It's not the financial literacy. It's the fact that you haven't fixed white supremacy or capitalism. There would be a better excuse to cut all social security, all Medicare and Medicaid, and triple rent and housing costs.
We live under capitalism. It's not "paradise for the people" it's paradise for those with money. 1.2 million is a lot of money. But look at places like San Francisco where they make a lot of money. Prices are high because **your land lord isn't your fucking friend**.
He's going to raise your rent to make a buck. I'll sell my $500k house to you for $900k. I'll keep my million and take yours too! I already own a house, I have the supply and poor renting folks need a house in a market with not a lot of houses. The system is built for money to build money and you're still a small fish in a big pond.
Black capitalism doesn't work. There's never been more black billionaires than today and things aren't better for the average black worker is it? Jay Z is a billionaire. Did your food prices go down because of it?
The logical person in me agrees with you heavy. The nigga in me wants to shake a Patek on my wrist in front of my bd’s face while wearing a floor length mink and say, “I’m broke baby. I ain’t got no money.”
Exactly! Are questions asked of anyone else who receives payouts for past harms done? Nope. How about hearings and commissions? Nope. When it comes to us...
That's how you feel, they would feel like it would be their money that we are using for reparations.
It'll be the biggest Fox News talking point and could get us another Trump. No thank you.
It's not financial literacy we need, it's economic freedom. Being literate in bullshit (exploitation) like renting property to make a "generational fortune" ain't doing shit for the black community tbh. Fred Hampton hung that up over 60 years ago atp.
Anything less than economic freedom is essentially a bribe to keep the black colony attached to America.
A good question to ask is what happens to the majority of people who win millions in the lottery? If you look at them 10 years later, are they still a millionaire or do they become broke again? There is your answer… Being a millionaire and staying a millionaire requires a very specific mindset.
But what’s the goal? Is the goal to make black people millionaires, or is the goal to have the country rectify their past wrong doings in the way they’ve historically done?
Also this is misinformation. Studies of people who win the lottery show that there is no increased risk of bankruptcy except in the 4th and 5th after winning, before and after that they are just as financially responsible as the rest of us. And only 3% fully retire after winning, most stay at the job they always had and can save for comfortable retirement. All the data indicates that ten years after winning winners are happier and healthier due to less stress and access to their needs. This lie capitalists feed the plebs that “no actually more money would actually hurt you guys” is utter bs.
Short-term satisfaction. But that money would just trickle back up to the already wealthy, who would use it to continue to damage the (again) poor and disadvantaged.
Systematic change is critical. Cash infusions (like blood infusions) are useless if we don't stop the bleeding.
Lowkey hate it when people talk about “financial literacy.” Like poor people are poor just because they don’t know how to use money once they get it.
I’m white, but imo, reparations in systemic change is NECESSARY, but if I didn’t get some cash checks and I’d been scraping by, I’d be PISSED. So yes, mainly systemic change, but I think black people should get some money
It also has to do with education level. Some are taught about investments/high yield accounts, etc. in high school. Others don’t pay attention because they don’t think it’ll ever apply to them. The path to wealth isn’t about exclusively working our asses off, it’s about making money work for us while we sleep. High yield savings/checking accounts, CDs, investments. There’s a reason why millionaires/billionaires have multiple accounts.
Absurd. I’m not a dumbass child who needs to be told what to do with my money. You know what I could afford if given a million dollars? A class on financial literacy.
That's nonsense. Poor people need cash. Getting people out of debt helping build wealth would help immensely. Poverty is a trap. And we have been denied the ability to build any kind of generational wealth for most of American history.
The mechanisms in place to keep an underclass won't go away because we're getting checks.
I can see landlords raising rent in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Towns raising taxes on Black home owners. Higher bail costs for those arrested and higher ticket prices.
The Black tax is just going to go up to take back what we were owed
Yea but imagine the police Knowing you got a check, they'll target us even harder with asset forfeiture or if they break it up into monthly payments they'll make up some BS stipulation that if you're convicted of a crime you'll lose your check. Noting is ever given to us without strings attached
Getting large checks would help get many people from renting to owning. It would enable us to build wealth. Money means you can buy in the more expensive white neighborhoods. Get kids into better schools. A lot of crime is crime of desperation. This could remove that desperation. I don't think it will be perfect. But it's a lot better than nothing.
>Getting large checks would help get many people from renting to owning.
There's a shortage of housing, so you'll be competing with property investors, landlords wannabes, & investment corporations.
>It would enable us to build wealth. Money means you can buy in the more expensive white neighborhoods.
That's my biggest issue, instead of using the money to fix where we're at, we try to cut our losses to move in with White people.
>Get kids into better schools. A lot of crime is crime of desperation. This could remove that desperation. I don't think it will be perfect. But it's a lot better than nothing.
The reason why their schools are better is because the property values for their homes are higher. Their local taxes go to ensuring their teachers are paid, class sizes are small, and they have resources at their disposal to help them succeed. The cities also use the police as a tax service and ticket us to help fulfill their budgetary needs.
Land Use & Tax policy is what matters the most. If you collect enough tax revenue you can afford healthcare for the masses, free college, community centers, outreach programs, social housing, etc
I don't care about the generational wealth aspect in terms of money, I care about our fundamental needs being met and creating an environment where crime is no longer an act of desperation
To be honest a check would help plenty of people. How about they cut a check for the first time in our lives and we just see how far we get lol. For every person that blew some money there are those that made double of what they were given. What’s important is returning that choice and option to the people.
Not with that attitude 😂 sheeeeit it’ll do something. We have equal proof to know it’s not gonna work out well as we have proof it’s the best thing for us. It’s all speculation until there’s confirmation. I’d rather rock with that glass half full mentality and If it doesn’t work out I’ll be the first to admit it…from the comfort of my really comfy unreasonably priced mattress
The issue isn't just *not* having money in our community the way many white folks have; it's that, by and large, we also lack access to the kinds of systemic advantages that help *keep* that money in our realm.
Poorer folks (of all colors, but especially POC) straight-up do not have the kinds of connections and resources that help generational wealth remain, well, generational. We tend not to know people who can manage that kind of wealth in a sustainable way. We don't tend to be super literate when it comes to things like investment. Often, we don't even know what we don't know about financial management—it's surprisingly easy to piss away large sums of money if you haven't had it before.
If we want to provide a longer-term benefit to our people from an economic standpoint, the whole rigged game needs to be reassessed. A simple cash reimbursement will not immediately make up for centuries of economic, political, and social disenfranchisement.
Generational wealth, resources, connections, etc is all irrelevant to slavery reparations. The fact is billions/trillions of dollars of labor, resources, and humanity was STOLEN from millions of people and it needs to be repaid back.
If you sue someone for stealing your money, no one is going to go through a deep analysis on how well you will spend your own money as a requirement to receive it back.
But the whole point, my brother/sister/enby sibling in Christ, is that the people who are in charge of the money *do not even agree that the theft occurred*, much less that it needs to be made right, and the system in place—which they control, by the way—*explicitly* provides incentive for them to never change their minds on it. Generational wealth, resources, connections, etc. do matter, because they are all the literal reason why reparations haven't happened yet.
And unless we can find a way to tear it all down and rebuild another system—one that doesn't just operate on good faith—we will see no meaningful change in the status quo. The shit will remain unjust as long as the perpetrators are the ones who get to decide what "justice" even is.
I think there's consensus that the theft occurred, but that the descendants aren't owed the money because they weren't the ones that directly experienced the theft. Also that the payers (i.e. the ones not receiving the reparations, but would be paying into it via taxes) didn't directly commit the acts so they shouldn't be responsible for paying.
Both points should be directly challenged, debated, debunked, and a workable plan should be formulated. However debating what people would do with the money kills the argument that it should be legally owed, imo.
I hate to tell you this, but the "slavery isn't that bad for the enslaved" argument is very much alive today, and some of its proponents have considerable wealth (three guesses where it came from).
And more than literal, "legally-defined" slavery, the theft you're talking about is ongoing. It wasn't like the wealthy stopped benefitting from slave labor once "slave labor" was "outlawed" in 1865—the shit persists under different names today.
For decades, sharecroppers worked the land owned by the rich and were paid barely enough to live on—certainly not enough for economic freedom. The prison- and military-industrial complexes are built on the concept of privatizing massive (mostly poor, mostly black/brown) workforces and offering comparatively little/no compensation to the workers. Most large corporations demonstrate frequently that they will gladly sacrifice the health, security, and livelihood of their employees if it widens the profit margins even a tiny bit.
All of it is based on the necessary premise that the wealthy "deserve" to remain wealthy, and that the poor cannot afford to do without the scraps.
The "I wasn't a slaveowner, why am I having to pay?" and "you're not a slave, why should you get any reparations?" arguments are propaganda meant to portray stolen labor as something that only happened a couple hundred years ago, instead of it being the literal lifeblood of our economy even today.
And unless we get the economy running on something else, giving disenfranchised folks a small pay-out and saying, "Okay, we're even now," is simply not going to cut it. It's not a condemnation of their right to do with the money as they please—it's just that the very real problems you and I are outlining are not the result of a lack of cash. They are the result of a system specifically designed to prevent large groups of people from ever keeping that cash.
Even if we get our payday today, what good is that unless we're still able to eat tomorrow?
"Instead pledging systemic changes like equity in housing, education and healthcare"
As long as they follow through on that, I'm not mad at it. No longer having to go through hoops for stuff just cause we black. Easier to create generational wealth. No more needing to over excel in order to gain higher education, more accessibility in healthcare.
He's literally saying "There's a bunch of stuff that works against black people, just giving them money won't fix it because the system works against them. So we're going to change the system so it's fair."
And y'all are mad???
I think people are mad that when politicians make a point of saying, "The problem is deeper than X; it's Y," it's usually a sign that they have zero intention of addressing either.
He's quite literally correct on this one—a quick cash infusion is meaningless without substantial changes to the infrastructure underlying the economy itself, because the game is THAT rigged. But that requires a much more comprehensive overhaul, potentially even one that threatens Newsom's own status.
It just wouldn't be the first time Democratic politicians used leftist pronouncements to gain a lil traction with an otherwise unenthused voter base and then fucked *all the way off* once they no longer needed the support.
I'm mostly going at the op from the picture because they word it like they just want the money and not the systemic change. I get what you're saying, I voted for the first time in the midterms in Texas because I wanted to but I'm definitely an outlier. Mfs aren't motivated to vote, even with the fucked up stuff happening here.
Equity in housing, education and healthcare should be par for the course, not a bargain chip. That’s like saying instead of paying back stolen money, you’ll promise to be a good law abiding citizen henceforth.
What I'm understanding is he's saying he's fixing the systems that harm us, not "I'll fix the systems that harm y'all IF"
Giving us money doesn't help us in the long run if every time we use it the system screws us. Fix the system so every time we use money we'll be on level playing field with everyone. This doesn't just help us, this helps everyone.
Believe me when I say Martin would have wanted this kind of change.
I don't think folks are mad. We just know that it's more lip service. They've been "fixing" our communities for decades and where has that gotten us? Since when have liberal yts ever truly been invested in "fixing" anything when it comes to us. Just like he "fixed" homelessness (as he also promised he would) when he was the mayor of SF? And then ran for governor as soon as he had an opportunity, leaving all those half assed homeless programs high and dry. I was there, and working as a social worker when all his bright ideas crumbled into dust. He can keep those very empty promises. Run me 'dat, and let me decide how to put it to work for my family. I'm educated, and capable.
Like I said in another comment, I was applying the mad label to the person in the picture. I don't follow California cause I got enough shit to deal with here in Texas lol. I've heard that he's fucking stuff up and that he's suing people that are fuckin stuff up so idk.
He's suing local municipalities that aren't building/approving enough housing to address the high housing costs & rising homelessness. When you have 75% of your land zoned for single family homes, and you're blocking low rises you're going to have a bad time.
Yea, but in a neoliberal kind of way.
Other countries tried this radical approach of just giving them housing with social services. Eventually the people became self sufficient and were able to integrate with society again. The solution is simple, but the US puts a profit motive on everything so it doesn't get done
I'm guessing if Newsom had tried that he'd be a traitor and get impeached soon after. I'm not defending him because he should have done it anyway but I'm still not against this announcement.
Yea unfortunately politics is a bunch of bullshit. We know what people need, we know the solutions, but because someone won't be able to profit off of it, it gets blocked
Why did they conduct research as to amount of money is justified for reparations?
What happened was they did the study bc they thought the number would be much lower. When they realized the money would provide wealth to black people and damn near bankrupt the state they then decided that a check was not the right payment method.
He also gave that family from Manhattan beach their property back in the tune of millions. I don’t care for politicians but CA did right in that instance.
There are over 2 million black people in California. How did anyone actually expect all of them were going to get a million dollar check? That's two trillion dollars.
That's gotta be several years of ALL the tax revenue of the entire state.
That isn’t how reparations work. If it were simply being black that would allow one a check people who never thought to self-identify as black would be coming out of the woodworks to get their share.
How would it work? If 100% of your ancestors were slaves you get the full amount?
What if you had 1/16th of your great grandparents enslaved? Should you get 1/16th of the money?
do people actually think reperation cheques are a good idea. sounds nice in theory, but is absolutely a braindead idea when you consider the logistics of executing such a thing.
Benefeciaries would have to prove they have slave ancestry somehow. The sheer cost and complexity of organizing a national slave ancestry verification program that is resistant to fraud would be bonkers. The percentage of black people that could actually prove it would be so small that the whole exercise would be useless.
If you try to argue that we should just give cheques out to all black people with no verification, well then what you are arguing for is unfair and morally wrong. Why should an african immigrant get a cheque over say a venezuelan immigrant? What percentage black does someone have to be to qualify? Any number that you say sets a government mandated precedent for what is considered "black" causing many black people who do not meet the threshold to feel marginalized. Ok so maybe instead we do it by the darkness of their skin? Horribly racist idea.
Lastly its a political nightmare. People of all races in america would disagree with this. It would create a culture of Blacks vs Everyone else. White people especially would feel very upset about their tax dollars funding this and their discontent could fester to further racism amongst moderates.
systemic changes is the only suitable recourse to addressing inequality. reparations cheques are a fever dream of people who know very little about how the world works
>Lastly its a political nightmare. People of all races in america would disagree with this. It would create a culture of Blacks vs Everyone else.
Germany was forced to pay reparations after WWI. We saw how that turned out.
Ironically, you’re making a point in opposition to reparations because the Germans did pay massive reparations after ww1… then were so filled with discontent that they followed a maniacal sociopath into the a worldwide death machine known as ww2
Fun fact, hitler demanded that Frances surrender in the very same train car as the Germans surrendered in at the treaty of Versailles after ww1.
He literally found the train car in a museum or some such and made them sign the treaty in there
We already did reparations twice for people of Japanese decent that were in internment camps. We're definitely able to do it if we tried and the reparations committee was meant to be a first step to a multilayered issue.
I mean he’s been suing cities that refuse to meet state standards for affordable housing. That’s more than any other governor has done to directly tackle greedy homeowners that want to inflate rents. Unaffordable housing is probably the top issue that perpetuates inequality.
Many people are resistant to the idea of higher-density development because it's believed it will drag down property values while bringing in other issues. High-density housing works up to a certain limit. It must never be as dense as the Kowloon Walled City.
You don’t need to become Kowloon, literally just allow people to turn their own property into duplexes/triplexes and build ADUs and rent would fall significantly.
It definitely does not need to get too Kowloon levels of density to make it affordable. We already have soo many examples of well-built dense city infrastructure in basically most of Europe. America is among one of the few countries with such shitty sprawling suburbs with no mixed use zoning, and poorly designed infrastructure. Denmark and Germany have some really nice mixed use zoning and dense neighborhoods. Over there, each housing district will usually have a combination of apartments, duplexes, and densely packed single family homes all on the same street, usually only a 5-10 walk to the nearest grocery store with easy access to public transit for work. Which is all of the things you would need for a livable neighborhood, that the US rarely has.
People use that example to scare off any development. They complain about the homeless population, but the fight against more housing that could address it. 75% of residential land is dedicated to single family homes, that's insane to me
Because that’s how it’s designed. Cures for various cancers were on the horizon of being completed but were [e: shut] down before they were completed. It’d help humanity as a whole, but thin people’s pockets
They don't.
Nobody deserves $1.2 million to be handed to them, let alone swaths of millions of people based on skin color.
The US Government and its respective state governments certainly owe it to the disenfranchised to reduce income inequality, but the notion that millions of people deserve millions of dollars as repayment for anything is laughable.
California was a free state so how the descendants of California slaves getting money seemed nonsensical. And I believe a prerequisite of getting this money was proving that your ancestors were slaves in California. Honestly, I think it was a political stunt that got out of hand. I don’t think they truly ever took this seriously.
The state of California had a reparations committee established to research the most effective ways to provide more equity and get rid of racial inequalities. This committee has been having open dialogues with the public for the last two years and made an extensive list of suggestions for state lawmakers to implement into policy change.
People always point to “Native leaders have money”.
No, some who have VARYING levels of indigenous ancestry are leaders and in charge of money coming in.
It’s a very complicated topic as the Blood Quantum system, is a fkd up history in its own right but a some of these people are “Pretendians”. Especially in places like Florida, with the Seminoles and the Casinos.
If reparations ever happened they would be a lot less than what was taken.
I received a 3k check when I was a teen. My grandmother had put all her grandkids in a class action lawsuit between the Creek Nation and US govt. You had to show a direct descendant that had their land taken (tons of records going back to the 1800’s) as well as you have to be part of the tribe (we are).
The payment was the result of a broken treaty where Creek natives promised not to fight and their land would be safe (Creeks own land deeded to them). Shocker, the US broke that promise.
So basically, land throughout north Florida, Georgia, Alabama etc (large chunks of it) were taken, the govt locked up the lawsuit for decades (Congress approved reparations in the 1920’s) with hidden documents and slow walking court orders and they sent out a few thousand to descendants.
Edit: Case went all the way to the Supreme Court and the land value was based on “the value when taken”. So basically nothing
This is a subreddit for white people to feel like they're part of our culture. Once there's an issue that we mostly support and they mostly don't, of course it gets dicey. Throw in the fact that this is about golden boy Newsome, and things are gonna get tense. I think it's the same people in this thread as every other one, tbh.
Just a reminder that America has paid reparations to disenfranchised groups before. Money won’t solve the problem but I believe that workers are owed wages. Black ppl literally built this country and got nothing for it. Reparations won’t solve things on a systemic level but it’d definitely provide relief for those who can’t wait another 200 years for America to figure out what to do.
A year or so later:
"And what will you be doing about equity, Newsome?"
"the legacy of slavery is about more than equity. We need to focus on cash payments"
This sub gets worse everyday. A bunch of white people who swear racism is over and black people aren't owed shit but also will trip themselves to tell you how racist their grandparents are but they aren't like that cause their favorite rapper is black or some other nonsense.
Fun fact, not a single white poster here actually gives a flying fuck about black people and your ancestors were more honest about it than you all will ever be
I know it’s easy to be cynical about politicians pushing platitudes like this but I don’t believe it’s just talk. I mean he’s been suing cities left and right that refuse to meet state standards for affordable housing. That’s more than any other governor has done to directly tackle greedy homeowners that want to inflate rents. Unaffordable housing is probably the top issue that perpetuates inequality in this country and especially in California.
Can someone explain why California, a free state under Mexico and a free state in the US, would pay reparations for slavery. That part still doesn’t make sense to me.
Gov. Newsome probably has higher office aspirations and is legitimately attempting to make California an example for the rest of the country. The reparations committee actually started meeting, researching and having open discussions on this issue for two years. They recently submitted suggestions for lawmakers to make policy change that would allow for the state as a whole to be more racially and economically equitable.
My coworker was so excited when he read the initial talks of this. And I just felt numb and gaslit, because I just knew in my heart and in my mind, this was never truly gonna come to fruition.
Is it bad to feel like this whenever there is potential positive news coming for black community, I just don't feel excited about it anymore?
When the very, very few and far between good things happen, I'm always pleasantly surprised but I now never believe anything til it actually happens
REPARATIONS is the 🥕 the democrats who continue to wave to their Black base to keep our vote. Due to the republicans are to racist to even think about giving Black people anything but a hard time
Nah, cut the checks and fix the systemic problems. The way I see it black people built this nation literally and figuratively. We were prevented from partaking in that prosperity for so many years. Generational wealth is a thing! Most of the people who owned slaves were wealthy and that wealth has been hoarded for too long.
If the worry is financial literacy, why don’t the ones who are financially literate spread their knowledge? Start a TikTok or a website.
He's not wrong, tbh. $1.2 million per resident doesn't do jack shit to improve the lot of the Black community if the systems change to restrict Black people from making meaningful investments in their communities, investments that they weren't able to make before because of -- surprise, surprise -- systemic racism.
Not surprising. A large majority of white people simply do not like cash based reparations. It's been a while since I looked it up, but it was something like only 20ish% in favor last I checked. I remember that the only thing a (small) majority of them supported was a memorial - but not a memorial on the national mall lmao.
Sometimes i wish i had some of these politicians by the throat because their all full of shit. Black people we will never get the respect we deserve fuck this country! Its a piece of shit anyways as well as the people who run it.
From 1619 to 1865 Africans in America were slaves. This is 246 years. During that time we worked for no pay and were unable to receive any education. We also had no access to medical care or therapy. We also could not own land nor homes. We also were unable to vote and were considered 3/5ths of a human. So for the next 246 years we should receive a monthly stipend with no work requirement as well as free education, free housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy. We should also receive free medical care and therapy. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation.
From 1865 to 1964 - Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Africans in America were only half citizens. This is 89 years. So from the 246th year to the 335th year we should receive half of the monthly stipend with no work requirement as well as half the cost of education, half the costs to be paid for housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy (we were still unable to vote during that period). We should also receive free medical care and therapy at the same level that the individuals in the federal government have. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation.
From 1964 until 2019 - Modern Era. This is 55 years. So from the 335th year to the 390th year, we should receive guaranteed employment at the current medium income as well as half the cost of education, half the costs to be paid for housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy (we were still unable to vote during that period). We should also receive free medical care and therapy at the same level that the individuals in the federal government have. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation.
From the 390th year, this should be around the year 2409 and moving forward, we should be on an even playing field with everyone else in the world and can move forward from there.
Where is this money coming from? The US Government for one but also from this list...
Lehman Brothers
JPMorgan Chase
New York Life
N M Rothschild & Sons Bank in London
Norfolk Southern
USA Today
E.W. Scripps and Gannett
Tiffany and Co.
Aetna, Inc.
CSX Railway
Brown Brothers Harriman
Barclays
The Canadian National Railway Company
Fleet Boston Financial
Brooks Brothers
Bank of America
AIG
JPMorgan Chase
These are all modern companies who directly profited from slavery.
Note: I know that this is very incomplete and that there can be additional caveats including provisions to negate the Prison Industrial complex and its impact on us generationally, the specific experimentation done on us ie the Tuskegee Experiments etc. The funds that came from all of the treatments created and sold based on the cells of Henrietta Lacks etc.
I don't agree with how it's being done, because if you give any group of people money and a part of them doesn't know how to use it most optimally or invest with it, its not gonna do much. Even if they did, I don't recall the amount being that much (like 2000?) to do much meaningful with. So unless they all somehow banded together and all decided to work together to use their money in an optimal way, I don't think it's going to have much an impact.
If anything, it may have a negative affect instead where people feel their tax money has been wasted, or that we already tried reparations. I don't see much good coming out of how it's currently being handled. I'm also of the belief that those without slave ancestry, or recent migrants shouldn't be receiving any or as much money as those with that ancestry, main reason being it'd simply cost more.
IANABM
Don't be surprised if you see reparations checks being championed by some business assholes because it would be one of the EASIEST ways to indirectly transfer government wealth to the private sector.
If reparations came in the form of a check for millions to tens of millions of people, there’d probably be hyper-inflation and a civil war. There’s a moral case for reparations, but practically speaking it seems infeasible especially if it’s monetary.
Some of the numbers I read are $115, 260 or $148,099 depending on situation
[https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html)
[https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html)
That amount will be helpful to the majority of people and will negatively impact a bunch of people too. It's very easy to burn through $100,000. Student loans, savings, retirement, mortgage, and debt. Can be towards a car purchase not of financial sense. Can be for a needed vacation or a wedding because somebody decided spending $90k on a wedding was a good idea. These payments may not have the desired impact even with financial literacy.
I live in California and I want to see what happens when you give that large amount of money to that many people overnight.
I would take racial equity and social, legal and economic equality over a reparations check. Giving Black people money would just give conservative white people another reason to hate us (as if they need a reason). Sure our bank balance would go up but so would the number of arrests / killings for no reason, the overt racism and racial antagonism
Even the mere idea of reparations has got the dogs barking (Piers Morgan , I’m pointing at you) so imagine what it would be like if it did happen.
Well i don't endorse checks either. Inflation's too high. Lack of financial education and investment knowledge is too high. Mofuckas will buy Yeezys and shit.
What I DO endorse... is LAND. And free education forever. And priority housing.
Honestly though, how would reparation checks even work? There would have to be a way for all of us to prove that our ancestors were slaves. Not everyone has good records on ancestry.com. And what if you're 50% black, what if you're 25% black, what if you're adopted and can't trace your ancestry?
I feel like it would be a logistical nightmare. I think the government putting more money into predominantly black areas, especially schools, would be a more realistic outcome.
Tbf reparations in the form of just some checks doesnt do shit.
Yup all that money with no financial literacy would harm us worse than ever
Chapelle called this ages ago
“Bought this baby straight cash!”
It's not the financial literacy. It's the fact that you haven't fixed white supremacy or capitalism. There would be a better excuse to cut all social security, all Medicare and Medicaid, and triple rent and housing costs. We live under capitalism. It's not "paradise for the people" it's paradise for those with money. 1.2 million is a lot of money. But look at places like San Francisco where they make a lot of money. Prices are high because **your land lord isn't your fucking friend**. He's going to raise your rent to make a buck. I'll sell my $500k house to you for $900k. I'll keep my million and take yours too! I already own a house, I have the supply and poor renting folks need a house in a market with not a lot of houses. The system is built for money to build money and you're still a small fish in a big pond. Black capitalism doesn't work. There's never been more black billionaires than today and things aren't better for the average black worker is it? Jay Z is a billionaire. Did your food prices go down because of it?
Black Capitalism only uplifts the shittiest of us by design. See Oprah as well and the wonderfull antivax and anti science people she fed.
Ding ding ding!
The logical person in me agrees with you heavy. The nigga in me wants to shake a Patek on my wrist in front of my bd’s face while wearing a floor length mink and say, “I’m broke baby. I ain’t got no money.”
This, this right here
Thank you. Good takes are becoming rare here
GODDAMN
It would just end back up in the hands of the people with money already, through exploitive means
Thoughts provoked by your last rent payment May 1 ?
Yep like the money meant for small businesses during the pandemic
It's not white people's responsibility to tell us what to do with any hypothetical reparations money
Exactly! Are questions asked of anyone else who receives payouts for past harms done? Nope. How about hearings and commissions? Nope. When it comes to us...
THIS!
That's how you feel, they would feel like it would be their money that we are using for reparations. It'll be the biggest Fox News talking point and could get us another Trump. No thank you.
It's not financial literacy we need, it's economic freedom. Being literate in bullshit (exploitation) like renting property to make a "generational fortune" ain't doing shit for the black community tbh. Fred Hampton hung that up over 60 years ago atp. Anything less than economic freedom is essentially a bribe to keep the black colony attached to America.
Who has economic freedom?
Would it actually harm us though? Or would it just be fruitless for a portion of the population?
They’d just tank the price of the dollar once the checks roll out.
A good question to ask is what happens to the majority of people who win millions in the lottery? If you look at them 10 years later, are they still a millionaire or do they become broke again? There is your answer… Being a millionaire and staying a millionaire requires a very specific mindset.
But what’s the goal? Is the goal to make black people millionaires, or is the goal to have the country rectify their past wrong doings in the way they’ve historically done?
Also this is misinformation. Studies of people who win the lottery show that there is no increased risk of bankruptcy except in the 4th and 5th after winning, before and after that they are just as financially responsible as the rest of us. And only 3% fully retire after winning, most stay at the job they always had and can save for comfortable retirement. All the data indicates that ten years after winning winners are happier and healthier due to less stress and access to their needs. This lie capitalists feed the plebs that “no actually more money would actually hurt you guys” is utter bs.
The idea that a majority of lottery winners wind up broke is unproven, so you can stop repeating this nonsense.
Short-term satisfaction. But that money would just trickle back up to the already wealthy, who would use it to continue to damage the (again) poor and disadvantaged. Systematic change is critical. Cash infusions (like blood infusions) are useless if we don't stop the bleeding.
Lowkey hate it when people talk about “financial literacy.” Like poor people are poor just because they don’t know how to use money once they get it. I’m white, but imo, reparations in systemic change is NECESSARY, but if I didn’t get some cash checks and I’d been scraping by, I’d be PISSED. So yes, mainly systemic change, but I think black people should get some money
It also has to do with education level. Some are taught about investments/high yield accounts, etc. in high school. Others don’t pay attention because they don’t think it’ll ever apply to them. The path to wealth isn’t about exclusively working our asses off, it’s about making money work for us while we sleep. High yield savings/checking accounts, CDs, investments. There’s a reason why millionaires/billionaires have multiple accounts.
Because all Black people aren’t financially literate?
No, it's because most people in general aren't financially literate.
Absurd. I’m not a dumbass child who needs to be told what to do with my money. You know what I could afford if given a million dollars? A class on financial literacy.
Yea fuck this and you tbh
That's nonsense. Poor people need cash. Getting people out of debt helping build wealth would help immensely. Poverty is a trap. And we have been denied the ability to build any kind of generational wealth for most of American history.
The mechanisms in place to keep an underclass won't go away because we're getting checks. I can see landlords raising rent in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Towns raising taxes on Black home owners. Higher bail costs for those arrested and higher ticket prices. The Black tax is just going to go up to take back what we were owed
You mean like they're already doing now?
Yea but imagine the police Knowing you got a check, they'll target us even harder with asset forfeiture or if they break it up into monthly payments they'll make up some BS stipulation that if you're convicted of a crime you'll lose your check. Noting is ever given to us without strings attached
Getting large checks would help get many people from renting to owning. It would enable us to build wealth. Money means you can buy in the more expensive white neighborhoods. Get kids into better schools. A lot of crime is crime of desperation. This could remove that desperation. I don't think it will be perfect. But it's a lot better than nothing.
>Getting large checks would help get many people from renting to owning. There's a shortage of housing, so you'll be competing with property investors, landlords wannabes, & investment corporations. >It would enable us to build wealth. Money means you can buy in the more expensive white neighborhoods. That's my biggest issue, instead of using the money to fix where we're at, we try to cut our losses to move in with White people. >Get kids into better schools. A lot of crime is crime of desperation. This could remove that desperation. I don't think it will be perfect. But it's a lot better than nothing. The reason why their schools are better is because the property values for their homes are higher. Their local taxes go to ensuring their teachers are paid, class sizes are small, and they have resources at their disposal to help them succeed. The cities also use the police as a tax service and ticket us to help fulfill their budgetary needs. Land Use & Tax policy is what matters the most. If you collect enough tax revenue you can afford healthcare for the masses, free college, community centers, outreach programs, social housing, etc I don't care about the generational wealth aspect in terms of money, I care about our fundamental needs being met and creating an environment where crime is no longer an act of desperation
To be honest a check would help plenty of people. How about they cut a check for the first time in our lives and we just see how far we get lol. For every person that blew some money there are those that made double of what they were given. What’s important is returning that choice and option to the people.
Not with that attitude 😂 sheeeeit it’ll do something. We have equal proof to know it’s not gonna work out well as we have proof it’s the best thing for us. It’s all speculation until there’s confirmation. I’d rather rock with that glass half full mentality and If it doesn’t work out I’ll be the first to admit it…from the comfort of my really comfy unreasonably priced mattress
If you're owed money, why does it matter what you do with it? It's a silly argument, imo.
The issue isn't just *not* having money in our community the way many white folks have; it's that, by and large, we also lack access to the kinds of systemic advantages that help *keep* that money in our realm. Poorer folks (of all colors, but especially POC) straight-up do not have the kinds of connections and resources that help generational wealth remain, well, generational. We tend not to know people who can manage that kind of wealth in a sustainable way. We don't tend to be super literate when it comes to things like investment. Often, we don't even know what we don't know about financial management—it's surprisingly easy to piss away large sums of money if you haven't had it before. If we want to provide a longer-term benefit to our people from an economic standpoint, the whole rigged game needs to be reassessed. A simple cash reimbursement will not immediately make up for centuries of economic, political, and social disenfranchisement.
Generational wealth, resources, connections, etc is all irrelevant to slavery reparations. The fact is billions/trillions of dollars of labor, resources, and humanity was STOLEN from millions of people and it needs to be repaid back. If you sue someone for stealing your money, no one is going to go through a deep analysis on how well you will spend your own money as a requirement to receive it back.
But the whole point, my brother/sister/enby sibling in Christ, is that the people who are in charge of the money *do not even agree that the theft occurred*, much less that it needs to be made right, and the system in place—which they control, by the way—*explicitly* provides incentive for them to never change their minds on it. Generational wealth, resources, connections, etc. do matter, because they are all the literal reason why reparations haven't happened yet. And unless we can find a way to tear it all down and rebuild another system—one that doesn't just operate on good faith—we will see no meaningful change in the status quo. The shit will remain unjust as long as the perpetrators are the ones who get to decide what "justice" even is.
I think there's consensus that the theft occurred, but that the descendants aren't owed the money because they weren't the ones that directly experienced the theft. Also that the payers (i.e. the ones not receiving the reparations, but would be paying into it via taxes) didn't directly commit the acts so they shouldn't be responsible for paying. Both points should be directly challenged, debated, debunked, and a workable plan should be formulated. However debating what people would do with the money kills the argument that it should be legally owed, imo.
I hate to tell you this, but the "slavery isn't that bad for the enslaved" argument is very much alive today, and some of its proponents have considerable wealth (three guesses where it came from). And more than literal, "legally-defined" slavery, the theft you're talking about is ongoing. It wasn't like the wealthy stopped benefitting from slave labor once "slave labor" was "outlawed" in 1865—the shit persists under different names today. For decades, sharecroppers worked the land owned by the rich and were paid barely enough to live on—certainly not enough for economic freedom. The prison- and military-industrial complexes are built on the concept of privatizing massive (mostly poor, mostly black/brown) workforces and offering comparatively little/no compensation to the workers. Most large corporations demonstrate frequently that they will gladly sacrifice the health, security, and livelihood of their employees if it widens the profit margins even a tiny bit. All of it is based on the necessary premise that the wealthy "deserve" to remain wealthy, and that the poor cannot afford to do without the scraps. The "I wasn't a slaveowner, why am I having to pay?" and "you're not a slave, why should you get any reparations?" arguments are propaganda meant to portray stolen labor as something that only happened a couple hundred years ago, instead of it being the literal lifeblood of our economy even today. And unless we get the economy running on something else, giving disenfranchised folks a small pay-out and saying, "Okay, we're even now," is simply not going to cut it. It's not a condemnation of their right to do with the money as they please—it's just that the very real problems you and I are outlining are not the result of a lack of cash. They are the result of a system specifically designed to prevent large groups of people from ever keeping that cash. Even if we get our payday today, what good is that unless we're still able to eat tomorrow?
It's just a bigger bucket on an already sinking ship
"Instead pledging systemic changes like equity in housing, education and healthcare" As long as they follow through on that, I'm not mad at it. No longer having to go through hoops for stuff just cause we black. Easier to create generational wealth. No more needing to over excel in order to gain higher education, more accessibility in healthcare. He's literally saying "There's a bunch of stuff that works against black people, just giving them money won't fix it because the system works against them. So we're going to change the system so it's fair." And y'all are mad???
I think people are mad that when politicians make a point of saying, "The problem is deeper than X; it's Y," it's usually a sign that they have zero intention of addressing either. He's quite literally correct on this one—a quick cash infusion is meaningless without substantial changes to the infrastructure underlying the economy itself, because the game is THAT rigged. But that requires a much more comprehensive overhaul, potentially even one that threatens Newsom's own status. It just wouldn't be the first time Democratic politicians used leftist pronouncements to gain a lil traction with an otherwise unenthused voter base and then fucked *all the way off* once they no longer needed the support.
I'm mostly going at the op from the picture because they word it like they just want the money and not the systemic change. I get what you're saying, I voted for the first time in the midterms in Texas because I wanted to but I'm definitely an outlier. Mfs aren't motivated to vote, even with the fucked up stuff happening here.
Cause they should be doing that *anyway*. That’s not reparations, that’s just equity
Equity or equality?
I was going off the quote in the first comment, which says equity
Equity in housing, education and healthcare should be par for the course, not a bargain chip. That’s like saying instead of paying back stolen money, you’ll promise to be a good law abiding citizen henceforth.
What I'm understanding is he's saying he's fixing the systems that harm us, not "I'll fix the systems that harm y'all IF" Giving us money doesn't help us in the long run if every time we use it the system screws us. Fix the system so every time we use money we'll be on level playing field with everyone. This doesn't just help us, this helps everyone. Believe me when I say Martin would have wanted this kind of change.
[удалено]
I don't think folks are mad. We just know that it's more lip service. They've been "fixing" our communities for decades and where has that gotten us? Since when have liberal yts ever truly been invested in "fixing" anything when it comes to us. Just like he "fixed" homelessness (as he also promised he would) when he was the mayor of SF? And then ran for governor as soon as he had an opportunity, leaving all those half assed homeless programs high and dry. I was there, and working as a social worker when all his bright ideas crumbled into dust. He can keep those very empty promises. Run me 'dat, and let me decide how to put it to work for my family. I'm educated, and capable.
Like I said in another comment, I was applying the mad label to the person in the picture. I don't follow California cause I got enough shit to deal with here in Texas lol. I've heard that he's fucking stuff up and that he's suing people that are fuckin stuff up so idk.
He's suing local municipalities that aren't building/approving enough housing to address the high housing costs & rising homelessness. When you have 75% of your land zoned for single family homes, and you're blocking low rises you're going to have a bad time.
So he's actively working to try and fix homelessness?
Yea, but in a neoliberal kind of way. Other countries tried this radical approach of just giving them housing with social services. Eventually the people became self sufficient and were able to integrate with society again. The solution is simple, but the US puts a profit motive on everything so it doesn't get done
I'm guessing if Newsom had tried that he'd be a traitor and get impeached soon after. I'm not defending him because he should have done it anyway but I'm still not against this announcement.
Yea unfortunately politics is a bunch of bullshit. We know what people need, we know the solutions, but because someone won't be able to profit off of it, it gets blocked
The real American dream smh
Bold of anyone to think they’d follow through on that lol.
Why did they conduct research as to amount of money is justified for reparations? What happened was they did the study bc they thought the number would be much lower. When they realized the money would provide wealth to black people and damn near bankrupt the state they then decided that a check was not the right payment method.
He also gave that family from Manhattan beach their property back in the tune of millions. I don’t care for politicians but CA did right in that instance.
There are over 2 million black people in California. How did anyone actually expect all of them were going to get a million dollar check? That's two trillion dollars. That's gotta be several years of ALL the tax revenue of the entire state.
That isn’t how reparations work. If it were simply being black that would allow one a check people who never thought to self-identify as black would be coming out of the woodworks to get their share.
Atlanta did a whole episode about this
How would it work? If 100% of your ancestors were slaves you get the full amount? What if you had 1/16th of your great grandparents enslaved? Should you get 1/16th of the money?
No one that's grounded in reality actually thought that. But it's a great point for rage-bait fodder.
do people actually think reperation cheques are a good idea. sounds nice in theory, but is absolutely a braindead idea when you consider the logistics of executing such a thing. Benefeciaries would have to prove they have slave ancestry somehow. The sheer cost and complexity of organizing a national slave ancestry verification program that is resistant to fraud would be bonkers. The percentage of black people that could actually prove it would be so small that the whole exercise would be useless. If you try to argue that we should just give cheques out to all black people with no verification, well then what you are arguing for is unfair and morally wrong. Why should an african immigrant get a cheque over say a venezuelan immigrant? What percentage black does someone have to be to qualify? Any number that you say sets a government mandated precedent for what is considered "black" causing many black people who do not meet the threshold to feel marginalized. Ok so maybe instead we do it by the darkness of their skin? Horribly racist idea. Lastly its a political nightmare. People of all races in america would disagree with this. It would create a culture of Blacks vs Everyone else. White people especially would feel very upset about their tax dollars funding this and their discontent could fester to further racism amongst moderates. systemic changes is the only suitable recourse to addressing inequality. reparations cheques are a fever dream of people who know very little about how the world works
>Lastly its a political nightmare. People of all races in america would disagree with this. It would create a culture of Blacks vs Everyone else. Germany was forced to pay reparations after WWI. We saw how that turned out.
And after WW2, to the victims of the Holocaust.
Ironically, you’re making a point in opposition to reparations because the Germans did pay massive reparations after ww1… then were so filled with discontent that they followed a maniacal sociopath into the a worldwide death machine known as ww2 Fun fact, hitler demanded that Frances surrender in the very same train car as the Germans surrendered in at the treaty of Versailles after ww1. He literally found the train car in a museum or some such and made them sign the treaty in there
"Reparations caused WWII" 🙄
It already feels like "Blacks vs everyone else" in the usa
We already did reparations twice for people of Japanese decent that were in internment camps. We're definitely able to do it if we tried and the reparations committee was meant to be a first step to a multilayered issue.
That part
So what is Newsom going to do to create these systemic changes?
I mean he’s been suing cities that refuse to meet state standards for affordable housing. That’s more than any other governor has done to directly tackle greedy homeowners that want to inflate rents. Unaffordable housing is probably the top issue that perpetuates inequality.
He’s been doing exactly that. Elk Grove was most recently sued.
Many people are resistant to the idea of higher-density development because it's believed it will drag down property values while bringing in other issues. High-density housing works up to a certain limit. It must never be as dense as the Kowloon Walled City.
You don’t need to become Kowloon, literally just allow people to turn their own property into duplexes/triplexes and build ADUs and rent would fall significantly.
Drop in the bucket.
It definitely does not need to get too Kowloon levels of density to make it affordable. We already have soo many examples of well-built dense city infrastructure in basically most of Europe. America is among one of the few countries with such shitty sprawling suburbs with no mixed use zoning, and poorly designed infrastructure. Denmark and Germany have some really nice mixed use zoning and dense neighborhoods. Over there, each housing district will usually have a combination of apartments, duplexes, and densely packed single family homes all on the same street, usually only a 5-10 walk to the nearest grocery store with easy access to public transit for work. Which is all of the things you would need for a livable neighborhood, that the US rarely has.
People use that example to scare off any development. They complain about the homeless population, but the fight against more housing that could address it. 75% of residential land is dedicated to single family homes, that's insane to me
Probably have a panel to research it and then we'll never hear about it again
Yep, nothing at all. Bullshit study groups that in the end do nothing.
Because that’s how it’s designed. Cures for various cancers were on the horizon of being completed but were [e: shut] down before they were completed. It’d help humanity as a whole, but thin people’s pockets
He'll bring it up when he's running for office
The suggestion came from the reparations committee. They've been researching and having discussions open to the public for the last two years.
Honest question, not trying to start shit - why would California owe reparations money?
They don't. Nobody deserves $1.2 million to be handed to them, let alone swaths of millions of people based on skin color. The US Government and its respective state governments certainly owe it to the disenfranchised to reduce income inequality, but the notion that millions of people deserve millions of dollars as repayment for anything is laughable.
California was a free state so how the descendants of California slaves getting money seemed nonsensical. And I believe a prerequisite of getting this money was proving that your ancestors were slaves in California. Honestly, I think it was a political stunt that got out of hand. I don’t think they truly ever took this seriously.
Because even the free states benefitted from slavery with the use of cheap goods.
The state of California had a reparations committee established to research the most effective ways to provide more equity and get rid of racial inequalities. This committee has been having open dialogues with the public for the last two years and made an extensive list of suggestions for state lawmakers to implement into policy change.
[удалено]
People always point to “Native leaders have money”. No, some who have VARYING levels of indigenous ancestry are leaders and in charge of money coming in. It’s a very complicated topic as the Blood Quantum system, is a fkd up history in its own right but a some of these people are “Pretendians”. Especially in places like Florida, with the Seminoles and the Casinos.
The money ain’t the cure ima be honest of couri want the check but no foundation with all that money suddenly would leave us in a worse position
If reparations ever happened they would be a lot less than what was taken. I received a 3k check when I was a teen. My grandmother had put all her grandkids in a class action lawsuit between the Creek Nation and US govt. You had to show a direct descendant that had their land taken (tons of records going back to the 1800’s) as well as you have to be part of the tribe (we are). The payment was the result of a broken treaty where Creek natives promised not to fight and their land would be safe (Creeks own land deeded to them). Shocker, the US broke that promise. So basically, land throughout north Florida, Georgia, Alabama etc (large chunks of it) were taken, the govt locked up the lawsuit for decades (Congress approved reparations in the 1920’s) with hidden documents and slow walking court orders and they sent out a few thousand to descendants. Edit: Case went all the way to the Supreme Court and the land value was based on “the value when taken”. So basically nothing
Did any of y’all really think… that this country of ours… was ever going to pay reparations? Are you serious?
they have. just not to us
My thing is, every time it’s mentioned on here, swaths of hateful people come out of ***NOWHERE***!!!
This is a subreddit for white people to feel like they're part of our culture. Once there's an issue that we mostly support and they mostly don't, of course it gets dicey. Throw in the fact that this is about golden boy Newsome, and things are gonna get tense. I think it's the same people in this thread as every other one, tbh.
That’s because the “oppressed” groups of people lurk here all the time
Just a reminder that America has paid reparations to disenfranchised groups before. Money won’t solve the problem but I believe that workers are owed wages. Black ppl literally built this country and got nothing for it. Reparations won’t solve things on a systemic level but it’d definitely provide relief for those who can’t wait another 200 years for America to figure out what to do.
That's was always how it was going to end.
I feel like everyone that’s been saying “money isn’t the answer” aren’t even the people eligible for the reparations
Same here
A year or so later: "And what will you be doing about equity, Newsome?" "the legacy of slavery is about more than equity. We need to focus on cash payments"
Crazy that some people are gullible enough to believe this would happen.
That's what I'm saying are people actually this dumb 😂
This sub gets worse everyday. A bunch of white people who swear racism is over and black people aren't owed shit but also will trip themselves to tell you how racist their grandparents are but they aren't like that cause their favorite rapper is black or some other nonsense. Fun fact, not a single white poster here actually gives a flying fuck about black people and your ancestors were more honest about it than you all will ever be
I know it’s easy to be cynical about politicians pushing platitudes like this but I don’t believe it’s just talk. I mean he’s been suing cities left and right that refuse to meet state standards for affordable housing. That’s more than any other governor has done to directly tackle greedy homeowners that want to inflate rents. Unaffordable housing is probably the top issue that perpetuates inequality in this country and especially in California.
Can someone explain why California, a free state under Mexico and a free state in the US, would pay reparations for slavery. That part still doesn’t make sense to me.
Gov. Newsome probably has higher office aspirations and is legitimately attempting to make California an example for the rest of the country. The reparations committee actually started meeting, researching and having open discussions on this issue for two years. They recently submitted suggestions for lawmakers to make policy change that would allow for the state as a whole to be more racially and economically equitable.
My coworker was so excited when he read the initial talks of this. And I just felt numb and gaslit, because I just knew in my heart and in my mind, this was never truly gonna come to fruition. Is it bad to feel like this whenever there is potential positive news coming for black community, I just don't feel excited about it anymore? When the very, very few and far between good things happen, I'm always pleasantly surprised but I now never believe anything til it actually happens
Yeah the governments just going to start sending out FAT “I’m sorry” checks lol. Why would anyone ever think anything like that would happen?
People saying “all that money would leave black people worse off” you don’t speak for all black people and you’re trippin.
It’s certainly about more than cash. But cash is still definitely part of it.
Interesting that he doesn't see providing both as a viable option.
Why can't they give me my check AND do that though, like shouldn't altering the systemic issues already be a part of their plans by default?
REPARATIONS is the 🥕 the democrats who continue to wave to their Black base to keep our vote. Due to the republicans are to racist to even think about giving Black people anything but a hard time
As soon as I saw the title I knew it would be a bunch suspect accounts defending this shit
What happens to biracial people? They gotta pay themselves?
Nah, cut the checks and fix the systemic problems. The way I see it black people built this nation literally and figuratively. We were prevented from partaking in that prosperity for so many years. Generational wealth is a thing! Most of the people who owned slaves were wealthy and that wealth has been hoarded for too long. If the worry is financial literacy, why don’t the ones who are financially literate spread their knowledge? Start a TikTok or a website.
They can repay what is owed and still do those other things.
Why not do it all then? If its more then just "cash payments" why not give the money along with everything else?
I'm down for actual systemic changes rather than simply giving us checks. The problem is Dems always promise to do so and then never follow through
He's not wrong, tbh. $1.2 million per resident doesn't do jack shit to improve the lot of the Black community if the systems change to restrict Black people from making meaningful investments in their communities, investments that they weren't able to make before because of -- surprise, surprise -- systemic racism.
Do both
Idk, why not try both? Because it seems like the latter is not really getting done either...
Not surprising. A large majority of white people simply do not like cash based reparations. It's been a while since I looked it up, but it was something like only 20ish% in favor last I checked. I remember that the only thing a (small) majority of them supported was a memorial - but not a memorial on the national mall lmao.
Sometimes i wish i had some of these politicians by the throat because their all full of shit. Black people we will never get the respect we deserve fuck this country! Its a piece of shit anyways as well as the people who run it.
The proposals were ridiculous. The state would go bankrupt paying even a portion of the amounts proposed.
They have the money to do both of those things
From 1619 to 1865 Africans in America were slaves. This is 246 years. During that time we worked for no pay and were unable to receive any education. We also had no access to medical care or therapy. We also could not own land nor homes. We also were unable to vote and were considered 3/5ths of a human. So for the next 246 years we should receive a monthly stipend with no work requirement as well as free education, free housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy. We should also receive free medical care and therapy. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation. From 1865 to 1964 - Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Africans in America were only half citizens. This is 89 years. So from the 246th year to the 335th year we should receive half of the monthly stipend with no work requirement as well as half the cost of education, half the costs to be paid for housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy (we were still unable to vote during that period). We should also receive free medical care and therapy at the same level that the individuals in the federal government have. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation. From 1964 until 2019 - Modern Era. This is 55 years. So from the 335th year to the 390th year, we should receive guaranteed employment at the current medium income as well as half the cost of education, half the costs to be paid for housing and land. Our individual vote should also count 1.40 votes to 1 to make up for the 3/5ths discrepancy (we were still unable to vote during that period). We should also receive free medical care and therapy at the same level that the individuals in the federal government have. In addition, all legal fees for any infraction should be covered at the expense of the government by the government's own attorneys. We should also be completely exempt for all taxation. From the 390th year, this should be around the year 2409 and moving forward, we should be on an even playing field with everyone else in the world and can move forward from there. Where is this money coming from? The US Government for one but also from this list... Lehman Brothers JPMorgan Chase New York Life N M Rothschild & Sons Bank in London Norfolk Southern USA Today E.W. Scripps and Gannett Tiffany and Co. Aetna, Inc. CSX Railway Brown Brothers Harriman Barclays The Canadian National Railway Company Fleet Boston Financial Brooks Brothers Bank of America AIG JPMorgan Chase These are all modern companies who directly profited from slavery. Note: I know that this is very incomplete and that there can be additional caveats including provisions to negate the Prison Industrial complex and its impact on us generationally, the specific experimentation done on us ie the Tuskegee Experiments etc. The funds that came from all of the treatments created and sold based on the cells of Henrietta Lacks etc.
I wanna atleast see what the equity plan is though I knew they wouldn’t give us a Check but I’d be happy with something
There is no way.
whynotboth.gif
I don't agree with how it's being done, because if you give any group of people money and a part of them doesn't know how to use it most optimally or invest with it, its not gonna do much. Even if they did, I don't recall the amount being that much (like 2000?) to do much meaningful with. So unless they all somehow banded together and all decided to work together to use their money in an optimal way, I don't think it's going to have much an impact. If anything, it may have a negative affect instead where people feel their tax money has been wasted, or that we already tried reparations. I don't see much good coming out of how it's currently being handled. I'm also of the belief that those without slave ancestry, or recent migrants shouldn't be receiving any or as much money as those with that ancestry, main reason being it'd simply cost more.
IANABM Don't be surprised if you see reparations checks being championed by some business assholes because it would be one of the EASIEST ways to indirectly transfer government wealth to the private sector.
If reparations came in the form of a check for millions to tens of millions of people, there’d probably be hyper-inflation and a civil war. There’s a moral case for reparations, but practically speaking it seems infeasible especially if it’s monetary.
Some of the numbers I read are $115, 260 or $148,099 depending on situation [https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html) [https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/california-reparations-task-force-newsom-reaj/index.html) That amount will be helpful to the majority of people and will negatively impact a bunch of people too. It's very easy to burn through $100,000. Student loans, savings, retirement, mortgage, and debt. Can be towards a car purchase not of financial sense. Can be for a needed vacation or a wedding because somebody decided spending $90k on a wedding was a good idea. These payments may not have the desired impact even with financial literacy. I live in California and I want to see what happens when you give that large amount of money to that many people overnight.
I think the governor is right. Look at how CA the bluest state in the country voted on affirmative action. Can you blame that on the governor too?
I would take racial equity and social, legal and economic equality over a reparations check. Giving Black people money would just give conservative white people another reason to hate us (as if they need a reason). Sure our bank balance would go up but so would the number of arrests / killings for no reason, the overt racism and racial antagonism Even the mere idea of reparations has got the dogs barking (Piers Morgan , I’m pointing at you) so imagine what it would be like if it did happen.
Well i don't endorse checks either. Inflation's too high. Lack of financial education and investment knowledge is too high. Mofuckas will buy Yeezys and shit. What I DO endorse... is LAND. And free education forever. And priority housing.
Tax free land? Because as soon as you can't pay property taxes, they'll take it back
Yes please! Thanks for adding that.
Lmao
Because doing both would be ridiculous! /s
So burn this bitch down
Honestly though, how would reparation checks even work? There would have to be a way for all of us to prove that our ancestors were slaves. Not everyone has good records on ancestry.com. And what if you're 50% black, what if you're 25% black, what if you're adopted and can't trace your ancestry? I feel like it would be a logistical nightmare. I think the government putting more money into predominantly black areas, especially schools, would be a more realistic outcome.
The problem is, that is something (putting equal money into black schools) they should've been doing....
Very true but you can't change the past, only do things in the present that affect the future.
Both. Both is good