Those advocating for reparations need to explain why such large majorities of Californians and Americans strongly oppose reparations, especially in the form of direct cash payments.
In poll after poll, both in our state and nationally, citizens say that reparations plans are unaffordable, unachievable and just plain wrong. One poll last year showed only 23% of Californians support cash payments, with 59% opposed and 13% expressing no opinion. Another poll, also from last year, shows that just 39% of Californians even favor the idea of a reparations task force to study the issue and come up with recommendations. On a national scale, the respected Pew Research Center’s poll found that just 30% of Americans support reparations, while 68% oppose them. The Pew Center called reparations “deeply unpopular in America.”
Against this backdrop, the California Legislative Black Caucus last Wednesday introduced their latest slate of reparations bills, a package of 14 measures ranging from education and civil rights to criminal justice that the caucus’s chair, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, called “a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.” Remarkably, however, none of the measures included direct cash payments to Black Californians, which long has been desired by those pushing for reparations.
All these measures are now circulating in the California Legislature; any bill or bills it eventually passes will, of course, have to be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. He has strongly indicated his skepticism about reparations, most especially cash payments, which probably is why the Black Caucus’s bill doesn’t include them. But other proposals for reparations, such as those by the City and County of San Francisco, do include direct cash payments.
Here’s the problem for pro-reparations people: they have got to come up with some sort of explanation for why so many Americans don’t support reparations in any form except, possibly, a formal apology by the government.
Pro-reparations people will naturally reply that there’s a simple reason why anyone opposes them: racism. But this explanation won’t do. You can’t just claim that tens, if not hundreds of millions of Americans are racist. Of course, that doesn’t stop politicians like Cat Brooks, Carroll Fife and Pamela Price from making that claim anyway, but intellectually it doesn’t work. Americans are fair-minded; they believe in the Declaration of Independence’s immortal words that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They wish nothing but success for their fellow Americans, but they do insist that being “created equal” doesn’t mean that “all men” will achieve equal outcomes. It means that everybody begins at the same starting line; after that, the race goes to the fittest.
Americans have plenty of valid reasons for being against reparations. For starters, there’s the cost: most forms of reparations that include cash payments would bankrupt the issuer. Sensible Americans will not allow that. Another objection is that the idea seems monstrously unfair: no living Black American was a slave. No living American ever was a slaveholder. Besides, every group can claim some form of ill treatment in its past. Are Jews to demand reparations from Egypt for being held in captivity? Most Americans feel that they, or their families and friends, have suffered from various forms of injustice. But we can’t just constantly accuse each other of being bad. That leads nowhere except to stoke inter-race conflict. At some point, most Americans believe, we have to let the dead bury the dead, and get on with it.
Personally, I’d be content with an apology. Perhaps there are some forms of assistance, in housing, education, healthcare and so forth, that we could offer Black Californians, but the costs would have to be modest. Anything that makes millions of non-Black Californians feel resentful ought to be a non-starter. The last thing we need, in these incendiary times, is to have our grudges underscored and exacerbated. For these reasons, I urge Gov. Newsom to tread very carefully when reparations bills hit his desk, if they do.
Steve Heimoff