- San Francisco policymakers are considering compensating many black residents.
- Proposals include giving eligible residents $5 million, $97,000 a year for 250 years, or a $1 home.
- Some of the ideas proposed this week could become law, but there are no plans on how it will pay for it.
San Francisco policymakers consider giving compensation to some of the city’s black residents to atone for decades of systemic racism as well as the historic legacy of slavery. doing.
During a five-hour hearing this week, the Commission on Compensation submitted a number of concrete proposals to the city’s oversight board, the Associated Press. reportThis includes a $5 million lump sum payment for all eligible black adults, $1 metropolitan housing for each family, a guaranteed annual income of at least $97,000 over 250 years, and personal It included exemption from debt and tax burden.
Over 100 of these ideas, including low-cost ones like open a black-owned community bank Prioritizing black candidates for jobs, training, and certification programs 60 page December report.
Supervisors unanimously endorsed a presentation from the African American Reparations Advisory Committee in San Francisco, but the proposal was Stay away from reality. The commission, which does not have the power to pass recommendations into law, will put their thoughts into a final report in June, and the next meeting of the Oversight Board to discuss compensation is scheduled for September. In particular, there is no plan yet for how the compensation will be paid.
But if enacted, the San Francisco reparations plan would be one of the most substantial packages ever approved in the United States.
Americans should consider whether black citizens are entitled to financial subsidies or other benefits as a means of atonement for past transgressions of slavery and current racial inequalities in wealth and housing, health care and education. But it’s only in the last few years that cities and states have started grappling with complex issues head-on following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
A task force convened by California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed paying each eligible state resident $223,200. Last year, Evanston, Illinois began issuing her $25,000 grant to eligible black residents. St. Louis, Missouri This month she said she would convene a committee to consider “recommending proposals to begin remediating the harm done” by slavery. boston Compensation is under consideration.
The San Francisco Proposal applies to qualified individuals when codified in law. Although parameters have not yet been set, the commission proposes that eligible residents must be at least 18 years of age and have been identified in public documents as black or African American for at least 10 years.
The task force has yet to determine the cost of the proposal, but the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University, said: said in a January statement Reparations of this magnitude will cost every non-black household in the city at least $600,000.
San Francisco Republican Party Chairman John Dennis told the Associated Press, “This conversation we’re having in San Francisco is not serious at all.” They just threw numbers, no analysis. It looks, and this seems to be the only city it might pass through.”
Howard University Law School professor Justin Hansford told The Associated Press that despite good intentions, local government reparation plans cannot undo the scars of racism and slavery, but they do help black Americans in the economy. He said it was the right move to provide financial compensation.
“If you’re going to say sorry, you have to speak in a language that people can understand,” he said, “and money is the language.”
According to San Francisco standardsSherman Walton, the only black member of the oversight board, said he wanted to include compensation in this year’s budget, but recognized that it could take a long time to get it passed into law. There is
“Now the real work continues,” said Walton. “When you get the final report, let’s not lose focus because we need to have the resources to actually move forward.”
