Annieth
Is it just woke posturing that fuels racial tension and threatens to bankrupt the United States to propose giving every black person in San Francisco $5 million to make up for their years of misfortune?
Today’s, we’re going to have a look at the recent happenings concerning some of the greatest social issues.
People of all sexes wait in line outside a city hall to be asked about their ancestry. They are also hoarding DNA test results and old images of their families.
They can get millions in government compensation if they can show they are descended from a black slave in the 19th century.
This might sound like a scenario from a Black Lives Matter campaign’s wish-list video, but it’s not out of the question that it actually happens in places like California and elsewhere in the United States.
For in one of the most controversial political initiatives in recent times, multi-million dollar payments could be distributed in the coming months as part of a scheme that, in the words of one Left-leaning Californian legislator, would be compensation for ‘decades of socio-economic disparity going all the way back to the days of slavery.
On the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, San Francisco’s reparation committee recommended giving every eligible black resident in the city a dividend of $5 million (£4 million), which would cost at least $50 billion (£40 billion) for the city alone.
In June, the plan will be presented to the municipal council, where it has a good chance of being approved. The question of reparations for the descendants of Africans held as slaves in the 21st century has sparked a heated moral discussion.
The compensation plans are, on the one hand, a modern generation’s attempt to make amends to black Americans for white America’s complicity in slavery and the continuation of racism in the country.
Others, however, contend that the campaign is really political posturing wrapped up in the moralistic language of guilt, despite the enormous financial cost.
Also, these calls for restitution are not exclusive to the United States. It’s sometimes claimed that, when it comes to liberal social concerns, “what happens in California today happens in the rest of America tomorrow and then in Britain very shortly after.”
Several professors criticized Britain’s historical views toward racial minorities during a conference held at Cambridge University last summer, which focused on the necessity for Britain to pay reparations to its former colonies.
Several prominent African-American figures have spoken out strongly against the concept of reparations, adding to the already heated debate on the topic. Former California gubernatorial candidate and attorney Larry Elder have declared, “Reparations is the extraction of money from individuals who were never slave owners to those who were never slaves.”
Candace Owens, a social commentator, told me that it is “peak Leftist craziness” to take money from people who have never owned slaves and give it to people who have never been slaves in a place where slavery has never existed. It’s grossly biased and completely devoid of morals.
Leo Terrell, another black attorney, declared the reparations measure “outrageous” and pledged to sue to stop it. A violation of the law. To put it bluntly, it violates the Constitution. It’s racist.
To compensate “for the ongoing economic costs of racism and slavery,” the state of California has proposed that anybody who can prove direct ancestry to a slave be awarded $223,000 (£180,000).
Nearly two million of California’s roughly 2.6 million black inhabitants would be eligible, at a cost of about $500 billion (£403 billion). It is predicted by analysts that closing the wealth gap between black and white Americans might cost up to $14 trillion (£11.3 trillion), or around $1 million (£810,000) to each qualified black household.
‘No one contends that there has not been a horrible past in this nation,’ a Harvard professor who begged not to be named said. However, the reparations discussion, unfortunately, represents the absurdity of cultural wars. The racial divide is being exacerbated rather than healed.
Due to the contentious nature of slavery in the United States, Left-leaning scholars have debated the idea of reparations for decades. Systematic racism in a world dominated by white males, it is believed, has stopped black people from achieving the American Dream by preventing them from owning houses, starting companies, and attending college.
A white police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, catapulting the reparations discussion into the national spotlight. The murder gave new life to the Black Lives Matter movement, and in the wake of widespread outrage and protests, the concept of reparations emerged and was widely discussed in the media and among politicians.
Once again, the most progressive state in the union, California, led the charge. It was the pioneer in creating a “reparations task group,” and since then, the movement’s momentum has grown exponentially. Black residents of San Francisco who satisfy certain requirements in order to get compensation for the “decades of injury they have endured” must, among other things, have identified as black on public records for at least the past 10 years and be at least 18 years old.
It has been proposed by the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee that all black people’s debts related to credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages be forgiven.
It has been argued that the black community in California was severely harmed by municipal legislation even if the state itself was never a slave state.
Reparations have been in practice for some time now. A stretch of sand in Manhattan Beach, a rich enclave south of Los Angeles, was returned to a black family’s great-grandsons last year after having been taken from them by the city in 1924.
Kavon Ward, a prominent activist, proclaimed, “Power to the people!” All the power to MY people!
Ms. Ward described the transaction as a “psychological blow” to the reparations campaign after the family revealed this month that it was selling the land back to Los Angeles County for $20 million (£16 million).
This is supposedly the result of decades of discrimination, beginning with the transportation of African slaves to California during the Gold Rush. From there, they faced segregation in housing, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, inferior healthcare, and a lack of support for their businesses.
Nobody denies that horrible things happened, and the effects of slavery and segregation are still being felt today in a country that is less than 250 years old. The fact that the reparations program only applies to people who can show they are black has been criticized, however, by other minority groups.
As one Native American group’s representative put it, “Why are we not getting compensated?” In the beginning, there was us. And if the crimes against African Americans were indeed serious, do they compare to the atrocities committed against Native Americans?
For example, an Asian coworker at a major talent agency asked me, “What about the hundreds of thousands of Asians -especially from China, Japan, and the Philippines- who came to California in quest of the American dream but were also scammed out of the property, employment, and decent schooling?” What justification is there for targeting a specific race for financial compensation? I mean, come on, that’s like, the epitome of racism or something.
More contentiously, it is intended that the reparations payment be made to everyone incarcerated during the 30-year-long countrywide assault on illicit narcotics initiated by President Richard Nixon in 1971. It stopped when the American Civil Liberties Union released a stinging study detailing the disproportionate arrest and incarceration of black males for relatively minor offenses like cannabis use.
San Francisco’s city council has been mum on where the city plans to get the necessary funds.
Many millionaires may be found in Silicon Valley. Unimaginable sums of money are hidden here, thus it will be uncovered. A council insider has warned that “taxes will have to go up.”
Last night, a Los Angeles personal trainer said she was digging through old picture albums and mailing in a DNA test to establish she is entitled to a $5 million reward.
“My forefathers endured real hardship, and this will do them no good. That said, if I were to win, I would treat it as though it were the lottery.”
“We’ve waited for justice for four centuries.”
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