Radical Colorado Democrat says white-owned businesses should pay reparations for 'stolen land'

A Denver Democrat is pushing for a race-based tax, citing the need redistribute wealth from white-owned businesses to "black and brown-owned businesses."

Candi CdeBaca is a democratic socialist running for re-election to the Denver City Council. She previously made waves for championing a proposal to intentionally infect Republicans with COVID-19 and for seeking the collectivization and redistribution of land, labor, and resources "by any means necessary."

While CdeBaca does not appear to have redistributed her own wealth and property during her four years making a six-figure salary with the city, the democratic socialist has, however, found a way to redistribute the wealth of those she perceives as inheritors of historic guilt.

The Denver Democrat proposed a race-based tax at a forum before the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance on Thursday, reported KUSA-TV.

"Capitalism was built on stolen land, stolen labors, and stolen resources," she said.

CdeBaca suggested that a one-time reparations check would be insufficient to pay down the debt alleged to be owed by bygone aggressors to bygone victims. Instead, she indicated that reparations should be meted out in an "ongoing fashion."

After first admitting that taxation constitutes theft, CdeBaca proposed that a business improvement district could be used to impose a tax on Denver businesses on the basis of their owners' skin pigmentation and ethnicity.

A BID is a pseudo-governmental agency that business owners in a specific area can create via a vote, which could then impose taxes based on assessment to achieve various ends.

"Instead of a BID collecting extra taxation from the black and brown businesses that are struggling, you could be collecting those extra taxes from white-led businesses all over the city and redistributing them to black and brown owned businesses who are not part of it or who are simply just black- or brown-owned. And that's one way to give back in the business fashion, said CdeBaca.

The councilwoman did not specify whether mixed-race business-owners would be partially or fully taxed under the scheme.

According to CdeBaca, these race-based penalties are not unconstitutional because BID taxes are "voluntary."

A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Finance said that was not true.

"Non-residentially assessed property owners within the BID are required to pay the additional taxes/fees," spokeswoman Courtney Meihls told KUSA. "It's not voluntary."

CdeBaca's racist proposal was roundly ridiculed after the Libs of TikTok Twitter account shared the corresponding video.

Cultural critic and mathematician James Lindsay called it "blatant communism."

One commentator accused CdeBaca of the bigotry of low expectations, writing, "Does she not realize she's saying black and brown people can not succeed without white people."

Conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong indicated, "You get what you vote for."

"This is evil. This is wrong. This is racist," tweeted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

FoxBusiness reported that following the backlash to CdeBaca's Thursday remarks, her office issued a statement claiming, "This is the third time CdeBaca has been targeted by a white nationalist mob, and this is part of a concerted playbook to harass, intimidate, and silence progressives and in particular, marginalized communities."

CdeBaca will defend her title and six-figure salary in the general runoff election on June 6, where she faces fellow leftist challenger Darrell Watson, who similarly has advocated for various forms of reparations.

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