March 29, 2021 - Epoch Times
13:34
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Reparations is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to be given to people who were never slaves. | |
| And when I say that, people say, well, what about Jim Crow? | |
| What about discrimination? | |
| All a state can be is just in its own time. | |
| Consider this story from Manhattan Beach, California. | |
| The newspaper considered it to be a reparation story. | |
| First, a little history about Manhattan Beach. | |
| When I told folks that my family once owned the beach here, they would laugh at me. | |
| They didn't believe African Americans own beaches. | |
| So we're in Manhattan Beach, California, Ab Bruce's Beach Park. | |
| But who's Bruce and what's the history behind that name? | |
| In 1912, Charles and Willa Bruce bought a beautiful piece of land between 26th and 27th Street in Manhattan Beach, California. | |
| On that land, they built a resort overlooking the magnificent Pacific Ocean. | |
| While Charles Bruce worked as a dining cart chef on the train running between LA and Salt Lake City, Willa run the popular resort. | |
| The area attracted black beach goers and other blacks who moved in and built their own cottages by the sea. | |
| And it was affectionately referred to as Bruce's Beach. | |
| Bruce's Beach was one of the few beaches in Southern California where African-American families could legally attend. | |
| As Bruce's Beach became more popular, racial hostility towards the African-American community grew. | |
| What followed Black beachgoers, however, was a flood of harassment by white residents in Manhattan Beach. | |
| When the harassment by local residents failed, the city stepped in with a solution to drive Blacks out of the area. | |
| In 1924, more than two dozen properties, including the resort, were seized through eminent domain because the city said there was a need for a public park in the area. | |
| Now, was this land, quote, stolen, close quote? | |
| Well, an L.A. County supervisor certainly feels that way. | |
| Nearly 100 years ago, a black family was forced off the waterfront property they owned in Manhattan Beach. | |
| The land they bought for less than $2,000 could be worth up to $75 million today. | |
| Our Adrian Alpert has more on how that pricey property could be returned to the descendants of the original family. | |
| In 1924, the Manhattan Beach City Council used eminent domain to seize the property owned by Willa and Charles Bruce, the first black landowners in that city. | |
| Eventually, the state took the land, now known as Bruce's Beach, and finally it went to the County of Los Angeles. | |
| The story of this racial injustice shocked County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and she's now exploring what can be done. | |
| I'm considering, first of all, giving the property back. | |
| To the Bruce family, I think that would be the one act that would really be justice for that family. | |
| I wanted the County of Los Angeles to be a part of righting this terrible wrong. | |
| The beach on Highland Avenue at 27th was a resort for Black families who came to enjoy the beach until it was taken away. | |
| Reached in Florida, Bruce's descendant, Anthony Bruce, said it robbed him of his family's legacy. | |
| I think we would be wealthy Americans still living there in California, and especially there at Bruce's Beach area. | |
| Manhattan Beach, probably. | |
| Supervisor Hahn said there is also an option of leasing the property from the Bruce family so the county's lifeguard administration building can remain there. | |
| Or the Bruce family could be paid reparations for what they actually lost. | |
| Manhattan Beach resident Kavon Ward has been petitioning and raising awareness about Bruce's Beach. | |
| They need to pay for the stripping of generational wealth, right? | |
| Like this family could have been wealthy. | |
| They could have passed down wealth to other family members. | |
| Manhattan Beach could have been more culturally diverse. | |
| There would have been more black people here. | |
| Then there is the matter of the beach itself. | |
| A Manhattan Beach City Task Force is sending the council new recommendations, including a resolution of apology and creating a new commemorative plaque with wording prominently acknowledging the pioneering Bruce family instead of the original white landowner. | |
| Kavon Ward says the issue is far deeper than the plaque in the park. | |
| This task force and members of Manhattan Beach are living in this sort of bubble of white supremacy and white fragility and that I feel like it's time to penetrate that bubble. | |
| It's time for this bubble to be popped. | |
| The supervisor says time may be right for the county to take action to correct history. | |
| Note the newscaster said forced. | |
| And the woman in support of this action spoke of the bubble of white supremacy and white fragility. | |
| I have no idea what that means, but it sounds good. | |
| Elda here for Birch Gold. | |
| As one of the top dealers of physical precious metals in the United States, Birch Gold Group helps Americans diversify their savings with gold and silver. | |
| Customers can purchase for physical possession or convert a portion of their IRA or 401k into an IRA backed by physical precious metals. | |
| And for the first time since Obama's first term, we are facing a democratically controlled White House Senate and House. | |
| Sounds like a lot of tax and spending to me. | |
| Get ready for more so-called quantitative easing. | |
| Now how does that affect your investment? | |
| How does that affect the strength of your portfolio? | |
| So, contact Birch Gold Group to request a free info kit on physical precious metals. | |
| See if diversifying into gold makes sense for you. | |
| This comprehensive 20-page kit reveals how gold and silver can protect your savings and how you can legally move your IRA or 401k out of risky stocks and bonds into a precious metals IRA. To get your no cost, no obligation kit, text LARRY to 474747. | |
| That's text LARRY to 474747. | |
| And for a limited time, see how you can qualify for up to $10,000 in free precious metals on your purchase. | |
| Text Larry to 474747. | |
| Text Larry to 474747 because we've got a country to save. | |
| Now the case seems cut and dried, right? | |
| Land stolen, reparations needed. | |
| Well, this article that came out after the first story came out added a little more information. | |
| Quote, 30 lots were acquired by the city through eminent domain on the pretense of building a park. | |
| 25 of those lots were owned by white families. | |
| The total paid for those 30 lots was $66,040.63. | |
| Even though the Bruce family owned only two of the 30 lots, the Bruce family received $14,500 or 22% of the amount awarded by the court. | |
| And according to this letter to the editor, there's more. | |
| There is so much fiction fanning the flames, including the allegation that the Bruce's were driven out, undercompensated, and restricted from buying elsewhere in Manhattan Beach. | |
| The facts found by Manhattan Beach multi-ethnicity commissions on Bruce's Beach are 1. | |
| The NAACP lawyer representing the Bruce family stated that the Bruce's were willing to sell the property for a fair price at any time. | |
| Two, the LA Times documented how the families were overcompensated, not undercompensated. | |
| Further, Manhattan Beach residents were up in arms against the Manhattan Beach Board of Trustees for giving excessive payments to the family. | |
| Three, the majority of the black families impacted, bought, and relocated elsewhere in Manhattan Beach, and other black families stayed in Manhattan Beach, too. | |
| I concluded from reading and researching the subject that prejudice played a key role in the eminent domain action and can, should be realized. | |
| However, this park should not be a monument for that. | |
| Remember, many white families owned 25 of the 30 parcels in the eminent domain action and were impacted." Again, the land was not stolen, eminent domain was used, and there may very well have been a racial animus behind all of this. | |
| But that was 1924. | |
| What does the current government have to do with that, let alone the current taxpayers? | |
| Do you know the Dodger Stadium is built somewhere called Chavez Ravine? | |
| That land was occupied by lower class economically Hispanics. | |
| The land was taken via eminent domain for a public purpose. | |
| Here's some background. | |
| Once upon a time in the city of Los Angeles, there was a town called Chavez Ravine. | |
| Chavez Ravine was a barrio tucked away in the hills north of Los Angeles. | |
| It was a small village where Mexican-Americans lived in peace. | |
| It wasn't much for the big city folks, but for the Hinta and the neighborhood, it was everything. | |
| People were raising children, families, growing gardens. | |
| There was pachangas, quinceañeras. | |
| Everyone knew everybody else. | |
| But all around the ravine, the city was at work creating new housing and neighborhoods. | |
| Some thought that Chavezerín was lucky to be left alone. | |
| Chavez Ravine became the centerpiece of a plan from funding under the American Housing Act of 1949 to bring 10,000 new public housing units to Los Angeles, also known as housing projects. | |
| In the summer of 1950, the city's housing authority sent letters to the current residents of Chavez Ravine, informing them that a public housing development was being built on this location for families of low income, that the community would have the first chance to move back into the new Elysian Park Heights development. | |
| The city used the power of eminent domain. | |
| Some resisted fighting the city's actions in courts. | |
| By the summer of 1952, most of Chavez Irvine was abandoned. | |
| Some families bought into the city plant and sold their houses for peanuts. | |
| Then, the city completely cancelled the housing development. | |
| Residents weren't sure of their future and some slowly started to leave. | |
| So for many years, the land and the last strongholds of residents continued to sit in limbo. | |
| Bulldozers claimed many of the abandoned houses. | |
| Others were given over to the fire department for use in training exercises. | |
| Seven years after those dreadful eviction letters were sent out, only 20 families had remained in Chavez Ravine by 1957. | |
| As the city was searching for new use of the land, the community's final holdouts resisted eviction orders, challenging their property's seizure in court. | |
| The city and the mayor, Norris Paulson, struck up a deal with the Dodgers and Walter O'Malley and promised them the land of Chavez Irvine. | |
| Now, however you feel about the way the Manhattan Beach land was acquired, about the way the Chavez Ravine land was acquired, do you think current taxpayers should be on the hook for what happened under previous governments? | |
| Again, all a state can be is just in its own time. | |
| If we start going back and saying, well, eminent domain was used for this, that, and the other, where will it end, when will it end, and who pays? | |
| Now, finally, Congress just passed a $1.9 trillion, a so-called stimulus package. | |
| Some are calling it porky-less. | |
| Hard to know what to call it. | |
| But there's a provision that allows for billions of dollars to be paid for 120% mortgage relief, debt relief, for black farmers. | |
| Now, if you come to my house, I have two large houseplants on either side of my front door. | |
| I take really good care of them. | |
| I seed them. | |
| I trim the leaves. | |
| I make sure that they're watered. | |
| Does that technically make me a black farmer? | |
| Now, as you know, YouTube has demonetized us. | |
| To continue getting Larry Elder uncensored and on demand, just go to LarryTube.com. | |
| That's all LarryTube.com because we've got a country to save. | |
| And I'll see you next time. |
Export Selection