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The Democratic Mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, announced a grant program for racial minorities. The program consists of $500 monthly checks for the poorest families of the city. However, the program will only apply to families of color, completely excluding white families even if their income is below the poverty line.
Private donors will fund the program and will distribute the money as follows: 50% of the checks will go to families with one child earning less than $59,000 a year. The other half of the checks will go directly to families earning less than $30,000 per year.
The only eligibility requirement is that the family must be from a racial minority. What is the reason for the city or the program to exclude white families? Well, according to the “Oakland Equity Indicators” report, white families earn three times more than families of color.
“The median income for White households was highest ($110,000) and the median income for African American households was lowest ($37,500). The median income for Asian households ($76,000) was similar to the citywide median income ($73,200), while Latino households fell below the citywide median with a median income of $65,000. The median income for White households was 2.93 times the median income of African American households,” the report claims.
The document also reads that “African Americans were most likely to be living at or below the federal poverty level (26.1%), compared to 21.9% of Latinos, 15.0% of Asians, and 8.4% of Whites. This means that more than one in four African Americans and more than one in five Latinos were living at or below the federal poverty level. African Americans were 3.09 times more likely than Whites to be living at or below the federal poverty level.”
The main criticism is that the report itself states that there are about 10,000 white residents in poverty in the city of Oakland who, simply because they are white, cannot receive the subsidy.
It is worth saying that this pilot program will go to 600 families who will be chosen randomly, through a lottery.
“Oakland Resilient Families will provide 600 randomly selected Oakland families (with an intentional focus on groups with the greatest wealth disparities per the Oakland Equity Index) with low incomes and at least 1 child under 18 a guaranteed income of $500 per month for at least 18 months,” the program’s website explains.
The website also notes the program’s origin and inspiration: “BIPOC families in Oakland and the nation experience generational wealth inequities rooted in ongoing systemic racism. The movement for a guaranteed income as a tool for racial and gender equity dates back to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Panther Party.”
In statements to the Associated Press, the Oakland mayor said that they designed “this demonstration project to add to the body of evidence, and to begin this relentless campaign to adopt a guaranteed income at the federal level.” Basically, a subsidy to be exported from California to the rest of the country, like so many other policies being pushed from California legislatures to Congress.
In a statement, Mayor Schaaf said that “The poverty we all witness today is not a personal failure, it is a systems failure,” Schaaf said in a release. “Guaranteed income is one of the most promising tools for systems change, racial equity, and economic mobility we’ve seen in decades. I’m proud to work with such committed local partners to build a new system that can help undo centuries of economic and racial injustice, and point us all toward a more just society.”
Oakland program strongly criticized as racist against poor white families
However, in Oakland there are 10,000 people in poverty who are not eligible for this “redistribution” or subsidy deal. And criticism soon followed via social media.
“Anti-white racism is by far the most prevalent, dangerous, and systemic form of racism in America,” Daily Wire writer and podcaster Matt Walsh wrote on Twitter.
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) opinion editor Brad Polumbo also said the program is “Insane (“insane”) and almost certainly illegal.”
Representative Mary Miller (R-IL-15) also criticized the policy. “The left gets away with it in the name of ‘equality,'” she said on Twitter. “Even discrimination race based discrimination.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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