California’s Reparations Task Force prepares to answer the pivotal question of who should receive reparations for slavery.
Questions underscore the complexity of California’s quest to become the first state in the nation to approve statewide reparations for slavery.
State law directs the group to prioritize those who trace their lineage to African Americans enslaved in the United States.
Attention has also focused on whether all Black people deserve some form of restitution for the lingering effects of slavery.
Today, the average white family has roughly 10 times the amount of wealth as the average Black family.
White college graduates have over seven times more wealth than Black college graduates. White high school dropouts have more wealth than Black college graduates. Moreover, the racial wealth gap did not result from a lack of labor. Rather, it came from a lack of financial capital.
But eligibility based on lineage may be difficult and costly for some to prove. Names changed. Families were broken apart and sent across state lines.
When slaves became free they searching for their children, searched for their wives, their family, their mother, their father. That search still continues today.
In its effort to determine who should receive reparations, members of the nine-person panel have found that every potential conclusion raises even more questions.
Should those with ancestral ties to African Americans who were enslaved in the United States be prioritized?
Reparations based on lineage raises the questions of what should qualify as proof in California and whether the state should provide funding for the costs of tracing ancestry.
And, if no proof exists, should those who believe they are descendants be excluded from reparations?
It’s extraordinarily difficult to trace your lineage in the United States back to an enslaved person because it was intentionally made difficult to do so by the power structure because Africans who were stolen from Africa were treated as chattel.
Not everybody is going to be able to prove because records have been destroyed. Courthouses have been burned. Names have changed three or four times.”
The task force comprises elected officials, civil rights leaders, attorneys and reparations experts — was charged with a mission “to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, with a special consideration for African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.”
It will issue two reports. The first is expected to be published June 1 and include findings to support the existence of state-sanctioned racism rooted in slavery from before and after emancipation to the present day.
The second report is expected to recommend remedies, including an apology, eligibility requirements for proposed reparations and a description of how to educate the public on their work.
Those recommendations must be passed in a new law approved by the state Legislature and the governor to take effect.
Descendants of those who were enslaved in the United States should be prioritized for reparations in California but should some of the remedies extend beyond lineage.
Should we be concerned about every Black person in America. When a white racist shoots and kills a Black person in the back because they’re Black, they don’t care if you came in from a slave ship or a cruise ship.
They don’t care if you’re an immigrant. They don’t care if you’re from the Caribbean. They don’t care if you’re mixed. They’re just seeing you as Black.
Over the last 10 months the task force has heard testimony from experts about how federal, state and corporate policies led to continued discrimination against Black people.
This was when they tried to buy a house, rent an apartment, seek healthcare services, apply for insurance, qualify for loans, access public transportation, attend school and in many other aspects of life long after slavery was made illegal.
The legislation was written to give priority to descendants of people who were enslaved in the United States, but should we also have to consider the descendants of all people who experienced continuing exploitation after slavery.”
And then Race-based reparations could face legal challenges.
Laws that give a preference on the basis of race are either inherently suspect, or perhaps per se illegal. State law only applies to government contracting, employment and education.
To help African Americans qualify for reparations designed specifically for descendants of those who were enslaved, should California cover the cost of proving that lineage, such as funding public records requests and travel, and partner with nonprofits that trace genealogy as a form of reparation.
“o repair genealogy is a part of debt repairing. There’s no amount of money that we can put on what it takes to repair. Most folks want to know who they are. That was a birthright that was taken away from Blacks.
Source: LA Times
