Ruminations On Reparations

DEFUND THE POLICE was the demand in 2020.

It seems that the topic of the year in 2023 is REPARATIONS.

Apparently this is going to make everything great.

What used to be the a call for equal rights in the civil rights movement has now become one of equal results.

Equal opportunity no longer seems to be important. Economic justice is the new watchword.

This gentleman in Tampa wants to put all white people on notice "that we want our reparations".

Link to video: https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1659280195419791361

Rep. Cori Bush and a group of other Democrats House members introduced a bill this week calling for $14 trillion in reparations for descendants of slaves.

House Democrats Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he has not taken a position on the bill yet but he says it is important to uplift everyone and make sure we deal with injustice.

Jeffries did not get his position without being able to switch into careful political speech mode quickly.

Of course, he has to know that there is no way that $14 trillion is available in the federal budget when we are projecting $2 trillion annual deficits every year, we are have over $31 trillion in federal debt and the entire GDP of the U.S. is $25 trillion.

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has similar political moves.

He established a state task force to study reparations and make a recommendation.

The task force recently came back with a proposal after two years of study that recommended paying reparations that would amount to about $1.2 million per person. That amount alone has to be disappointing to the gentleman in Tampa, Florida. He wants $3 million.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/07/1174627337/a-california-panel-has-called-for-billions-in-reparations-for-black-residents

California's reparations task force voted Saturday to approve recommendations on how the state may compensate and apologize to Black residents for generations of harm caused by discriminatory policies.

Some estimates from economists have projected that the state could owe upwards of $800 billion, or more than 2.5 times its annual budget, in reparations to Black people.

It does not seem to matter that California was admitted to the United States in 1850 with the express proviso that it be a "free state" and the California Constitution expressly prohibited slavery from the  beginning of existence as a state.

Already facing a $32 billion budget deficit for the current fiscal year, Governor Newsom has declined to support the recommendations of the task force on reparations that he created.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-gov-newsom-declines-back-reparations-checks-says-slaverys-legacy-more-cash-payments

I guess a heartfelt apology will have to do in California for something they never had anything to do with in the first place.

I also find it interesting in all the talk of reparations that we never hear anything about calls for Brazil, Caribbean countries (including Cuba) and others to pay reparations.

Most people are completely unaware of the fact that only 4% of the entire Atlantic slave trade from Africa to the Western Hemisphere were brought to North America.

Source: Natchez, MS Visitor's Center

96% went to places other than North America. 38% of the total slave trade went to Brazil. 42% to West Indies countries such as Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic.

Why do we never hear about any calls for reparations in those countries?

The moral and legal obligations to provide reparations in all those countries much be many times higher than in the United States.

Less than 400,000 Africans were originally brought to North America out of 10.7 million who came to the Western Hemisphere through the slave trade.

It is interesting to note that almost 400,000 Union soldiers died in the Civil War (almost exactly the same number of slaves brought to the United States) that resulted in the end of slavery.

Do the descendants of these soldiers not deserve reparations at least as much as anyone else?

I am also having a hard time understanding how the amounts of reparations are supposed to be calculated.

Where are these numbers coming from?

What is the control group income or wealth gap that should be used?

Is Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) correct?

If reparations are paid will there be exclusions?

Will Oprah Winfrey be eligible?

Kanye West?

LeBron James?

Kamala Harris?

Patrick Mahomes, DeShaun Watson and Lamar Jackson ?

Denzel Washington?

Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson?

Michelle Obama?

Barack Obama would clearly be ineligible as I am not aware of anyone in his lineage being a slave in the United States.

Joe Biden is on record as saying during the 2020 campaign that he favors studying the subject of reparations.

Of course, good old Joe had a different take in 1975 when he was a young Senator.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/8/joe-bidens-1975-comments-slamming-slavery-reparati/

Mr. Biden told the People Paper, a Delaware-based weekly newspaper, in 1975: “I do not buy the concept, popular in the ‘60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race.’ I don’t buy that.

“I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather,” he continued at the time. “I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”

That ought to be enough ruminations on reparations for now.

However, expect to hear more as it is surely the emerging topic for 2023 among the leading leftist "thought" leaders.