OPINION:
In California, Democrats are considering a $640 billion measure that would dole out $360,000 to eligible Black residents for slavery that wasn’t even sanctioned in that state. In San Francisco, a separate leftist-inspired reparations item would dole out $5 million to each and every eligible Black resident.
This is how Democrats win elections.
They divide, then swoop in to conquer. They create class warfare, then pretend to be the solution to the divisiveness that follows — the divisiveness they created.
Reparations of descendants of the enslaved have been debated for decades, but it’s much more recently that the talk has moved into the walk phase. Why? Democrats need some hinge issues for campaign season. And nothing says “vote for me” like a promise of free money.
“California Task Force for Reparations Considers $640 Billion in Payments to Eligible Black Residents,” Bloomberg wrote.
“California Weighs $360,000 in Reparations to Black Residents,” Bloomberg Law News wrote.
“California residents await key decisions by reparations task force,” PBC News Hour wrote.
It’s not clear where the money will come from; ostensibly, taxpayers.
But unlike other states where reparations to Blacks for past slavery-tied evils, California stands out as being a jurisdiction that was a free state. It never allowed slavery in the first place. But California is filled with some of the most leftist of lefties in the nation, and that makes it a place that’s just ripe for the reparations picking.
“State’s findings have potential to become blueprint for US,” Bloomberg wrote in a headline a few days ago.
There ya have it. California leftists are hoping that as their state goes, so goes the rest of the nation. So what if their logic is a bit skewed?
“California adopted an antislavery constitution before it became a state in 1850, but it had a long history of tolerating slavery,” CalMatters.com wrote. “[But] enslaved black people were brought to California while the state was still part of Mexico — between 1821 and 1848 — and during the U.S.-Mexico war, so there was precedent for tolerating slavery.”
Tolerating, schmolerating — it’s all guilt. It’s all the same.
It’s all usable stuff by campaigning politicians.
But this entire reparations matter has gone off the rails.
America is a melting pot; the people aren’t supposed to be divided by classes or colors or races or sexes — rather, we’re all equal in God’s eyes, endowed by Him with certain unalienable rights. Tossing out the blatant Black victimhood card and claiming monies owed due to past societal sins is a surefire way to destroy the melting pot. Are other races — both sexes — other demographies — then to clamor for a piece of their own victim pie?
Moreover, slavery is an evil that’s not limited to White people. Other races, even Blacks, are guilty of enslaving people. But it’s the Western world — the European culture, the European White-faced culture — that was one of the first to ban slavery. In 1787, the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in Britain. In 1792, Denmark banned the import of slaves to its West Indies colonies. In 1807, Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act — and the United States passed laws banning the slave trade, as well. That’s after some of the very Founding Fathers that have come under condemnation in recent politically correct times — like Thomas Jefferson — worked to abolish slavery in expanded states of the Union.
And here’s an interesting fact that throws a kink in the call for reparations for Blacks in America: Slavery formally ended in the United States in 1865, but was not legally banned in West Africa until 1875 — after which it continued in practice, despite law, until nearly World War I days.
File that under Facts Democrats Want To Conceal From Voters.
Certain truths would really eat into Democrats’ voting bases.
In November 2022, Pew Research Center found that 77% of Backs favored reparations for descendants of slaves, compared to only 18% of Whites. An estimated 39% Hispanics and 33% Asians, meanwhile, gave thumbs-up to reparations. And the numbers of supporters drop significantly by age: While 45% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 supported reparations, only 18% of those ages 65 and older said the same.
“There are also notable differences by partisan affiliation,” Pew wrote. “Among Democratic-leaning independents, views are split: 48% say descendants of enslaved people should be repaid in some way, while 49% say they shouldn’t be repaid. By comparison, only 8% of Republicans and GOP leaners say these descendants should be repaid in some way, and 91% say they should not.”
It’s the politics that is the key factor here.
“Most Democrats Support Slavery Reparations,” Rasmussen Reports wrote in December 2022. And they’re moving rapidly to stick it to the taxpayers.
Evanston, Illinois, Dems OK’d a grant reparations program to give $25,000 to Blacks for housing needs. Asheville, North Carolina, leftists established a reparations committee to debate how best to pay Blacks for slavery that touched their families; New Jersey established a task force to consider the same; so did St. Louis, Missouri; and New York is talking about following suit. It’s sweeping the nation.
It’s socialism and Marxism and redistribution of wealth and resources — so of course, it’s become a hot, go-to issue for Democrats.
This is hardly the unity President Biden promised.
If reparations are aimed ultimately at unifying and healing racial divides, America is already walking that path. Whites accounted for more than 76% of the 131 million Americans who voted in November 2008, presidential election, versus Blacks, at about 12%; Hispanics, just over 7%; and Asians, at 2.5%. Former President Barack Obama won. Obama won with massive support from White people.
That should have been the final end to the leftist arguments that insist America is a nation that’s inherently and systemically racist. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t — because racism has become a Democratic talking point. And reparations, much as they will continue to divide, not unify, are the real-world equivalent of the fairy tale goose that laid the golden egg.
So long as there are Democrats who seek political office, America will be that racist nation in need of an overhaul, and reparations will remain the debt taxpayers owe Blacks. The accusations buy votes, and for leftists, that’s all that matters.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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