Los Angeles County’s new ‘labor acknowledgement’ says exploitation underlies U.S. economy

Los Angeles County officials have begun reading a "labor acknowledgment" at some public meetings that says the American economy was built on exploited labor. 

The investigative reporter who discovered it says the statement amounts to propaganda being pushed on residents without public debate. City Journal reporter Austen Hufford flagged the statement in a video posted to X last week, showing the pre-recorded message being played at a Los Angeles County meeting.  

County declares the nation was founded on "stolen labor" and "inequitable wealth"

"Most modern-day U.S. institutions have benefited from the unaddressed legacy of stolen labor at the foundation of this nation and its vast and inequitable wealth," reads the acknowledgment, which can also be found here. 

"We respectfully acknowledge our debt to the enslaved people, primarily of African descent, whose labor and suffering built and grew the economy and infrastructure of a nation that refused to recognize their humanity," the acknowledgment continues. 

In an interview with Just the News, Hufford argued the statement casts the county's residents of color as victims of theft even though California was at no time in history a slave state. 

“They're claiming that, you know, the country is built on slavery, and that every person of color in Los Angeles has had their, you know, I guess their money stolen from them in some sense,” City Journal reporter Austen Hufford told the Just the News, No Noise TV show.

“And remember, you know you don't need to be a history scholar to remember that California joined America as a free state. So [...] it's very unclear what they're even apologizing for, to be honest. To me, it's just kind of crazy that this propaganda is being pushed to all of the citizens at every public meeting without any sort of discussion about what's actually going on,” he continued.

California was admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850.

Ongoing collective debt and collective guilt asserted

The "labor acknowledgment" also recognizes a supposed "collective debt" to indigenous people, "Chinese immigrants that built railroads," and Japanese-Americans interred by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. The acknowledgment also admits a collective debt to Mexican immigrants. 

Finally, the acknowledgment asserts that the modern U.S. economy is still reliant on such "exploited labor." 

"We recognize that our economy continues to rely on the exploited labor of incarcerated people, largely people of color, who earn pennies an hour while generating billions in goods and services each year," the acknowledgment reads. 

It is not immediately clear from what meeting the labor acknowledgment was recorded, or who in Los Angeles County approved or even authored the statement. However, the video depicts Veronica Lewis, a member of L.A. County's Public Social Services Commission. 

L.A. County Board of Supervisors meetings already open with a land acknowledgment that says settler colonization led to land seizure, disease, subjugation, slavery, relocation, broken promises, genocide and "multi-generational trauma."

Undisclosed, mysterious origin and approval of the statement

The statement adds: "While the 13th Amendment to the Constitution technically ended 'slavery' in the U.S., we know that slavery’s ongoing impacts are still felt by countless people forced – through violence, threats, and coercion – to work in the U.S."

Initial research shows that the statement originates from various left-wing community organizations. Its origin appears to be from Solid Ground, first used by the Seattle-based anti-racism nonprofit on September 5, 2022. According to ProPublica, Solid Ground is a 501(c)3 tax-free charity operating since at least 1988. That organization's most recent IRS filings show revenues of $7.95 million, and expenses of $5.37 million.

Neither Los Angeles County nor Solid Ground have disclosed any information available at publication time about how the statement became adopted by the county. Just the News' research indicates that the statement resides on servers maintained by Los Angeles County, and the file path used (SDSInter/jcod/ati/) indicates that the statement belongs to the records of the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department (JCOD) (formerly the Alternatives to Incarceration / ATI initiative) within the Los Angeles County system. 

At the same time, and adding to the mystery of whether it has been adopted countywide, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture disclosed the adoption of a "land acknowledgment" as part of a larger "Countywide Cultural Strategic Plan" as early as 2022, but is silent on the issue of "labor."

Los Angeles isn't the only local government beginning meetings with the declaration. In Denver, Council member Shontel Lewis proposed a “labor acknowledgment” that would recognize the lasting impact of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade and racial segregation. Some of her colleagues argued that other groups, like Japanese-Americans and indigenous people, should be recognized alongside enslaved Africans. Lewis withdrew the measure in late September, saying the community group she worked with did not support expanding it to other groups.