By Wendy Fry, Erica Yee and Rya Jetha, CalMatters
Will reparations for Black residents in California become a reality? If not, are they likely to happen anywhere else in the United States?
All eyes are on California, long considered the nation’s test tube for progressive policies, and its pioneering reparations task force, which this week is giving the state Legislature its recommendations for repairing the damage of slavery and racism.
Reparations, a topic steeped in historical and contemporary significance, gained new momentum following the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in 2020. That’s when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law establishing the first-in-the-nation state task force to study historic and systemic racism and develop recommendations to address it.
After two years of often-intense public hearings, the California Reparations Task Force task voted in May to approve a more than 1,000-page document, including more than 200 recommendations for how to undo centuries of unfair treatment for Black Californians, especially descendants of enslaved people. It recommended California formally apologize for its role in enabling slavery, and for the many tentacles of white supremacy in its history.
It also recommended the state make cash payments to those whose ancestors were enslaved. CalMatters’ reparations calculator, based on economic modeling in the task force’s report, estimates an eligible Black resident who has lived seven decades in California could be owed up to $1.2 million.
Advocates say reparations are not only a matter of justice but a necessary step toward healing deep-seated wounds. Critics counter that reparations are an impractical and divisive concept — questioning the fairness of determining eligibility, the cost, and the potential it would open the floodgates to other aggrieved groups to seek repayment for government-sanctioned harms.
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