With implied promises of free money and still no checks on the way, tensions boiled over at the final public meeting of California’s Reparations Task Force as black residents ranted about perceived injustices and demanded the immediate disbursement of their money.
On Thursday, the nine-member panel delivered its recommendations after nearly three years of work on a scheme that some have suggested would be the blueprint for a nationwide effort to bestow wealth upon black people who have never suffered from human bondage at the expense of whites who were never slaveholders.
The meeting, which was held to mark the ball being formally passed to Governor Gavin Newsom and the State Legislature, descended into chaos as over 200 impatient citizens turned out at the state Capitol in Sacramento with one person calling for attendees to raise their fists and chant their demands for restitution to be paid, and others making fiery remarks that only further stirred the pot.
“What do we want?” shouted an attendee. “Reparations,” the crowd chanted. “When do we want them?” the person asked. “Now!”
One man who was wearing a black sweatshirt emblazoned with the words “1619 Reparations Party” delivered an impassioned diatribe calling for a national “divorce” while demanding his money.
(Video: The Daily Mail)
“First of all America, from the evidence that they gave us, you’re guilty,” he exclaimed. “In 1619 we was eating fool food! You kidnapped us! Put a hate crime on us! That’s the first one. Now you came here with all the other atrocities. When you brought us here, you raped our men, women, and kids. So therefore, you married us!”
“Don’t treat us like no cheap piece of meat!” the man shouted. “So therefore, our last name’s ‘American!’ So now’s the time for a divorce! What do you get in divorce? You get half the money, half the land, alimony, child support, attorney fees, and everything else! So that’s what we want!”
At a previous task force meeting in May that was also hijacked by unruly members of the public, one activist put the amount of unearned money “owed” to black people at $200 million each.
Greedy activists demand $200 million PER PERSON in Calif. reparations payments https://t.co/s3MN3q5A1R pic.twitter.com/VKx5fqXQMB
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 10, 2023
“You know that the numbers should be equivocal to what an acre was back then. We were given 40, OK? We were given 40 acres,” raged Reverend Tony Pierce, a fire-breathing radical cleric. “You know what that number is. You keep trying to talk about now, yet you research back to slavery and you say nothing about slavery, nothing”
“So, the equivocal number from the 1860s for 40 acres to today is $200 million for each and every African-American,” he declared.
Despite the report and pledges of seven-figure giveaways, many aren’t optimistic that the money will ever materialize, according to one California reparations advocate.
In a recent online meeting with allies, Chris Lodgson of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California (CJEC), explained that it was a “big challenge” to convince blacks to get behind the California reparations push due to skepticism.
“The challenge that we face is that although 90-plus percent of black folks that we talked to believe we deserve reparations, something like 89 percent of black folks that we talked to don’t think it’s gonna happen,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
The final report which is nearly 1,100 pages, was described by one task force member as a “book of truth” was presented to lawmakers and also made available for download on California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s website.
“We must remind each and every one of us that the final report is not the end of the work. It’s really just the beginning,” said Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford who served on the task force.“It is now up to the Legislature, which I’m part of, and the governor to implement it.”
The idea of reparations has been a hot potato for obvious reasons including who would qualify and what form the compensation would take. And now Newsom, a man who has national political aspirations is going to have to put up or shut up now that the task forces’s recommendations have landed on his desk.
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