(Headline USA) The majority of California voters oppose cash reparations to black Americans, according to a poll released this week.
The survey from the University of California-Berkeley found that 59% of voters in the Golden State either somewhat oppose or strongly oppose cash reparations as a “repayment” for slavery. The only racial demographic that supported the policy was black Americans, with 76% of black voters saying the strongly or somewhat favored the idea.
California is one of several blue states considering reparations payments. The state created a task force in 2020 to study the matter, and in June 2022 the task force released its proposal, which includes cash payments of up to $1.2 million per black resident. In total, the plan would cost California $800 million, 2.5 times more than the state’s annual budget.
When pressed on how the state would afford such an expensive plan, a member of California’s reparations taskforce said the state needs to “chill out” and pay their “sin bill.”
“You cannot put a dollar sign on what has been done to black people,” Dr. Amos Brown, reverend of the Third Baptist Church and vice chair of California’s reparations task force, told Fox News. “Our sin bill in this nation has been so high, and because of the long years of doing nothing, the interest has grown.”
California legislators should at least agree to pay the amount in installments, Brown argued.
“They ought to say, ‘this is what we can afford,’” Brown said. “And if we can’t pay it now, we do like the Germans did – pay for it over installments.”
He also suggested anyone who criticizes or disagrees with the proposal is racist.
“All we’re saying is let’s just chill out and pay your debt – your sin bill of enslavement. Of discrimination. Of intimidation. Of terrorizing black people,” Brown said.
