Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the author of AB 3121 and the California legislative Slavery Reparations Task Force, said on Thursday that reparations for slavery should only go to the descendants of slaves and not black immigrants or their descendants.
In 2020, AB 3121 was passed and signed into law. The bill established the “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans”, with the task force charged with documenting and looking into issues surrounding slavery in California, including denying free and runaway blacks into the state pre-1865. Most critically, the task force is to issue recommendations if any kind of reparations are to be given. Specifically, the task force, comprised of 9 members selected by the Governor, Assembly, and Senate, is also to set parameters on who would be eligible for possible reparations and how reparations, most likely cash, would be distributed.
The task force first met in June of 2021 and is due to issue their recommendations in 2023. Following that, the legislature may create a bill and vote on what the task force recommends.
Secretary Weber noted on Thursday that her approach of just limiting reparations to direct descendants of slaves is based on the psychological effects of slavery and how it stopped many from achieving success, and not just the physicality of the experience. Specifically she pointed out how her Grandfather’s chances of success had been limited by the KKK in the 1950’s and forcing him to move to California from Arkansas, while former President Barack Obama, the son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father who was in the US on a visa, did not grow up with parents or grandparents who had faced slavery or the century of Jim crow laws and effects afterwards.
“The fear my grandfather felt, I remember as a child, was palpable, and it crippled him and his family’s ability to dream beyond the cotton fields,” said Weber on Thursday. “Barack Obama likely never would have dreamed of becoming president had he descended from enslaved people. Obama did not have limitations and fears drilled in his psyche, and thus aspire to become the president of the United States.”
However, despite the scope of possible reparations now being limited to just descendants of slaves, which the task force has found to have led to financial, health, education, and housing disparities compared to other races, many questions continue to loom over the task force. Weber’s answer on who would qualify for reparations led to only more questions from critics on Friday, who said that even narrowing it that far still led to it being still virtually impossible to rightfully tell who from who.
A continued “legal minefield”
“I keep using the term “legal minefield”, and the task force, especially Secretary Weber’s definition of who should get reparations, certainly have been proving it.
“Again, putting aside the fact that California was a free state and, despite some KKK and other racial activity like that, was a beacon for many escaping the worst of it in the South, there’s not really a lot to justify reparations here. Weber herself said that her family went to California to escape that, so she’s not helping her case here.
“A big question was who should get it, and Weber didn’t answer it. Ok, so descendants of slaves in California. Does that mean biracial people too? Does that mean people who moved out of state, or in-state recently? Does a black family who moved out of state last year after spending 40 years in state get anything? And, perhaps the biggest thing, proving it. You can’t rely on DNA tests or anything like that here, because of immigration from Africa and other countries with black populations. This is largely reliable on the people who would get them, and a lot of people can’t really prove it. Some can, through ledgers and things, but you can’t rely on the Census or other things like that because, for slaves, they were kind of inaccurate. For many, this is an impossible task.
“Japanese internment reparations worker because records had been kept and we knew who was there for sure. Slavery, not so much. Compensation, if it’s cash, housing allowances, or something else, is way more tricky. Do wealthy descendants get anything if it didn’t effect them much? Do biracial people only get half? These are legitimate questions that are not being solved, especially many surrounding the black population of California only being at 6%, and there are hundreds more.”
A final report on recommendations is due next year. The legislature will decide then if a bill or other measure like a proposition would be instituted to possibly enact any recommended reparations.
View Comments (47)
What reparations will be for those who lost family members fighting for the NORTH?
or those who had nothing to do with this - not be penalized...all this is very silly no one alive had a thing to do with this.
There is no way to prove you are a descendant of slaves. Will be interesting to hear Ms. Webers' eligibility list. I wonder if she considers herself unsuccessful and less fortunate since she had to "feel" her grandfathers pain and fear.
ThE myth that American Descendants Of Slavery know not from where they came is to keep us from pursuing a past. But the fact that Slaves were property makes it easy to trace our past. Tax records, census records and oral history traces to the past that are very traceable. Every Slave ship had a manifesto. I can prove my family back before the Civil War. Stop trying to erase the Enslaved Americans that your Major(today)insurance companies insured. #ADOS will not forget, not let go. We’re coming for our check.
Oh dear ...
Actually you can trace your lineage to determine if your ancestors where enslaved. ADOS.com also has a plan of what reparations should look like for the descendants of slavery in America.
I don't believe that tracing ancestry to slaves and slave owners is as straight forward as some people might think. I would suggest that people read this article on the subject as dispassionately as possible, given the highly emotional nature of the topic. (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37291230)
And the reparations should only be paid by the descendants of slave owners and Democrat KKK members.
“The fear my grandfather felt, I remember as a child, was palpable, and it crippled him and his family’s ability to dream beyond the cotton fields,” said Weber...
So, the psychological effect of fear and insecurity which Weber says her grandfather felt, to such an extent that it made it impossible for him to rise above it all, is what justifies reparations for her and those like her? What about those who were not psychologically or emotionally "crippled" and DID rise beyond the stigma of slavery, the cotton fields, and were successful in building their own American dreams? I'm sure those examples can be found. This seems like a very self-serving and unjustifiable reason for reparations.
Reparations should also be made to descendants of the approximately 350,000 White Union Army and Navy soldiers drafted and recruited from the 19 slave-free Northern states who were killed or otherwise died during the civil war and some compensation should be paid to the approximately 350,000 White Southern State soldiers who were killed after also being drafted into the Confederate Army.
In total about 710,000 White soldiers died while in service of the two armies while about 39,000 Black men died. It is thought that about 10% of all White men were killed during those 3+ years of war. Some White families lost dozens of their young male family members. Consider an average of about 20,000 young White men were killed EACH MONTH during the Civil War. In perspective, there were just 13.8 million While males and 2,2 million Black males, of all ages, in the 1860 US Census.
Any reparations to Black descendants should be paid by Southern States after being reduced by inflation adjusted dollars of the several trillion dollars already paid out in federal and state government low income welfare, poverty, and affirmative action programs beginning with the end of the Civil War, and heavily concentrated post-WW II through to the present.
Doesn’t Make any sense. A group of people were forcefully brought to America to build the nation for free for hundreds of years.
If they can trace the direct descendents of slaves then they can trace the slave owners who owned them and have them pay reparations. Having anyone else pay especially the non white citizens is not only unfair but a flat out stupid idea. A black women writes a bill to give money to black people for injustices but ignores the injustices other races endured in the history of this country. What about the native Americans? I think they are first in line. Does this women write bills that benefit all of us California's? Or just the ones that have the same skin color as her? I can guarantee my descendents did not own a black slave. If these nut jobs try to take my tax money to pay reparations its time for me to leave this state.
Your descendants, (children, grandchildren, et al) will probably not own slaves. It's a possibility and no one can guarantee the future.
You probably meant ancestors. That group of people will number over 1,000 in 10 generations.
I hope you don't lay any money down based on your guarantee. You are likely to lose that bet.
Does a Secretary of State normally write legislation??
No kidding, Michele1L, excellent point.
Shirley Weber used to be a legislator and authored this nonsense that created a "reparations task force" before she was so questionably appointed to be Secty of State by Gruesome when Alex Padilla's exit (another Gov appointment, to the Kamala Senate seat, this time) left a vacancy in the SOS position. All very convenient before a recall election involving the very same governor who appointed her, don't you think?
Wouldn't it be nice, however, if Secty of State Shirley Weber dropped participation in and comment about her slavery task force and focused instead on doing her job in this election-integrity-challenged state? How about putting aside the usual resentment bait for awhile and spending some time cleaning up the bloated voter rolls, for instance? Just for starters; after all, there is SO MUCH work to be done in making our elections.... well.... let's just say "clean enough" to get a fair idea of what the voters of this state really want. Especially in light of the Dems' thumb on the scale of the latest redistricting exercise.
Think it will happen? Don't hold your breath.
Narrowly defining a concept (reparations in this case) does NOT legitimize it.
So let me get this straight. A state that was a Free State from 1850, whose gold help financed the North during the Civil War, where 100 years ago maybe 1% of the population was black (about 38,000), and almost all blacks in the state arrived after 1940, is to pay "reparations" for Slavery.
I think I know a criminal shake down when I see it. I think the Sec of State should go back to her home state of Arkansas and try her "reparations" scams there. After all, it was the fine Democratic state of Arkansas that had enslaved her ancestors. Not California. It was California that helped free them.
I think she owns us money. To the decedents of the approx 500 Californians who died to free her ancestors.
But I will say this about the State Democratic Party. Just like in the 1850 and 1860 they come up will lots of great ideas to racially divide the state. Which is the only purpose of the "reparations" scam.
Oh my, SO well said! What a fine, factually-based argument.
Thank you for posting it, tfourier.
Bottom line: CA taxpayers say HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!