Reparations Now! // (John Hinderaker)

In an age of bad ideas, reparations are among the most dangerous. California has appointed a task force to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans. It is impossible to imagine that the task force would spend a year studying the issue and then conclude that the state should forget it all.

On Wednesday, the task force held its first meeting in public in Oakland. The Daily Mail attended the meeting:

Deon Jenkins stated at the first meeting of Task Force to Study & Develop Reparation Proposals For African Americans that money for black Californians should be equal to the average home price in California, which is approximately $800,000.

Jenkins, who calls himself a “hip hop organizer”, spoke out at Wednesday’s public hearing at Oakland’s City Hall. He said, in an interview, that either they’ll comply or there will be a serious backlash.

That last statement is true, I’m certain. There would likely be riots if the government didn’t provide the billions or trillions of dollars promised. Let’s say that $800,000 is per slave descendant.

California has an extremely low black population, at 6.5%. Another 4.2% are mixed races; let’s assume this adds another 1.5% on top of the black-identifying population to make it 8%. How many of those 8% are descended at least from one slave? I don’t know, most Africans arrived in this country as immigrants and not slaves. However, the slaves were generally the first to arrive. Let’s assume 70%. These assumptions would mean that 5.6% of Californians would be eligible to receive reparations. California’s population is approximately 40 million. Therefore, 5.6% would equal 2,240,000.

If all those people were given $800,000. That would be $1,792,000,000,000 or just under $1.8 trillion. California’s annual tax revenues are approximately $472 billion. This is almost four years’ worth of gross state tax revenues.

Others who spoke before the reparations taskforce suggested different numbers:

Rev. Tony Pierce, Black Wall Street Project, spoke on Thursday. He shouted when his time ran out: “$230,000 isn’t enough!”

Carol Williams, another speaker, said she was homeless since moving to Tennessee in 1985 from Memphis. She also stated that she believes all reparations should not be taxed.

She stated, “I consider myself a foundational African American.” The IRS shouldn’t pursue us if we get the money.

“And I’m pleading, and I’m asking that we save those who have lived in California since 2000 when we make the lineage decision.”

Max Fennell, a 35-year-old entrepreneur who is also the first black professional triathlete, stated Wednesday that everyone should get $350,000 to close the racial inequality and Black-owned businesses should be paid $250,000 to help them succeed.

Fennell said that it was a debt that is owed and that he worked for no compensation. “We are not asking, we are telling you.”

$350,000 would be equivalent to two years of California’s gross revenues. When Mr. Fennell says he doesn’t ask California’s government for information, I believe him. However, I doubt that Mr. Fennell has ever worked without compensation.

It is clear that the potential beneficiaries of reparations were never slaves and have not suffered any ill-effects from slavery generations ago. It is also obvious that California cannot afford to pay the amount that black activists demand, lest there be a “serious backlash”. California is already a heavily taxed state and there is no way to double, triple or quadruple its tax rates. California could not attempt anything of this magnitude. Most residents who aren’t beneficiaries of the reparations scheme would sell their homes and move on to another state if they tried.

It is difficult to imagine how political leaders from any state, even California, could have chosen such a hopeless course. But here they are.