California Reparations Bills Miss Opportunity to Help Everybody

Commentary What a missed opportunity. The California Legislative Black Caucus just introduced its 2024 Reparations Priority Bill Package. It’s based on last year’s Full Final Report of the California Reparations Task Force, which I wrote about last July in “Real Reparations for Black Californians.” I suggested “8 Reforms for Black Californians,” such as “Institute universal school vouchers.” And, “Reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),” which would sharply cut the cost of building new housing. The key problem is that narrowly focusing on grievances over slavery prevents comprehensive systemic reforms to help black people—and everybody else at the same time. The reparations angle itself is a dead end for several reasons. Slavery was abolished in America in 1865, 159 years ago. The state of California never had slavery. And you would need extensive DNA tests to confirm who does and does not qualify, with the percentage of Sub-Saharan African ancestry to qualify arbitrarily determined....