If one seeks a state that should pay reparations for slavery, California is not that state. In fact, California gold paid the most of any state to finance the Civil War to a successful conclusion that ended slavery in the United States. California residents paid interest on one large Civil War bond issue until the World War II era. The federal government promised to repay California and never did. Other states were repaid as promised, but not California.
California was not a slave state, though at least one tribe of Northern California Native Americans did hold other Native Americans as slaves prior to European contact.
Few now realize that when the Civil War started what a struggle it was to keep California and its gold dedicated to the Union cause. The federal government issued paper money, but it was largely considered of no value, only gold mattered and that gold came from California.
Gold Rush immigration to California came from eastern states and around the world. Much of the eastern state immigration was from the south, and when California became a state, southern influence was predominant in many areas. California Governor John B. Weller (1858-1860) even predicted that California would join the Confederacy. It was the election of the young Republican Leland Stanford as governor that secured California for the Union. State and federal moves then shut down southern leaning newspapers and some state militia companies with southern officers had weapons seized in sudden night time raids of armories. Even some southern leaning judges were sidelined. A former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Kentuckian David Terry, returned to that state and became a confederate brigadier general.
California provided over 16,000 troops to the Civil War effort, most replacing regular army garrisons over much of the west that were withdrawn and sent east to the main theaters of fighting. One column of California troops left from the Los Angeles area to drove back Confederates that had invaded from Texas up to the California border. At the war’s end troops trained in what is now Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood.
Some have pointed to the reparations paid to United States citizens of Japanese ancestry that had been interned in remote camps during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt as justification for slavery reparations by California. The two situations are starkly different. The interned Americans of Japanese ancestry lost homes, farms, and businesses for no legal reason. President Ronald Reagan, supported Japanese reparations for that stain on our nation, and Congress voted for payment that was made in the 1980s. That is no analogy for California reparations for slavery that never existed in this state.
Further, some point to lower average black achievement and economic outcomes compared to other racial groups in California as “proof” of a legacy slavery and discrimination of various types, even if not now in effect. Some even claim “white supremacy” as the cause.
That phony contention is easy to dispel as highly credible studies by Pew and other research organizations have found that African born blacks that immigrate to the United States have significantly higher average family incomes than blacks born here. That suggests a cultural problem of low expectations by American born blacks holding themselves back rather than suppression by those of other racial backgrounds. A defeatist attitude brings defeatist results. The real problem of economic outcome disparity may well be cultural, not racial. That deserves study, but is out of the scope of California slavery reparation considerations.
What is the Conclusion?
California financially bailed out the Union during the Civil War, was never a slave state, and provided large numbers of troops to fight the confederacy. California paid interest on Civil War bonds well beyond the period of any other state, through World War II. To suggest that California owes reparations for slavery defies fact, defies logic, defies fairness, and defies law.
Slavery reparations by the non-slave state of California would legally constitute “a gift of public funds” which is not allowed under the state constitution.
Since the California reparations issue is an exercise of historic and legal silliness, went to work with my chemistry set and created something to end the California slavery reparations issue, an ointment called Reparation H.
View Comments (17)
Defies fact, logic, fairness, and law?
Sounds tailor made for California...
Amen, Thomas.
"Reparation H" - that's priceless!
All of this can be traced back to President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program that erroneously dealt with lingering racial injustice by providing handouts instead of a hand up. The resulting sense of entitlement has created three generations of one racial group for whom entitlement is part of their cultural mindset. Victimhood has become a lifestyle.
100 percent on the money, Fed Up!
The Demoncrats are one big hemorrhoid on society. Let’s shrink their power and vote them out!
They do not govern anymore, they are here to divide, and destroy our republic.
If it was only so easy as voting them out? Democrats perfected voting fraud years ago in California? Mail-in ballots with no chain of custody, ballot harvesting and rigged voting machines will make it extremely unlikely that Democrats could ever be voted out?
I hear ya TJ!
It’s a bitter pill to swallow.
I live in a deep deep blue area and they vote this crap in. The voter turn out is pathetic as well, if we are to trust the numbers.
It is about "feelings" and votes, logic has nothing to do with it!
Mr. Stevenson pointed out that slavery reparations by the non-slave state of California would legally constitute “a gift of public funds” which is not allowed under the state constitution. However, when has the state's constitution stopped lawless Democrats from doing whatever they want? Democrats are the party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, KKK etc. Like the cartels and mafia, Democrats are a criminal gang?
If it was only so easy as voting them out? Democrats perfected voting fraud years ago in California? Mail-in ballots with no chain of custody, ballot harvesting and rigged voting machines will make it extremely unlikely that Democrats could ever be voted out?
we as black people deserve reperations California has been fucking over blacks for years the war on drugs locked up millions of blacks after the government pumped all these drugs into our communities. Also people from other countries come to America get loans start businesses and the black people who have been here all there lives can't even get blacks are still racially singled out in so many forms California might not have had slavery but the government has been shiting on blacks for centuries and we aren't holding our self back laws and racist ass white people within the government has so those of you who think we don't deserve reperations fuck you your probably racist your Dame self
Democrats have a long racist history as being the political party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and the KKK. Democrats have controlled California and most cities in the state for years like a southern plantation. Carlton Allen sounds like he's still a brainwashed slave on the Democrat plantation? If anyone should be paying reparations, it's Carlton's Democrat masters!
Thank you for your thoughtful post, reminding most of the world of the importance of a California based education, the quality of life you must endure, and the distinct lack of punctuation rampant in today’s childish view of the world.
Anyone who is not on drugs doesn’t know what point you are trying to make, or care. The now Majority Mexican population of California is probably less sympathetic to your situation since you grew up in this country with every opportunity to overcome anything, yet it doesn’t happen.
I see a lot of comments and one big article pointing to California washing their hands of slavery that never existed allegedly…under the 13th amendment Slavery is still active in 2023. The state does turn a profit off of slavery currently by state owned prisons. Not only the that but the laws from the 90’s targeted black males with stiffer sentences. Disrupting black families all over California. No one wants to talk about that or all the super stores involved in the prison industry proposing laws to fatten their pockets. California is funded by the government and If California says they don’t condone slavery then why aren’t being an advocate. I don’t even think any one person should be the yes man. I think whoever is approving or disapproving should be kept secret. Anyway I’m not going to go on and on but I do know sometimes the people agreeing to represent us do not have all the answers and maybe they should be reaching out to the public for knowledge and suggestions as to what we want. Not just making up numbers. Pay me my reparations in gold. Not paper cuz y’all paper ain’t worth nothing anymore. It’s crashing the economy.
Democrats have a long racist history as being the political party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and the KKK. Democrats have controlled California and most cities in the state for years like a southern plantation. Carlton Allen sounds like he's still a brainwashed slave on the Democrat plantation? If anyone should be paying reparations, it's Carlton's Democrat masters!
finally someone wrote an article disparaging reparations. many of these points and more are exactly what I was thinking, after doing just a little bit of research. why was the reparations task force made up of almost all black people(one asian, no white). not very diverse. this should raise concerns about the bias of the task force. it seems to me that somehow it is thought that white people had some obligation to take care of black people after slavery ended, which is not the case. Black people were free to make their own life. why should white people have been forced to employ, house, or welcome black people in any sense. yet what government did do was make laws that did force these things. even when blacks have been under qualified, and not the best candidate. still to this day things like this occur. if the state wants to close the wealth gap, then do it to close the gap between the rich and the poor, regardless of skin color. what does a poor white person get from a billionaire white person? nothing. the fact that everything is more expensive for a poor person, and the road to success much more difficult, is a fact, regardless of skin color. what group has disproportionately been funded by government assistance, and tax payer dollars? if any group owes debt, separating people by skin color, it would be this group. this may sound like I'm being racist, but that is not true. it is difficult to make a stand a present arguments against things like reparations, especially if speaking to black people. even making a comment like this could have adverse effects on ones life. but in the end, if CA does give reparations, i dont blame a black person for taking them, even if they know it is Bs.
there's an easy way to avoid having to pay start identifying as a black man or woman and when the government says you can't do that. Use their own woke BS ideology against them and say " you are committing a microaggression against me for not accepting my pronouns " and watch how quickly their facial expressions change.