As California weighs offering every black resident almost a quarter million dollars in reparations, with a price tag of $569 billion, one African-American reverend in the state said the payments are ‘not enough’ in an angry, passionate speech to the California Secretary of State.
After California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber opened up the floor for comments during a meeting, Reverend Tony Pierce expressed his dissatisfaction with California’s current reparations plan. As he was told that his allotted time was expiring, he yelled his last words: ‘And $200,000 is not enough! $223,000 is not enough.’
Pierce was also not satisfied with the current process to determine how much African-Americans in the state are owed, which is being headed by a Reparations Task Force.
‘How will reparations be paid?’ Pierce asked as Weber told him that his time at the podium was up. ‘Immediately!’
The Reverend’s demands for more reparations than what California is considering resulted in a flood of negative comments towards him on social media.
One Twitter post by FOX News describing the situation was ‘ratioed,’ a term for a tweet that receives more replies than likes, typically denoting a negative response.
Many of the commenters not only opposed Pierce’s request for more reparations but opposed them outright. One user said that even giving a single cent to reparations is ‘too much.’
$0.01 is too much
— Glen Zariczny (@glenz_27) January 28, 2023
Some California residents and politicians seemingly agree with Pierce, with San Francisco proposing an eye-popping $5 million per black resident for reparations. Black conservative commentators Larry Elder and Leo Terrell slammed the proposal as unconstitutional while also mentioning that California was never a slave state.
Subscribe to Florida Jolt Newsletter!
Black attorneys @TheLeoTerrell and @larryelder slam San Francisco's 'outrageous, unconstitutional and unlawful' reparations plan to hand longtime black residents $5m each -especially when California wasn't even a slave statehttps://t.co/RkJ3Pj1oPh#Reparations
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) January 18, 2023
In what would significantly increase the price tag for reparations in California if they were to pass, Pierce also said there should be no residency requirements for black people to receive the payments.
‘There should be no residency requirements for California! We have to encourage our people to come back to California! What better way to encourage our people to come back to California if we have no requirements?’ Pierce asked.
One of the topics discussed at the Reparations Task Force meeting was residency requirements for receiving reparations payments.
The CA Reparations Task Force #CRTF meets again, in 2 weeks! ✊🏾💪🏾
Join in-person on Wed & Thurs Dec. 14th-15th at @Oakland City Hall from 9am-5pm PT.
Meeting topics: 1) Residency requirements 2) Final proposals report back 3) Local reparations
Info: https://t.co/FH2A68ez43 pic.twitter.com/Oxe4TcDrRW
— NotYourNegro 🇺🇸Freedmen (@Chad_Boogie) December 1, 2022
If all of America’s 41.6 million black residents were eligible for a $223,000 reparations payment, the price tag would come out to roughly $10 trillion, more than two and a half times California’s annual Gross Domestic Product.
The reparations task force that Pierce criticized is tasked with ‘studying the institution of slavery and its lingering negative effects on living African Americans, including descendants of persons enslaved in the United States and on society.’
In December, a black civil rights activist attending another Reparations Task Force meeting asked for $350,000 per person.
Marcus Champion with the Civil Justice Association of California called for ‘direct cash payments, tax-exempt status, free college education, grants for homeownership, business grants, access to low to no business funding and capital.’
Other black activists have also demanded free college tuition for African-Americans.
HBCUs were born out of Black Americans (#Freedmen)'s constant fight to over government sanctioned anti-blackness. We should NOT still be having to fight. The FEDERAL government should fully fund ALL HBCUs, and HBCUs should be tuition free to all Black Americans (#Freedmen). https://t.co/Tedv8Sq2d5
— MarcelForCongress (@Marcel4Congress) January 19, 2023
California’s Reparations Task Force says that it its reparations program would be the ‘largest since reconstruction’.
‘We are looking at reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction,’ task force member Jovan Scott Lewis told the New York Times in 2022.
While the Task Force is an initial step towards reparations payments for African-Americans in the state, their recommendations are not legally binding and would have to be approved by the California legislature and Governor.
‘Under AB 3121, any reparations program will need to be enacted by the Legislature and approved by the Governor. The Reparations Task Force’s role is to develop recommendations for future Legislative action. Therefore, there is no claims process at this time, according to the State of California’s Department of Justice website.
Other stories you may want to read:
Rep. Caruso Files Bill to Fight Antisemitism
Suspect in Microsoft Executive’s Murder Held Without Bond
