(Photo: The Disney Proud Family proreparations cartoon.
Today I wrote about the H bomb that Thomas Paprocki, a Catholic bishop, dropped on the US Catholic Church by publicly accusing Cardinal Robert McElroy with heresy. (Paprocki seems to be right. The Catholic Church tried to avoid conflict between its bishops. However, the result has been that the progressive bishops have gone beyond what is necessary to keep the Catholic Church together. Paprocki had grown tired of remaining silent on something so destructive. He saw surrender and the loss, and he was unwilling to speak up in the face the destruction wrought in his church by men like Cardinal McElroy.
It is possible that we are coming to similar conclusions on the issue of race. I haven’t written anything about the Scott Adams controversy because I don’t know what to write. He was stupid for saying what he did. This was both in content (well, almost all of it) as well as in the imprudence of saying it. The Washington Post wrote:
Adams, once a well-known figure, has been entertaining conspiracy theories and extreme-right ideologies for many years. A Rasmussen survey found that a small majority of Black Americans agreed with the statement, “It’s okay being White” — a phrase often associatedwith racist memes.
Adams stated that “if nearly half of all Blacks don’t like White people…that’s a hate organization” on his YouTube livestream. “I don’t want to be in any way related to them. Based on current events, I think the best advice I can give to White people would be to get rid of Black people. There is no way to fix this.
Adams, 65, said that Black people were not “focusing on education” during the program and added, “I am also sick of watching video after video of Black Americans beating non-Black citizens.”
Outrage followed.
These days, outrage follows. It is everywhere. Although Adams’ reaction was foolish, I believe he is right to be offended at the fact that a significant minority of black Americans believes there’s something wrong being white. Crosstabs will show that only 7 percent of whites who were surveyed agreed with Adams. In a culture that treats such things as admirable by news media, what can you expect?
In which major institutions openly discuss how the whole DEI/”antiracism” thing is about taking power from white people based on race and giving it to black folks based on race.
Someday, something will break. The reparations issue might be that point. The Washington Post reports about how San Francisco plans to pay $5 million each to black residents in reparations. San Francisco never had slavery. But it’s not about slavery. It’s about liberals doing:
The reparations program proposed by the committee is not a recompense to slavery, which was never legalized in San Francisco. Instead, it’s a compensation for the “public policies explicitly created” to subjugate Blacks in San Francisco through the upholding and expansion of the legacy and intent of chattel slavery.
Jonathan Turley, a professor of Law, writes that the bill is due for California reparations advocates. Excerpts:
California’s annual reparations cost is $569 billion. The state’s annual budget is approximately half of that amount, at $268 million. The state is facing a $22.5 million deficit. To make matters worse, they are seeking spending cuts.
Given past statements of the governor and other Democratic politicians, this bill may not be politically postponable.
This raises the question of constitutionality. It isn’t clear that the money will ever be paid, even after approval from political leaders.
The law professor explains that it is probably unconstitutional in part. More:
Democratic politicians insist for years on the necessity of reparations to address systemic racism. But politicians like Gov. Newsom is now being asked to pay the price. Years of demands for reparations have led to a greater expectation and even an urgency. California activist, well-known, stated: “It is a debt that’s due, we worked for nothing.” We are not asking, we are telling you.
Recent polling shows that this expectation is being reflected in polling. While 77 percent of Black Americans support reparations, 68 percent of all respondents are against them.
Politicians may have difficulty deciding when it is a good time to make reparations after having defined them as a moral obligation.
Democratic politicians, academics and the media have all created a situation where more than three quarters of black Americans believe they are entitled for money that will never be earned. Because we all live in a media environment where you must watch what you say to avoid being on the wrong side, it is difficult to talk about the morality or practicality of reparations.
Jeremy Carl says the truth about this topic. Excerpts:
The U.S. doesn’t owe anyone anything as a collective because they have a certain skin colour or because of the experiences of their ancestors. This is not meant to minimize the history of slavery and subsequent anti-black discrimination in America. This is to say, however, that this type of racial settlement is both unfair and impossible to achieve justly. Even if it was, trying to place a price on it will cause far more problems than it solves.
In America, Jews and Asian Americans have been treated badly. However, both groups are highly successful. Today, Jews account for approximately 1/3 of all 400 richest Americans, despite making up only 2% of the total population. Asian Americans have the highest income per capita of any ethnic group. Were their ancestors discriminated against by America’s Jews surgeons and Asian lawyers?
The African American population is, in many ways, already extremely successful. According to Deutsche Welle, America is home to the largest group of successful, wealthy Black people in the world. It also has a large middle-class, which can be anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 the African American population.
Is it crazy to propose San Francisco? Well:
The San Francisco plan provides reparations starting at $5 million per person. This payment would be an absolute minimum of $100 trillion and could easily go up to several hundred billion. This payment will be made to a population that was barely there before 1940 when blacks constituted 0.8% of the population.
The report calls for a 250 year program to guarantee a minimum income of $97,000 per annum to low-income black residents. It also requires that they refinance existing black-owned mortgages.
This is both politically and legally impossible. If you make black people (or other ethnic groups) believe that RACISM is the only reason they don’t get this, you create a future of hatred.
Carl points out that the same logic used in the San Francisco crackpot proposal can be used as a justification for reparations to any minority group. This is why they’re now referring to, I kid you NOT, ahref=”https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/29/gayreparations-lgbtq_united-states gay reparations.” It’s all about taking money away from straight white people and then distributing it to other people for no other reason than that they are of a particular preferred race or sexual orientation. Straight white people should not be expected to sit back and allow leftist grifters to pick their pockets. Carl has one more thing to say:
Sign up today
Receive weekly emails to your inbox
Is America looking for a permanent settlement of mass interracial scores, or something more like a functioning multiethnic democracy? The future of America will depend on how we handle reparations demands.
Take the time to read it. It is important. This is a crucial collective decision. It is impossible to talk about it out of fear of conflict or fear of any other reason.
(Readers, I am reminding you that this blog will be ending after March 10. If you enjoyed reading this blog and the many conversations we have had over the past dozen years, you can subscribe to Rod Dreher’s Diary, which I send out every day. Five dollars per month or $50 annually gets you between five and seven daily newsletters about religion, politics, culture, war, media, and all the other Dreher stuff. You never know what you might find! You might get a Primitive Root Wiener. )
