In an effort to make up for its $45 billion budget deficit, California set aside $12 million for reparations to descendants of black slaves. The budget agreement that Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) unveiled last week includes the public funds designated for African American residents of California.
Just two years after the Golden State experienced a nearly $100 billion surplus, the governor has unveiled his latest budget proposal, which follows months of discussion about how to address the state’s impending deficit.
Progressives chastised the governor right away for not giving more money to African Americans.
Kavon Ward told the Sacramento Bee, “That is a lowball sum, especially given the amount of harm that was done to black people in this state and over the period of time that it was done.” Ward Ward, co-founder of the organization Where Is My Land, fights for black people who believe their land has been taken or lost. In Ward’s opinion, one person should receive $12 million.
Leading Democrats in California hailed the $12 million as a victory, but they also acknowledged the need for further action.
Sen. Steven Bradford of the state acknowledged the compensation but declared that he “wanted more.”
“We argued that the damages caused by racialized public policies and slavery remain,” Bradford stated on behalf of the California Legislative Black Caucus. “This is just the beginning,” he continued.
In comments to the Sacramento Bee, Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, the chairwoman of the Black Caucus, struck a similar note, calling the funding a “win.” James Woodson, executive director of the California Black Power Network, on the other hand, stated that the funding was just the beginning of “many rounds of investment to repair harm.”
Republicans in California claimed that leftists are putting Newsom in a difficult situation. The leader of the state’s Assembly Republican delegation, James Gallagher, stated to Fox Digital that Newsom had put himself in a situation where he would have to demand that low-income workers, new immigrants, and even some African Americans pay for a wrong that other states committed more than 150 years ago.
The front-runner Republican declared, “No matter what he does, he’s going to offend part of his constituency.”
Most Californians are against monetary compensation. In a September poll, only 23 percent said they were in favor of giving money to black slave descendants.
The $12 million that was agreed to in Newsom’s budget proposal would go toward supporting bills—like lowering property taxes for qualified black residents and prohibiting California from penalizing inmates who refuse to work—that are anticipated to pass the state senate with a Democratic supermajority.
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