Opinion By John Wood – May 12, 2023

I was born and raised in Dixie in a former slave state, but owe the blacks absolutely nothing! I was never a slave owner. My father, his father, his father, his father, his father, and on back it goes, never owned slaves. Those blacks wanting this massive, racially divisive payout were never slaves, nor was their father, their father’s father, his father, and on back it goes. Many blacks came from poor families. So did I. You get my point?

Reparations for blacks would only further divide the racial battle lines in this state and country. This very conversation about suggesting it is already bringing more anger and division.

I am Scotts-Irish and Cherokee. My mother’s mother was full blooded Cherokee from the traditional lands of the Cherokee people in the Smoky Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, and she was a WW-2 veteran of the Women’s Army Corps. Ever hear of infamous Trail of Tears of the Indian Removal Act of 1838 where the Cherokee people were forcibly removed, their lands stolen, and brutally marched 12,000 miles to Oklahoma, starved along the trail, and only occasional given rancid, spoiled pork to eat? Over 6,000 Native Americans died en-route to those tiny, non self-sustaining reservations in Oklahoma, where they continued to starve and many, many more died. Where’s my reparations for the suffering of my Cherokee ancestors? Oh, that’s right — I’m not black.

Don’t get me started about my Irish ancestors being discriminated against and hated by everyone. The Irish were forced into a horrible form of slavery known as indentured servitude just to pay for the boat ride across the ocean because they were starving in Ireland. Where’s my restitution for the suffering of my Irish ancestors? Oh, that’s right — I’m not black.

Being born and raised in Dixie I will personally attest that the blacks had far more rights and monetary benefits back there than I ever had. For instance, if I applied for a job, and and a black applicant wanted the same job, which happened often, they got the job even though I was far more qualified and the exceedingly the best educated. That Affirmative Action hiring only served to create an inept, racially biased workforce and bitter racial animosities between non-black and black employees. Don’t you dare think for a minute that the racial prejudice is only white against black in Dixie. That door swings both ways.

What I believe this boils down to is Newsom wants to run for president in 2024. Biden got a majority of the black vote, and Newsom wants those black voters at the expense of California taxpayers, no mater how much it hurts us in probably the highest taxed state in this country. If reparations are successful in California, Newsom would dangle that golden carrot to lure in all black voters nationwide. The very point that Newsom is from California where reparations are being pitched will already be a golden feather in his cap for garnering the black vote in the 2024 presidential primary and beyond.

I wish I was in Dixie, away, away…