OPINION: California Slavery Reparations Fallacies

In June, CalMatters published an item by Democrat Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, member of the California (slavery) Reparations Task Force that, for over three million California taxpayer dollars, rendered a Report of over a thousand pages, much of which had absolutely nothing to do with California, and claiming to be of great academic merit, which is highly questionable. 

Assemblyman Jones-Sawyer’s CalMatters piece falsely positioned the Report as the pinnacle of academic fact and virtue. In fact, the Report falls far from academic excellence.  

The Report is riddled with misrepresentations, omissions, and partial truths, many of which have been twisted to constitute lies. The worst examples of racism cited in the Report took place in states thousands of miles from California. 

The Report has never been subjected to the critical analysis or peer review, always required of academic and scientific writings. Much of the Report is based on obvious lies, such as the primary assertion that, “America’s wealth was built by the forced labor of trafficked African peoples…”

For that to be true, the past two hundred and fifty years of efforts by those of all other ethnic backgrounds had absolutely no economic impact on the United States. For that to be true, all

Silicon Valley innovations were created by black slaves, which is obviously not the case. This is only one of the many egregious deceptions asserted by the Report. 

Additional examples and debunking of the Report’s assertions will require volumes, but that task must be undertaken with objective actual academic rigor, in stark contrast with the “stacked deck” pre-ordained Cal slavery Report outcome, resulting from a far from objective California Reparations Task Force that commissioned the Report, of a composition that would never be allowed of a California jury, not remotely reflecting the racial composition of the California population. Especially egregious are citations from highly questionable and previously debunked sources.     

Further, staffing for the Reparations Task Force came from the California Department of Justice, yet that department of alleged unbiased law, neglected to notice that the California State Constitution prohibits a “gift of public funds” which is the definition of any “reparations” that creates any cost to the state of even a single cent in any manner. Another state Constitution provision, Proposition 209, prevents racial discrimination and prevents classes of residents based upon race, which is a virtual definition of California slavery reparations. Prop. 209 was overwhelmingly reenforced in a recent statewide vote. 

The Report embraces the recently poplar, but of no history of academic merit, major fallacy that disparate ethnic economic outcomes “proves” racial discrimination is the cause, therefore, justifying massive “restitution” from the non-slave state of California.   

However, highly credible studies by the left leaning Pew Trust and academic institutions have proved that African born blacks that immigrate to the U.S. have noticeably higher average incomes than American born blacks, proving white discrimination is not the major cause of economic disparity. This suggests a possible cultural problem of low expectations by blacks born in this country.  

The Report also repeats the often stated, but readily disproved, fallacy about the former practice of real estate loan “redlining,” where loans for home ownership were not issued in certain areas, or issued at higher loan interest rates, which the Report claims was only of racial consideration. Directly disproving that is the fact that the midtown Sacramento neighborhood contiguous with the State Capitol building where those that created the Task Force legislate, was predominantly ethnically white, yet redlined well into the 1970s.     

The just adopted state budget incorporates elements of Senate Bill 1403 by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood), “reparations” legislation that essentially puts the Report into statute, making lies into law.

The Report does recommend statewide ballot measures to allow racial discrimination in California to facilitate payment of reparations, which would be a huge step backwards in the principle of fairness and equal treatment for all California residents.    

Cal Matters refused to publish the above item, and refused to explain reasons for refusal. The above has ample source attribution and undeniable facts, but counters their previously published Cal Matters pro-reparations narrative. Cal Matters had actually published an item where the co-authors postulated the wacky position that all politics are racial. 

Cal Matters has ostensibly been unbiased, but one must now question that assertion.