Local leaders are calling for moderated expectations for what reparations will actually look like for Black California residents.
California is one of multiple states negotiating over economic reparations for Black Americans whose ancestors were victimized by the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath. While the state of California was designated as a free state when it joined the Union in 1850, their plans include restitution for actions like redlining and policing of the Black community in the past.
The Wall Street Journal reported that California’s reparations task force is prepared to issue a nearly-1,000 page report to California’s legislature later in June, noting that this group is “likely to suggest dozens of measures that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The same publication also observed that state political leaders, including Black legislators who are in favor of reparations in some form, warn it could take years for many of the task force’s recommended policies to be implemented. “Direct financial compensation to Black Californians, they said, may not happen at all,” The Journal wrote.
CALIFORNIA REPARATIONS COMMITTEE CALLS FOR ENDING CASH BAIL, NO LONGER PROSECUTING LOW-LEVEL CRIMES
“I’m not going to sit here and make the promise that everybody’s going to get a check,” said state Senator Steven Bradford, D-Calif., one of the task force members. “I want people to have a broader view on what reparations could be and a greater acceptance that it might take a little time.”
Bradford has warned before that people must be “realistic” about their expectations. He declared in the past, “I don’t want to set folks’ expectations and hopes up that they’re going to be getting, you know, seven-figure checks. That’s just not happening.”
He is reportedly not the only state leader who cautions that reparations may be more complicated than merely sending checks to countless California citizens.
“The Legislative Black Caucus, which…
Read the full article here
