California state lawmakers introduced a slate of reparations bills on Wednesday, including a proposal to restore property taken by “race-based” cases of eminent domain and a potentially unconstitutional measure to provide state funding for “specific groups.”
The package marks a first-in-the-nation effort to give restitution to Black Americans who have been harmed by centuries of racist policies and practices. California’s legislative push is the culmination of years of research and debate, including 111-pages of recommendations issued last year by a task force.
Other states like Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts have commissioned reparations studies or task forces, but California is the first to attempt to turn those ideas into law.
The 14 measures introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus touch on education, civil rights and criminal justice, including reviving a years-old effort to restrict solitary confinement that failed to make it out of the statehouse as recently as last year.
That plan could face a similar constitutional challenge like the one that ultimately dismantled affirmative action.
Other proposals include protections for “natural and protective” hairstyles in all competitive sports, and a formal apology by the governor and Legislature for the state’s role in human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.
Not included is any type of financial compensation to descendants of Black slaves, a polarizing proposal that has received a cool response from many state Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more,” Assembly member Lori Wilson, chair of the caucus, said in a statement. “We need a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.”
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So the State that never had slavery is going to provide "reparations" for slavery?
Explain how that works...
@DemocracyBertieDemocrat2yrs2Y
Quote from the article
“Not included is any type of financial compensation to descendants of Black slaves”
Cool, but that still doesn't explain why the residents of the Free State of California, which never had slavery, have to give non-economic reparations for slavery in the first place.
@DemocracyBertieDemocrat2yrs2Y
I read it to say reparations for imminent domain losses and entities/institutions racially discriminating. I’ve simplified it here, but it’ll come across better if you read the article.
Cannot do that, violates Cal Constitution.
This is nothing short of the legalised theft of whites for the benefit of blacks who were never slaves in order to further the power of Gavin Newsy & his wicked regime.
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