Draft Bill

 I sat and read over this piece in the AM.....California lawmaker proposing bill SB 1403.

The idea?  The bill would create a state a 'Genealogy Office' which would help identify residents who have some type of 'genuine' descendant status of being a slave and therefore....at some point....get state benefit payouts (at least they hint of this).

This guy?  Steven Bradford, a Democratic state Senator for LA County.

I pondered over this.

So lets say for one moment that 1,000 blacks show up on day one and fill out the forms (I assume it's a 7-odd page form), and somewhere on line 15....there's some question to name your great-great-grandma...who existed around 1860....in Georgia (not California).   

So, what legit paperwork will identify Grandma X...as the slave, and how will you provide your descendant status since 1865?

You got papers?

What if you were white, but you have evidence of great-great-grandma Sarah....was the full-up daughter of a slave on the Georgia plantation?  Maybe you even have papers to show Sarah as a 50-50 descendant-slave status.....would this California office certify you?

What if you and the last five generations of the family....have never been to California?

What if you were black, but actually your one single slave status relative....some guy who arrived in 1720....got unslaved after two years, and lived 'free' in the woods of northern New York?

I just see a office with forty-odd people fumbling around and realizing they've got a pretty big mess to explain.