Signing a new to examine the feasibility of reparations for African Americans in California, 48-year-old Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber. Weber’s bill established a nine-member task force commissioned to study the feasibility of paying California’s descendants of slaves reparations for historically uneven treatment to the black community, leaving them at a distinct disadvantage to whites. Weber’s interests is not only the effects of slavery in California, a non-slave sate, on today’s black population but she wants to know what kind of compensation can be given to blacks to offset the uneven playing field. U.S. Post-Civil War Reconstruction period saw the July 9, 1868 14th Amendment, passed to guarantee all citizens equal protection under the law. Even with the 14th Amendment, Weber argues in her bill that more must be done to level the playing field.
Newsom was excited to sign Weber’s bill, declaring that studying reparations for African Americans was long overdue. “After watching last night’s debate, this signing can’t come too soon,” Newsom told California lawmakers signing Weber’s legislation. Without naming names, Newsom referred 74-year-old President Donald Trump, who refused to answer Fox News moderator Chris Wallace call for Trump to denounce white supremacist groups. “As a nation, we can only thrive when every one of us has the opportunity to thrive. Our painful history of slavery has evolved into structural racism and bias built into and permeating throughout our democratic and economic institutions,” Newsom said, backing Weber’s legislation. Newsom’s statement let all know that he agrees 100% with Black Lives Matter, calling on the anti-racist movement that sees white success as due to “white privilege.”
Newsom, like 77-year-old Democrat nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, operates under the lobbying pressure from African American groups that the cause of disparities in wealth-and-privilege in American society is due to “white privilege.” Newsom has nothing to back up his claims other than propaganda from pro-reparation groups. When Newsom talks about slavery morphing into structural racism, he’s defying all the progress made in the U.S. since President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863. Lincoln was assassinated April 15, 1865, only six days after the April 9, 1965 end to the U.S. Civil War. Pro-reparations groups don’t acknowledge the 365.000 Union soldiers that died fighting to end slavery and preserve the union. Civil rights have evolved to protect and advance the rights of black Americans since before the Emancipation Proclamation.
When you consider the 155 years since the end of the Civil War, there’s been revolutionary progress on Constitutional and Civil Rights for African Americans. African Americans are not banned from any U.S. opportunity in any field or work or academia, actually given through Affirmative Action programs preferential treatment in various areas. Does Newsom really think the racist nation he talks about would have voted for Barack Obama for two terms as president? Apart from African American celebrities or athletes, 68-year-old Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson is a good example of a black success story. Carson grew up with a single mother in the Eight Mile area of Detroit, graduating from Yale University and Univ. of Michigan Medical School. Carson often tells his story to emphasize that even when he came up in the 1970s he achieved beyond his wildest dreams.
Newsom’s statement that slavery morphed into structural racism is factually incorrect because of the hard work of many activists and politicians working in the Civil Rights Movement to assure African Americans every opportunity as whites or any other minority groups. Only recently has it become fashionable to blame various random acts of police brutality on “systemic racism,” rather that see policing for what it is, an inexact science, sometimes fraught with mistakes. African American groups don’t lament police mistakes on white people or other minorities like Latinos or Asians. Newsom knows that immigrants, black, brown, white or any other color, flock to the United States precisely because any hard working and talented person can rise to the top very quickly in the United States, refuting completely Newsom’s statements about racism baked into American democratic and economic institutions.
Weber may have good intentions with the pro-reparations bill but it’s not factual that the State discriminates against African Americans. “”This is an extremely important time for all of us,” Weber said. “California tries to lead the way in terms of civil rights, and we have a responsibility to do that. What leading the way on civil rights has to do with reparations is anyone’s guess. Clearly, in today’s American, there are no institutional or economic barriers as Newsom says to black success. “California has come to terms with many of its issues, but it has yet to come to terms with its role in slavery,” Weber said. “After 400 years, we still have the impact.” California didn’t reach statehood until Sept. 9, 1850. Weber’s premise that past slavery affects black California residents’ opportunity and success is patently false, no matter how fashionable in today’s anti-racist environment.
