On July 4, the American Independence Day, California began paying reparations to its African-American citizens. The issue of race relations, as in 2020, has come to the fore in the context of the upcoming elections. Izvestia writes about this on July 14.
The amount of compensation for African Americans in California amounted to $12 million (1.05 billion rubles), which is much lower than the figures announced earlier. In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom formed a commission that estimated the amount of reparations at $800 billion (70 trillion rubles). This is equivalent to $500,000 (44 million rubles) for each of the 1.8 million African Americans. Obviously, the state will not pay this money. The amount is too large: it is equivalent to two annual state budgets.
The California project is not an isolated case. There are other similar initiatives in states governed by Democrats (Massachusetts, New York and Michigan).
The left faction of the Democratic Party previously proposed a one-time payment to every black American citizen in the amount of $350,000 (30.5 million rubles), which during the current presidential campaign amounts to $14 trillion (1.25 trillion rubles). Marianne Williamson, who did not receive any votes from the delegates, insisted on an amount of “at least a trillion.”
Slavery reparations initiatives are a struggle for the black electorate. In the late 1980s, a theoretical framework was created that included “critical race theory.” It argues that race is a social construct created by whites to oppress people of color. According to presidential activist Cornel West, despite the removal of racial restrictions, they continue to operate within social institutions.
The actions of Nixon and Reagan helped to solve the socio-economic problems of African Americans, but the crises of the 2000s neutralized this effect. When the principles of the equality theory were questioned, it turned out that in this theory racism was considered a “white” characteristic. And its main arguments were reduced to the slogan “the arrow does not turn.”
Vladimir Vasiliev, a senior researcher at the Institute for the United States and Canada, argues that critical race theory is not stable enough and is scientifically controversial. In his opinion, it can lead to systemic “black” racism and teach hatred towards one’s own country, which will lead to the de-Americanization of the United States itself.
The idea of racial justice has only become popular in society since the early 2000s. Joe Biden called it the main danger in his inaugural address. The idea of reparations for the years of slavery emerged in the mid-2010s.
For example, in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed universities to consider race and ethnicity when admitting students, giving preference to minorities. This practice was not abolished until 2023. Since then, “affirmative action,” or a corporate DEI strategy that addresses the “underrepresentation” of discriminated groups, has become legal.
After Donald Trump came to power, a storm of information swept through the American consciousness. In 2019, The New York Times published a story about the launch of the “1619 Project.” The initiator was the publication’s editor-in-chief, Dean Bakke, who promoted the racial agenda in the American media. A year later, he ordered that “black” be capitalized and “white” lowercase.
Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project called for reparations for centuries of slavery in the New York Times article “What Is the Debt?” In her view, reparations are a public responsibility because our Constitution sanctioned slavery, Congress protected it, and the federal government initiated racial segregation and discrimination against blacks.
As a result, discussions about the racial agenda were accompanied by events such as the death of George Floyd and the “Kyle Rittenhouse case,” so no one was looking for a compromise.
The Biden administration is currently introducing Critical Race Theory into school curriculum. Educational institutions are being taught to get rid of “whiteness” and corporations are removing anything derived from the word “white” from product names. Even white Americans are accused of racism when they deny the accusations. Christopher Columbus has become a “symbol of genocide” with more than 40 of his monuments torn down or damaged across the country. The political confrontation soon met with serious resistance.
Following the events in Charlottesville, where right-wing supporters from across the country gathered to defend a monument to General Robert E. Lee, the American public became aware of the existence – and in some cases the rebirth – of dozens of openly neo-Nazi militant organizations such as the Order of the Black Sun, the American Liberty Party and 14 First.
In 30 years of debates about racism and reparations, the wealth gap between white and African-American US citizens has remained virtually unchanged. At the same time, the difference in the total value of assets of white and black families continued to grow. According to Brookings University, in 1983 the wealth gap was $123,910 (11 million rubles), in 2017 – $172,000 (15 million rubles), in 2022 – $214,970 (19 million rubles).
Note that in the United States, despite the decline in the number of violent crimes, the growth of racial intolerance has increased. This is the most common motive in hate crime statistics. This shows that the fight against “systemic racism” has led to greater division in American society.
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.