommendations to the governor and legislature for executing what could be the nation’s first legislation mandating compensation to American descendants of slaves (ADOS). The recommendations come on the heels of a 500-page report delivered last June detailing the historical grievances of African Americans, and explaining why those grievances deserve some form of compensation.
The list includes expected grievances like the violence of the slavery and segregation eras, housing discrimination and systemic racism. Then there are the grievances clearly added by the neo-Marxist social justice warriors (which is pretty much the entire task force), like demanding compensation for Black transgender “women” because they have higher-than-average rates of HIV. Also, Black lesbians and transgender “women” are “less likely to access healthcare” as a result of the “legacy of enslavement.”
Black LGBTQ Americans suffer from especially poor health outcomes. Black LGBTQ people who identify as women have higher diagnoses of hypertension, stroke, and diabetes. Many Black LGBTQ Americans are at higher risk for HIV when compared with white cisgender, heterosexual Americans. As of 2015, Black transgender women had HIV at the rate of 19 percent, while 1.4 percent of the transgender population at large had HIV. Black LGBTQ Americans have also been found to have higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, and cancer. (page 427)
That’s right. The reparations task force thinks sexually transmitted diseases contracted by men who believe they are women and who engage in unprotected sex with other men are a direct result of the “legacy of enslavement.”
There are also complaints about “access” to national parks and climate racism.
I know reparations are a controversial topic among conservatives, and I understand why, but I do believe there is at least a reasonable conversation to be had about what the government owes people it has stolen from, if anything. See the Bruce Beach case in California for more on that. I’m happy to have those conversations and think through them logically, for what they mean to Black people and for the country at large. But if you were to ask me what I think we’re talking about when we’re mentioning reparations, I would say “We are talking about some form of generational compensation for the sins of slavery/Jim Crow.” I daresay most people would say that’s what they think reparations mean. After all, our ancestors did not ever receive their promised 40-acres and a mule. Agree or disagree, there is at least a common sense of what people mean when they use the word “reparations.”
I don’t think the average American would consider men in women’s cosplay and park passes anywhere near the discussion about the legacy of slavery. It’s not even in the same universe.
That’s where the real problems in this report lie. This is not a sincere attempt to secure some kind of justice that was denied a group of people many years ago, as Democrats constantly claim their obsession with reparations is about. This is a social engineering project disguised as justice.
This initial report doesn’t even do much by way of recommending direct financial compensation, although that is an idea that is still being debated in the committee and will surely pop up in their next report, due sometime in December. The task force, however, does recommend a whole host of disturbing “reparations.” As you read ahead, please keep in mind that these provisions will be overseen by a yet-to-be-created Office of African American/Freedmen Affairs. This would be an unelected body of bureaucrats, with one person in charge of the trillions of dollars it would take to pull off such plans and one person making the final decisions on things like education and wages. We’d basically be appointing a new king of California. Or, more pointedly, a mob boss.
The task forces wants to make anti-racism and “anti-bias” training and curriculum mandatory for all teachers. They are basically asking for mandatory reeducation for all schools and all teachers across the state.
They want to recruit Black educators for k-12 schools. I’m not sure how that would work outside of how hiring already works in our public school systems, but it does set up a failing process that would ultimately lower the hiring bar. Black people make up a mere 13% of the American population, and of that percentage, how many choose to be teachers? And of those, how many are good teachers? The task force is asking for quotas that may be impossible to fill, and that would be race based.
They want to make more investments in “environmental infrastructure.” California loves doing this – creating schemes to divert public funds to green energy cabals. I shouldn’t be surprised they would use the pain of the legacy of slavery to do it. The environmental cultists have no shame.
They want compensation for Black Americans who have been “deprived of rightful profits from artistic, creative, athletics, and intellectual endeavors.” How does that play out? Given the climate of cancel culture the progressives have forced on us, would this mean anyone who is perceived to have “culturally appropriated” Black culture in some way be forced to give up revenues derived from their appropriation? Will Eminem be forced to compensate his much wealthier and much more successful (and Black rap pioneer) producer, Andre “Dr. Dre” Young? Will Lady Antebellum…oh, sorry…Lady A be forced to compensate the Black artist they stole their virtue signaling name change from? I actually wouldn’t be opposed to that, just to watch the looks on their smug, hypocrite faces. But I digress.
Another suggestion? Raising the minimum wage in “predominantly Black industries” like food and agriculture. Just sit and think about that for a second. This is not a “Hey, here’s a bunch of money for your historical pain, you guys. Don’t spend it all in one place!” type of solution. This is a group of overeducated elitists telling “the poors” that the real justice will be them earning another $4/hour flipping burgers. And, by the way, everyone in that industry gets the same wage increase.
My favorite part is the suggestion that we “require scaling up the minimum wage for experienced workers.” So, like, give people promotions for working hard? Revolutionary!
Is the pattern starting to develop? These are all the typical progressive cultist wish list items that they insert into every bad idea they put forth. Just like Black Lives Matter was never really about empowerment for Black Americans but rather the dismantling of the American system, this reparations report is not at all about actual reparations.
It is a social engineering project, plain and simple. The easy thing would be to just drop money for the ADOS community. But that would mean the issue would no longer be on the table to exploit for political gain, and that’s of no use to the California political class.
At the end of the day, I don’t think this will ever come to any real fruition in California. The housing compensation part alone would cost an estimated half trillion dollars, and that is just one of twelve “sectors” the task force has identified for grievances.
California has flirted with universal healthcare or some version of it over the years, but each time it has ultimately been rejected by one of the legislative chambers or the governor. If any state would have universal healthcare, it would be California. So why don’t we? Because even our horrible swamp monsters understand that there is a limit to how much money you can spend. No one wants to nuke the kingdom they rule.
I predict this experiment will end up the same way. In the meantime, it is important to point out that this is not justice, but social engineering at its worst.
