When we first reported on the California Reparations Task Force, it demanded over $500 billion in compensation packages to be distributed to the state’s black residents.
That was in December. As we head into April, the amount has increased….substantially.
It could cost California more than $800 billion to compensate Black residents for generations of over-policing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination, economists have told a state panel considering reparations.The preliminary estimate is more than 2.5 times California’s $300 billion annual budget, and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span. Nor does the figure count compensating people for property unjustly taken by the government or devaluing Black businesses, two other harms the task force says the state perpetuated.Black residents may not receive cash payments anytime soon, if ever, because the state may never adopt the calculations. The reparations task force met Wednesday to discuss the numbers and can vote to adopt the suggestions or come up with its own figures. The proposed calculations and figures come from a consulting team of five economists and policy experts.“We’ve got to go in with an open mind and come up with some creative ways to deal with this,” said Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer. He’s one of two lawmakers on the task force responsible for mustering support from state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
How is this staggering amount calculated? Race activists demanded it.
Activists on Wednesday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the idea of payments of $5 million per person as “nothing” and “too little.”…I believe that 5 million in reparations is too little for the work that foundational Black Americans have done for this country and as well for other countries,” one speaker said. “I believe that 7.6 million [dollars] is a number that can be used very wisely in our foundational Black American communities.”Foundational Black Americans are descendants of Black people who were enslaved in the U.S. According to the speaker, reparations are overdue for all foundational Black Americans both for the suffering they endured and for helping “every culture get on their feet.” He also called for various other reparations measures, such as giving 40 acres and a tractor and colleges agreeing not raise tuition prices for foundational Black American families.”To try to keep holding foundational Black Americans back from what is due for us is just another form of slavery,” he concluded. “It is preposterous and totally absurd.”
Consultants asked to task to ‘err on the side of generosity.’
In their report, the consultants suggest the state task force ‘err on the side of generosity’ and consider a down-payment with more money to come as more evidence becomes available.’It should be communicated to the public that the substantial initial down-payment is the beginning of a conversation about historical injustices, not the end of it,’ they said.The new estimate is more than 2.5 times California’s $300 billion annual budget, and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span.
The continued drive to pay people who were never slaves by those who never owned slaves provides a new set of incentives….to leave the state.
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