The California Reparations Task Force was a non-regulatory state agency in California established by California Assembly Bill 3121 in 2020 to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, especially those who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States. It was the country's first statewide reparations task committee[1] and was created to study methods to resolve systemic racism against African Americans resulting from slavery's enduring legacy.[2] The task force was designed to recommend ways to educate the California public of the task force's findings and to propose remedies.
Five members were appointed by the governor, two members were appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, and two members by the speaker of the Assembly.[3] The members voted to limit their study to exclusively address redress for descendants of antebellum slavery in the United States, rather than a broader application to people of general Black African descent who live in the United States.
After almost three years of fact-finding, reports, and public hearings, California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force on Thursday, June 29th, 2023, released its final report to state lawmakers with recommendations for how the state should atone for its history of racial violence and discrimination against Black residents.[4]
History
editThe task force convened in 2021.[5] In 2022, the committee received testimony about segregation, redlining, voter restrictions, and other forms of discrimination and discussed whether it was appropriate to pay reparations to all African Americans in California or only those whose ancestors were enslaved.[6] The committee was presented with calculations for certain scenarios that include figures amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in reparations for each California resident who can prove they are the descendant of an enslaved person.[7] One estimate suggested "just under $1 million for each Black Californian descended from slaves," based on a calculation of $127,000 per year of life expectancy gap between Black and White Californians. Kamilah Moore noted that California could not afford to pay such a debt directly, and that the reparations might not come in the form of cash, but equivalent value, such as free health care programs or medical clinics.[8]
California is the first U.S. state to establish a body to study discrimination against African Americans and recommend reparations.[3] Such an initiative is not without precedent, however; Germany made payments to Holocaust survivors and the United States made payments to Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. In one case a family's land was taken through eminent domain and became a state park.[9]
Members
editMembers are: senator Steven Bradford, Amos C. Brown, Cheryl Grills, Lisa Holder, assembly member Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Jovan Scott Lewis, Kamilah Moore (Chair), councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, and councilmember Donald K. Tamaki.[10] Eight members are African American and the ninth Japanese American.[3]
Activities
editAmong the solutions proposed by the group were a public apology from California for its role in permitting slavery and its numerous legacies of white supremacy, as well as payments to people whose ancestors were slaves.[11] The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans issued its final report to the California Legislature on June 29, 2023.[12]
San Francisco
editAccording to the New York Times, while several American cities are considering comparable solutions, none has been as active as San Francisco, whose 15-member task team has provided municipal officials with 111 proposals in a preliminary report. Besides the reconstruction motion, the reparations task team highlighted many issues that have left Black communities behind, ranging from "a statewide ban on affirmative action" to discriminatory hurdles that have resulted in limited access to medical services. The city task force announced paying $5 million payment once, to anyone who qualifies in an effort to eliminate the racial wealth gap, which has been a key justification for reparations for a long time. In contrast, the task force on reparations for the state of California has proposed a sliding scale with a limit of $1.2 million for elderly Black individuals. The cash amount received a lot of attention, but it is mostly viewed as unachievable in a city with mounting fiscal challenges and a lack of political agreement on the subject.[13]
Results
editOne of the recommendations of the Task Force, for the repeal of the Penal exception clause from the state constitution's ban on slavery and involuntary servitude, was placed on the November 2024 ballot by the Legislature as ACA 8 on June 27, 2024.
See also
edit- Evanston Reparations Committee
- New York Reparations Task Force
- African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission
- SupportReparations.org
- Alliancefor.org
References
edit- ^ Arango, Tim (May 16, 2023). "Can Reparations Bring Black Residents Back to San Francisco?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ Lyngaas, Sean (May 9, 2023). "FBI disrupts Russian hacking tool used to steal information from foreign governments | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
- ^ a b c Kolhatkar, Sonali (December 21, 2021). "California Forms a State-Level Reparations Task Force". Yes Magazine.
- ^ Clayton, Abene (January 29, 2023). "'California's first-in-nation reparations taskforce to release final report': The document could serve as a national blueprint for how states atone for their history of racial violence against Black residents". The Guardian.
- ^ Karlamangla, Soumya (December 8, 2021). "California's Reparations Task Force Meets Again". The New York Times.
- ^ Karlamangla, Soumya (March 4, 2022). "Who Should Get Reparations in California?". The New York Times.
- ^ Sumagaysay, Levi (October 28, 2022). "California reparations push could give Black residents hundreds of thousands of dollars --- here's what they say they would do with it". MarketWatch. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- ^ Samuel, Leah (November 9, 2022). "Kamilah Moore and California's path to reparations". Harvard Public Health. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
- ^ Ho, Vivian (January 9, 2022). "'If not us, then who?': inside the landmark push for reparations for Black Californians". The Guardian.
- ^ "Reparations Task Force Members". State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General. May 3, 2021.
- ^ Gardiner, Dustin (May 17, 2023). "California's reparations process wasn't pretty — but could yield important lessons for the rest of the country". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ "California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. Final Report. California, June 29, 2023."
- ^ Arango, Tim (May 16, 2023). "Can Reparations Bring Black Residents Back to San Francisco?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 17, 2023.