Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
In the wake of the tragic murder of George Floyd, many political hacks have begun to use his death as a way to guilt trip people into supporting nonsensical policies. Among these people is Democratic Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, who is pushing for reparations for African-Americans.
“We felt that California needed to examine itself,” said Weber. “Is there any lingering impacts of the issue of slavery in the United States on the lives and progress of Africans in this country, and in California, in particular?”
Her bill, AB 3121, would establish an eight-member reparations committee to educate Californians about slavery and to recommend both direct and indirect state settlements in order to combat the effects of discrimination and inequality.
Regardless of the fact that no one should have money forcefully taken from them in the form of taxes to support others based merely on skin color, there’s a much larger hole in her argument.
California was never a slave state. The case for reparations is a poor argument in states like Alabama and Georgia, but at least there it makes more sense. Texas, the closest slave state, is three states over and more than 500 miles away. Black people did not even come to California in large numbers until after World War II. In 1860, out of a population of roughly 380,000 people in California, there were 4,000 blacks in the state, and even taking into account the Dred Scott decision and assuming some of those 4,000 were slaves, that number is still only a few thousand. Owning slaves in the state was still illegal.
Unfortunately, despite this, the bill seems to be making progress. There doesn’t seem to be any formal opposition although three Republican lawmakers—James Gallagher, Kevin Kiley, and Jay Obernolte—voted against Weber’s bill in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. According to Joshua Hoover, Kiley’s chief of staff, one reason the assemblyman voted no is that he believes “the federal level is a more appropriate place for this discussion to take place.”
This bill is not only ridiculous and morally reprehensible, it’s also an insult to the memory of George Floyd that his death should be used as a rationale for it’s passage. This is yet another gibs program designed by Democrats to guarantee votes and keep the black community dependent on government.
If passed, not only will it be a disservice to the nearly 38 million non-black Californians that had absolutely nothing to do with slavery, it will also ensure that “generations of poverty and inequality” continue.
