Recently Fox News reported the following
“The California
Reparations Task Force’s five-member economic consultant team reported that
under the initiative, qualifying Black residents in the state could qualify for
$223,200 per person.”
The Reparations Task Force was
formed by legislation signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020.
The panel comprised
primarily of African American members voted 5-4
to limit reparations to descendants of enslaved African Americans or of a “free
Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century.”
It would be up to the
California Legislature to act upon the recommendations.
California isn’t the
only state, attempting the exercise.
Back in 2021,
officials in Evanston, Ill., a Chicago suburb, approved $10
million in reparations in the form of housing grants.
Also in 2021,
officials in Asheville, N.C., committed $2.1 million to reparations.
So let’s dig deeper.
The panel says that
only Black residents will qualify to receive reparations.
Since slavery ended
around 157 years ago, these qualifying African Americans are likely to have a
percentage of slave heritage.
The first question is
who decides the cutoff percentage of those who qualify.
What about those who
are Caucasian or Latino or of other races who also have a percentage of slave
ancestry? Why should they be excluded or discriminated against?
Let's say
a Caucasian man and a Black man have the same percentage of slave
ancestry? Why should the Caucasian man not deserve reparations, his ancestors
were also subjected to unspeakable crimes and hardships.
The only way to deduce
slave ancestry is for all California residents to submit to a DNA test.
This will be a
massive undertaking, and will probably cost the state millions of dollars but
that is the only right way to do it.
Those whose DNA
reveals slave ancestry will qualify, the race of the person should not matter.
Here too the question
of the cut-off percentage matters
Let’s say the cut-off
percentage is 30%, would it not be unfair to the person who has 29% slave ancestry.
There are other open
questions.
The
NYT reported that the groups spent months traveling across California
to learn about ‘the generational effects of racist policies and actions.’
The task force
identified five criteria to decide compensation — housing
discrimination, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, devaluation of
Black businesses, and health care.
But this makes no
sense.
Reparations are
handed out owing to the fact that the ancestors of the qualifying individuals
were slaves.
Reparations should have nothing to do with the current situation.
If other factors such
as current situations are being considered, the funds cannot be called
reparations, it is instead welfare money i.e. the state redistributing wealth.
The other question is
how long do payments continue?
Should it continue
across generations forever?
If the recipients of
reparations qualify because their ancestors from several generations ago
were slaves, it should apply to subsequent generations as well and forever.
What happens if an
individual of slave ancestry has a child with an individual who has no slave
ancestry?
Does the offspring
from this union still qualify for reparations?
What happens if an
individual of slave ancestry has a child with an individual who has no slave
owner ancestry?
Does the offspring
from this union still qualify for reparation?
Now about the
question of the amount?
The task force
arrived at the figure of $223,200 by examining gaps in housing and
speculating the approximate amount of wealth lost between 1933 and 1977.
But why stop at
$223,200.
How can the amount
compensate for the unspeakable crimes of slavery committed against ancestors?
Perhaps they deserve
monthly reparations such that they do not have to work again in their lives
because their ancestors didn’t have the choice.
Perhaps they all
deserve to be given mansions in the plushest localities in the US. Perhaps
Beverly Hills and Martha's Vineyard will have to be opened up?
What about those with
slave ancestry who are wealthy? It seems the board is claiming that they will
not qualify.
If the point of
reparation is to compensate for the sins of the past, the current financial
status should not matter. Every individual deserves to be paid.
Since it has been
established that Oprah has slave
ancestry, she should receive payments. Her wealth, power, and success
should not matter.
If the panel is
claiming Oprah disqualifies because she rose to the top despite her slave ancestry,
they could be accused of punishing success and rewarding failure.
What about those such
as Michelle Obama who has the ancestry of both
slaves and slave
owners?
Does she qualify or
does she not?
Does the fact that
she has the ancestry of slave owners disqualify them?
Since the concept
here making payments to individuals for the sufferings of their ancestors'
myriad generations ago, should the same logic apply to slave owners?
Should an additional
tax be imposed on the decedents of slave owners? If slave ancestors are being
paid it makes sense that slave owner ancestors must be the ones paying.
If so will Michelle
Obama has to pay this tax because of her slave owner ancestry or will the fact
that she has slave ancestry cancel the tax.
Why just restrict
reparations to those whose forefathers were slaves?
Why not offer
reparations to the decedents of Native Americans?
Some Native Americans
did receive reparations, perhaps they deserve more and continuous payments.
How about the
decedents of Holocaust victims
A case can be made
that if the US had intervened sooner in World War II, the Holocaust would never
have happened. Hence the offspring of Holocaust victims in the US
What about the
victims of the recent Iraq war, the Afghan War, and various other wars where
the US led the intervention.
These individuals
suffered due to the US actions and hence deserve reparations.
What about the
victims of crimes in the US?
A case can be made
that the state failed to protect its citizens, hence the victim and their
relatives deserve reparations.
What about victims of
human trafficking, who have been smuggled across the border because of Biden’s
unwillingness to enforce border security.
Some of them may be
subjected to sexual slavery? Surely these people deserve reparations because
they are direct victims.
Soon every citizen in
the country will qualify for some kind of reparation because either the
individual or their ancestor has been discriminated against.
In fact, the proposed
reparations in California can be regarded as discrimination since it is being
done on the basis of race.
In the end, ancestry
is a matter of chance.
It makes no sense to compensate people just because they happen to
have the DNA by some stroke of luck.
It certainly makes no sense to narrow down the compensation based
on race because the criteria are ancestry.
History is replete with dark chapters.
The horrors of the past cannot be undone by paying the descendants of the
victims.
The only way to right the wrongs of the past is to improve the
future.
In this case by achieving Martin Luther King, Jr dream where
people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their
character.
Also appears on American Thinker
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