A Denver councilwoman caused a stir when she declared that white-owned businesses should pay reparations.
Candi CdeBaca, a 37-year-old Democratic Socialist who is facing a run-off election in June, told a business forum Thursday that white-owned businesses should pay an additional race-based tax, which would be given in turn as reparations to minority-owned businesses.
“Capitalism was built on stolen land, stolen labor, and stolen resources,” CdeBaca told the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, 9 News reported.
She said business improvement districts could levy the racial tax.
‘You could be collecting those extra taxes from white-led businesses all over the city and redistributing them to black and brown-owned businesses,” she said.
Critics clapped back, saying the plan is illegal under federal and state law.
Denver councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, a 37-year-old Democratic Socialist, says that white-owned businesses should pay reparations.Denver Post via Getty Images“Capitalism was built on stolen land, stolen labor, and stolen resources,” CdeBaca told the media.The Washington Post via Getty ImagesA crowd listens to speakers at a reparations rally outside of City Hall in San Francisco on March 14, 2023.AP
After she posted a video of her comments on TikTok, she was met with an online backlash that CdeBaca’s office characterized as being “targeted by a white nationalist mob.”
“I will not be silenced by the far-right playbook,” CdeBaca said. “A nuanced discussion about reparations is necessary, but that opportunity has been taken from us by the right-wing outrage machine. This kind of discussion is not going to happen in this media landscape.”
CdeBaca claimed that the constitutionality of a race-based tax is ‘not a factor’ because the taxes from a business improvement district are ‘voluntary.’
A spokesman for Denver’s Department of Finance told 9News that was untrue.
