CA reparations task force member defends million-dollar payouts: ‘Sin bill’ for ‘terrorizing Black people’

EXCLUSIVE – Californians need to “chill out” about reparation proposals and pay their “sin bill.” Those strong words come from a senior member of both the state and San Francisco reparation task forces.

“You cannot put a dollar sign on what has been done to Black people,” Dr. Amos Brown, a civil rights activist and reverend of the Third Baptist Church, told Fox News Digital. “Our sin bill in this nation has been so high, and because of the long years of doing nothing, the interest has grown.”

Earlier this month, the California reparations task force, which Brown is vice chair of, approved its final recommendations on how the state should compensate Black residents for the lasting effects of slavery, including cash payments of up to $1.2 million per person.  

Brown also sits on San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which released a report earlier this year recommending $5 million payouts, guaranteed annual income of at least $97,000, and personal debt forgiveness for the city’s Black residents. 

REPARATIONS FIGHT ROARS AS SOME CITIES PUSH MILLION-DOLLAR PAYMENTS TO BLACK AMERICANS: ‘OUR CIVIC OBLIGATION’

“All we did was evaluate the harm and state the case of what it might mean in terms of dollars and cents,” Brown said. “But if you can’t pay all of that, say what you can pay. That’s the point.” 

Both the state and city proposals garnered national attention and pushback for their high price tags, especially as California faces a $32 billion budget deficit.

Economists on the state panel said reparations could cost more than $800 billion. San Francisco’s proposals could cost over $100 billion according to the New York Times – almost seven times its annual budget. 

“They ought to say, ‘this is what we can afford,’” Brown said. “And if we can’t pay it now, we do like the Germans did – pay for it over installments.” 

Brown said even when the U.S. was in more economically prosperous times, Black Americans were still treated…