The California legislature passed a bill last week that would provide reparations to descendants of slaves in the form of college admissions — despite Proposition 209, which forbids the use of race in college admissions.
The bill, AB 7, provides that California State University, the University of California, independent institutions of higher education … and private postsecondary educational institutions … may consider providing a preference in admissions to an applicant who is a descendant of slavery.” It applies to anyone “who can establish direct lineage to a person who, before 1900, was subjected to American chattel slavery.”
Proposition 209, passed in 1996 and reaffirmed by California voters in 2020, bans the use of race in college admissions and for other public purposes. Supporters of AB 7 say that “descendant of slavery” is race-neutral.
The Los Angeles Times reports that AB 7 is only one of several reparations bills passed by the legislature:
Earlier this week, the Democratic-led Legislature also passed Senate Bill 518, which would create a new office called the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery. That bureau would create a process to determine whether someone is the descendant of a slave and to certify someone’s claim to help them access benefits.
The legislature also approved Assembly Bill 57, by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Hawthorne), which would help descendants of slavery build generational wealth by becoming homeowners.
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The Legislature also passed McKinnor’s AB 67, which sets up a process for people who said they or their families lost property to the government through “racially motivated eminent domain” to seek to have the property returned or to be paid.
Newsom will now consider the bills. He signed a formal apology for slavery last year, after declining to back bills that would have provided cash reparations.
California entered the Union as a Free State in 1850.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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