Nearly 50 percent of Americans do not support taxpayer-funded reparations for black residents, a new DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll has revealed.
A raft of blue cities across the country have proposed paying money to the descendants of slaves in recent years.
California was the first US state to establish a reparations taskforce in 2023 to provide recommendations.
Other Democratic areas, such as New York City and Boston, are also considering offering reparations to its affected populations.
Despite this, DailyMail.com’s poll found that the majority of Americans do not support the notion of dishing out millions of dollars to the ancestors of slaves, with 37 percent strongly opposing it and 11 percent somewhat opposing it.
Only a mere nine percent strongly support reparations, with 11 percent somewhat supporting the proposal, the poll revealed.
More than 30 percent said they either did not know or neither supported or opposed reparations.
Several reparations taskforces have proposed millions of dollars of government money be offered to the ancestors of slaves as a form of apology.
But in September, California Governor Gavin Newsom, dealt a blow to the state’s reparations efforts by vetoing a key property bill.
The rejected Senate Bill 1050 would have helped Black families reclaim or be compensated for property that was unjustly seized by the government through racially motivated eminent domain.
‘I thank the author for his commitment to redressing past racial injustices,’ Newsom said in a statement, referring to state Sen. Steven Bradford. ‘However, this bill tasks a nonexistent state agency to carry out its various provisions and requirements, making it impossible to implement.’
The legislation was part of a package of reparations bills introduced this year that seek to offer repair for decades of policies that discriminated against African Americans.
New York City also revealed plans to consider offering reparations to the descendants of slaves in September – but the proposals are yet to be signed into law by Mayor Eric Adams.
According to the City Council, New York City had one of the highest rates of slave ownership in the country during the 1700s, before abolishing it in 1872.
However, businesses across the city, including the predecessors of some modern banks, continued to benefit financially from the slave trade up until 1866 – with the lawmakers behind the proposals noting that the harms caused by the institution are still felt by Black Americans today.
One of the proposals would require the city to install a sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the site of New York’s first slave market which operated between 1711 and 1762.
In Boston, Boston People’s Reparations Commission has demanded the city invest $15billion in slavery reparations.
They demanded the sum be invested ‘monetarily and through public policy that will be in effect for Black Bostonians for generations.’
Head of the Commission Reverend Kevin Peterson told WCVB that even though the group is asking for $15billion, it is ‘not enough’ as ‘every life is incalculable.’
As well as the money requested from the City, the Commission is in talks with Boston’s white churches about a possible $50million payout.
Another widely debated topic ahead of the November election is immigration.
The DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll found that 50 percent of respondents strongly supported significantly reducing the number of immigrants coming into the country illegally and 18 percent somewhat support it.
Nearly 50 percent also both strongly and somewhat supported reducing immigrants coming legally to the US.