California Slavery Reparations

🇺🇸 I have a serious problem with this proposal for slavery reparations in California. The problem with this proposal is that slavery never existed in California. We fought a civil war to ensure that slavery would not be allowed to expand to the Western frontier. And we won that civil war, preventing slavery from ever existing in the West, and ending the slavery practices that existed in the South as well. The idea that a state where slavery never existed would pay reparations for slavery is absurd to me. Exactly who would California be paying reparations to? The descendants of slaves who emigrated from former slave states to California? California, or more specifically, the people currently living in California, who come from all over the country and the world, are not responsible for the history of other US states. You can't force people who have never engaged in slavery to pay reparations for it.

I guess coming from Illinois, I have a different perspective than some Americans on slavery. Illinois is a unique state. Like California, slavery never existed in Illinois. The state has continuously fought against slavery practices from the very first day that Illinois became a state in the union. I know from growing up in Illinois, that the people of Illinois do not feel responsible for any of the slavery practices that occurred in the other parts of the USA - quite the opposite. My home state takes great pride in the role that the state played at ending slavery in the USA. Illinois is the Land of Lincoln. The former president, Abraham Lincoln, came from our state. We financed him, we financed the civil war, we volunteered to fight in the civil war, many of the great generals that won that war were from Illinois, and not only that, we financed the first black president, Barak Obama. He also came from Illinois. A proposal for slavery reparations in Illinois would be extremely offensive to them - insulting even. Although Illinois is unique in their role of ending slavery in the USA, I'm sure other midwestern states would have similar sentiments. Midwesterners have the reputation of being the most kind-hearted people in the USA. But I think asking them to pay slavery reparations is equivalent to saying that you don't know or care about the history of their states or anything they have done to end slavery and promote racial equality. If you insult them, those blue states could likely flip red. I don't think any sensible Democrat would want to turn Illinois or the other blue midwestern states into red states. So this idea of having free states, states that have always been free, pay slavery reparations should be dropped. It's a horrible idea. The issue should remain a state-level issue, and it should only be considered by the South and Northeastern states, and many of those states have already implemented slavery reparations.

This perspective that every American or every state of the USA was engaged in slavery or racist practices in the past is false. The narrative that all of the USA's wealth came from slavery, which I have heard some racial justice activists claim, is also false. We are not going to support legislative proposals that promote this false narrative of the USA. Slavery existed in the original thirteen colonies and the South at a time when the entire world engaged in slavery practices. Slavery existed in Africa, all of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. And it still exists in some of those places today. In the USA, the states that did engage in slavery for the longest period of time, the South, are also the poorest states, and those states where slavery never existed, like Illinois and California, are some of the wealthiest, proving that slavery did not create the USA's wealth - liberty created our wealth. The USA is now the wealthiest country in the world, because we chose to abolish slavery and promote liberty. We will continue to promote liberty at home and abroad.

xo