The state of California is considering giving the descendants of slaves $1.2m each.
I know that seems like a lot of money (and keep in mind there has been zero apology, so no actual accountability, just an attempt at hush money), and I wouldn’t blame anyone for taking it, but I doubt it comes even close to the true value of the land and property destroyed and repurposed, never mind the pain, suffering, loss of life, and generational trauma and disadvantage that the survivors and their decedents have had to endure.
It’s better than nothing, but still pretty pathetic all things considered.
Edit: and yes, I would have my tax money pay for reparations any day - we as a society benefited, and we as a society should pay (the idea that no people who are working class today benefited from slavery is too absurd and wilfully ignorant to even address).
I also doubt that the people who don’t want “their” taxes to go to this, sit real nice and quiet when billionaires and their corporations are bailed out with amounts thousands of times larger than what is offered to this one family who’s community was literally massacered.I don’t think it is the place of the government to give the money, it should be traced back to who profited from the Slaves and than the Families and Businesses should be the ones paying the money. IF the Government did profit from them they should pay their share as well, but it should not be tax payer dollars only.
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Society as a whole let it happen, and the government is our most organized branch of society. It’s the only effective way to pay it.
As always, raise taxes on the wealthy.
But how precisely did this happen? What agency was responsible and how was it… Acted upon? I’m trying to imagine this as a city worker, like was there a responsible crew for doing this? Who gave the initial order for it?
how precisely did this happen
Systemic racism.
When some people aren’t considered people at all, socially nor legally, this kind of violence isn’t really that big of a leap for many to make (still today, but especially when it was the social and cultural norm).
And this is just a single example out of probably millions in the same vein (here is one list of many with some of the more extreme examples, and only from the US, but the more you dig, the more you find).
Remember - white supremacy isn’t the shark, it’s the water, and we are absolutely not rid of the systems that allowed that kind of thing to happen then, and still allow it today. Hell people are still burning crosses in their Black neighbours’ yards (or shooting them through a closed door), not to mention the systemic aspects like cops killing and abusing Black people without any repercussions, or the prison industrial complex which is essentially modern day slavery.
This is why it’s so important to learn actual history, and not just the whitewashed version approved by those with all the power looking to maintain the status quo.
