On Wednesday, California lawmakers brought forward a reparations package to the state house in an effort to “right historic wrongs” made against the African-American community, according to a report from Reuters.
Reportedly, the bills created by California’s Legislative Black Caucus would seek a formal apology from the governor and state legislature for slavery, fund community programs meant to help the black community, among other things (via Reuters):
Caucus chair, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, said during the press conference that the package of bills aims to address "how we as Californians are still affected by slavery and it's successors in our own state, including redlining, theft of labor, wealth and capital, over-incarceration, over-policing and systemic discrimination."
None of the bills being proposed calls for cash restitution to be paid to individuals, garnering criticism from some members of the Black community.
As Leah previously reported, when news of the bills first broke, it was noted that none of the bills included in the package included cash reparations. The bills were created based on proposals recommended by the Reparations Task Force.
"What good is a cash payment if it's only going to benefit one generation?" Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat, told Reuters. "One of the cornerstones of our reparation package is to clear the way of legal barriers, of systemic barriers, to ensure that the work we now do will last another 100 years."
The task force was created by a state bill in 2020 and worked on proposals for two years (via Reuters):
Civil Rights attorney Areva Martin, the lead counsel for a group of over 1,000 survivors and their descendants whose Black community was taken by the city of Palm Springs in the 1950s and 1960s, praised the first legislative steps.
But Martin said cash payments need to be made to Black Californians - just as such payments have been made to other wronged groups in the U.S., such as Japanese Americans interned in camps during World War Two.
"People get squirmish about cash payments - and they shouldn't. There is only this trepidation when it comes to African Americans," Martin said.
"I think some of that is because anti-Blackness is so pervasive. It also has to do with racist tropes around Black folks and our inability to handle money."
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Late last month, Townhall covered how Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) announced that the city created a reparations task force to study the city’s slave history and its lasting impact.
"For four hundred years, the brutal practice of enslavement and recent policies like redlining, the busing crisis, and exclusion from City contracting have denied Black Americans pathways to build generational wealth, secure stable housing, and live freely," Wu said.
“I’m grateful to these teams of historians who will serve our city by documenting Boston’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the myriad legacies of slavery that continue to impact the daily lives of our city’s communities,” Wu added.
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