we don't even entirely disagree about this.
In the spirit of a reset (which you are also capable of doing, bear in mind), I’d like to point out that you have entirely elided my point.
Your premise seems to be that actually making specific white individuals pay monetary reparations to specific black individuals will never happen. You appear to have completely missed that I never claimed such, nor even implied it. That’s a leap you made all by yourself, and isn’t supported by my posts.
For decades now, Democrats have supported and amplified the notion that the US is a super racist nation, and that white Americans are majority racists who oppress black people. Democrats - not exclusively politicians, but supporters and members of the party - have made a platform of majority American culture being synonymous with white supremacy, and that white people in general should make amends for it. The narrative of white people in general being inherently racist as a state of being is woven throughout every aspect of work by Ibram X Kendi, Robin Di’Angelo, and many other influential activists.
The fact that their premises are false is hand-waved away. Anyone who points out that this isn’t actually true gets labeled a racist.
Over the past couple of decades, especially the last decade and a half, the Democratic Party itself has embedded this narrative into its platforms. The message, even if indirect from actual politicians, is that republicans and anyone who votes for republicans are racists. They’ve embedded the implied message that the only reason anyone would ever vote republican is because they’re racist. You must know this is true- it’s been a prevalent sentiment here on IIDB. It’s not subtle, it’s not something that goes unnoticed. In the past decade, it’s evolved further so that any position that comes into alignment with a conservative view is also framed as being motivated solely by racism (or other bigotry).
CA’s Reparations Task Force isn’t intended to punish individual people individually, but I also never claimed or implied such was the case. But theres also a difference between intent and outcome. The stated intent is more or less to quantify how much racism has cost black people, and make recommendations on how to “fix” society to make up for the past. Which sounds very noble, sure.
But the outcome isn’t so noble, and if you understand human behavior at all, it’s incredibly easy to see that. There is no way for it to avoid increasing tension. The undertaking itself inherently pits people against each other on the basis of race. It frames black people as a collective group, as being perpetual victims of the oppression of white people as a collective group. It positions all white people as bad, solely as a result of the color of their skin; it messages indirectly that white people are by their very nature racist, and black people are by their nature victims unable to escape the abuses of white people.
There are fancier words used, and lots of rhetoric wrapped around it. But at its core, that’s the message that is conveyed.
This bill demands that companies go on fishing expeditions into records from well over a century and a half ago in order to find out whether that company ever “benefited” from slavery. It ignores that slavery was legal at the time. I think slavery is abhorrent, including modern slavery in all its softer forms too. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was legal and commonplace at the time it occurred.
Nothing is being “hidden” right now. What’s being demanded by this bill is to dig deep into history… and for all intents, publicly confess the sins of one’s ancestors. What’s the point? What public benefit is accomplished by this?
None. There is no possible good thing that can come if this. At least not for the public in general.
The absolute best scenario is that the state wants to confiscate money from those companies as a punitive measure for lawful behavior from nearly 200 years ago.
But you’re right, it would probably get vetoed. But actually making real reparations (no matter how misguided that idea is) probably isn’t the actual point.
Because there *is* a benefit to be gained: a political one. The act of fishing and disclosing the “sins” of companies is highly likely to result in opprobrium toward those companies by the black community, as well as democrat supporters- especially progressives who use class oppression as a cornerstone of their worldview. It provides ammunition for democratic politicians to leverage. It allows democrats to continue playing up the “racist America” narrative… and to position their party as the solution.
Never mind that this pits races against each other. Never mind that it isn’t actually true. Never mind that it sows the seeds of conflict. It’s politically useful to use the entire black community as pawns to gain power.
That’s the problem I see. It makes things worse for all citizens. It won’t fix anything, because there’s nothing to actually fix. It’s politically useful rage-bait that harms our entire society, and it’s ruthlessly and heartlessly being exploited in the pursuit of power.
en.wikipedia.org
