Economists advising California’s task force for reparations have estimated that it will cost $1.2 million per Black resident, paid over a lifetime.
California is one of multiple states debating the feasibility of economic reparations for Black Americans whose ancestors were victimized by the Atlantic slave trade and its legacy, despite the fact California was designated as a free state when it joined the Union. The push for reparations gained major momentum in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, but it remains an economically and culturally controversial topic.
California, which frequently makes national headlines for experimental progressive policies, has recently reached an economic estimate.
“Economists advising California’s task force on reparations have, at long last, released an estimate of the damages caused by the state’s history of slavery and its many vestiges of white supremacy: up to $1.2 million per Black resident over a lifetime,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday.
REPARATIONS FOR BLACK CALIFORNIANS COULD COST $800B, ECONOMISTS WARN
California’s reparations task force is preparing to recommend that the Golden State apologize and issue “down payments” to Black residents as a way to make amends for slavery and discrimination, although the state explicitly outlawed slavery when it joined the Union in 1850.
The task force, created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, on Monday published more than 500 pages of documents that indicate it plans to recommend California issue a formal apology for slavery and racism and consider payments of varying amounts to eligible Black Californians.
The Chronicle suggested this massive number was merely a “rough, partial estimate of what it would cost the state to compensate Black people for that legacy of harm, according to a draft of the task force’s final report.”
The paper quoted the report directly.
“Rather, it is an economically conservative initial…
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