The debate on reparations has been ongoing for years, but in recent months, it’s actually been under serious consideration in the state of California.
Most recently, the state’s reparations task force has proposed a figure of $1.2 million for each black person in the state — along with an official apology from the state. Rather than get into the various problems with the reparations movement — which are many because nothing about the reparations movement makes any sense — I think it should be made abundantly clear that reparations are never going to happen.
If there was any state that could make it happen, it’s California. It’s the nation’s premier virtue-signaling state, often spearheading the implementation of the latest cause célèbre of the left nationwide. There’s a reason why there’s a saying “As California goes, so does the nation.”
Yet in response to the California reparations task force, which has been studying this issue for two years now, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a radical left-wing Democrat and prospective presidential candidate, declared the proposal dead in the water.
On Tuesday, Newsom refused to endorse the task force’s recommendation, telling Fox News Digital that dealing with the legacy of slavery “is about much more than cash payments.”
“The Reparations Task Force’s independent findings and recommendations are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote healing. This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country,” Newsom said in a statement. “Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments. Many of the recommendations put forward by the Task Force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing: breaking down barriers to vote, bolstering resources to address hate, enacting sweeping law enforcement and justice reforms to build trust and safety, strengthening economic mobility — all while investing billions to root out disparities and improve equity in housing, education, healthcare, and well beyond. This work must continue.”
This is no small thing. His response to the task force’s recommendations isn’t done in a vacuum. He’s clearly planning a presidential run in the next election when there’s no Democrat incumbent. If California were to pay its black residents reparations, it would pave the way for the federal government to follow suit. Newsom took the route of regurgitating the usual left-wing talking point about systemic racism and the need for social justice but dismissed the idea of actual payments. Still, the goal of equality or equity (or whatever the buzzword of the day is) lives on as the ultimate goal.
Like the proverbial politician who needs to keep getting reelected to fight for term limits, the reparations movement is a scam that must live on as an ongoing struggle that never actually comes to fruition. It has become a constant rallying point for those who thrive on exploiting racial tensions but is more effective as an issue to fight for, rather than something that can be solved.
Despite all the progress America has made to get past slavery, segregation, and other systemic inequities of the past, it’s never enough for the race baiters. There always has to be some racial injustice to fight for, even when ones don’t exist. Heck, we live in a time where minorities are staging fake hate crimes because they need to create the appearance of systemic racial violence and perpetual victimhood.
Reparations are frequently presented as a means to compensate black Americans for the perceived systemic discrimination they face. However, if every black American received substantial monetary compensation, would that imply that the existing efforts to promote equality between white and black individuals, such as various forms of affirmative action, would become obsolete? We all know it wouldn’t. That’s not the point.
Reparations aren’t about cutting the check; they’re about sending the message to black Americans that they are still victims and that the nation is depriving them of something they can’t be whole without.