By Wendy Fry. CalMatters. Bay City News.
The California Reparations Task Force released documents Monday indicating it plans to recommend that the state apologize for racism and slavery and consider "down payments" of varying amounts for eligible African-American residents.
The documents, which total more than 500 pages, do not contain a general price tag for reparations, but they do include ways the state could calculate how much money African Americans in California have lost from 1850, when the state was established, until today because of certain government practices.
Loss estimates would vary depending on the type of racial harm and how long a person has lived in California. Loss estimates range from $2,300 per person per year of residence for over-policing of African American communities, to a total of $77,000 per person for losses and devaluations of African American-owned businesses over the years.
The state-appointed task force has a July 1 deadline to make repair recommendations to the Legislature and governor. Gavin NewsomTask force leaders have said they expect the Legislature to come up with actual reparations amounts.
The task force also recommends a variety of policy changes to counter discrimination.
“It’s critical that we compensate, but we don’t just compensate. We also need to evaluate the policy that continues to hold us back,” said Monica Montgomery Steppe, a San Diego City Council member who sits on the task force. She spoke at a “listening session” in San Diego on Saturday.
Who would receive reparations?
The task force documents discuss two types of reparations: those arising from particular instances of discrimination or harm that require an individual to file a claim, and those involving the distribution of money or benefits to all eligible Black Californians for racial harm experienced by the entire community.
A recent example of an individual claim was Bruce's Beach, an oceanfront property and resort that the city of Manhattan Beach seized from a black family nearly 100 years ago. Recently, in part because of the task force, government leaders returned the deed to the land to descendants of the Bruce family, who resold it to Los Angeles County for $20 million.
It is one of the few times that a local government has restored property owned by a black family.
Eligibility for reparations remains controversial. The task force in March 2022 voted to limit potential compensation to descendants of free and enslaved African Americans who were in the United States in the 19th century. The group narrowly rejected a proposal to include all African Americans, including recent immigrants, regardless of lineage.
Everyone in the eligible class should be compensated, the task force report says, even if they can't prove they suffered a specific harm.
“The State of California created laws and policies that discriminate against and subjugate free and enslaved African Americans and their descendants,” the report says. “In doing so, these discriminatory policies made no distinctions among these individuals; the compensatory remedy must do the same.”
The final report, like the task force’s previous interim report, lays out the history of systemic racism and ongoing injustices in California.
Costs of racial harm
The latest batch of documents also urges that eligible individuals be compensated in cash, sooner rather than later. The records instruct the Legislature to begin with “initial payments” rather than waiting for full loss calculations.
The final report suggests dollar figures for certain categories of racial harm:
-Due to mass incarceration and over-policing of Black communities, estimates a per-person loss of $115,260, or $2,352 for each year they lived in California from 1971 to 2020, corresponding to the National War on Drugs;
-For housing discrimination, it offers two methods of calculating losses. One method based on gaps between the “housing wealth” of whites and blacks would peg losses at $145,847 per person. The other method, based on governments’ history of “redlining,” including discriminatory lending and zoning, would estimate losses to black residents at $148,099 per person, or $3,366 for each year they lived in California from 1933 to 1977; and
-For health care injustices and discrimination, it estimates $13,619 per person for each year lived in California, or $966,921 in total for someone who lives to around 71 years old: the average life expectancy of African American residents in California in 2021.
The reparations program would be overseen by a new state agency that would determine eligibility and distribute funding, the report says. The agency would also be responsible for helping people document and provide evidence of specific injustices.
Eligible Black residents shouldn’t expect cash payments anytime soon. The state Legislature and Newsom will decide whether reparations are paid, and it’s unclear what they will do with the task force’s recommendations.
“This is the time when we really need the voice of the public,” said Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad, also known as Friday Jones, a member of the Los Angeles reparations advisory commission. “This is the time to get your churches together. This is the time to get your school boards together.”
Jones made the comments during a listening session in San Diego.
Non-monetary repairs
Some members of the task force have been dismayed by the amount of attention paid to the dollar figures being discussed. The final report provides dozens of policy recommendations aimed at preventing further discrimination and harm against black residents.
“The biggest struggle is the implementation of all of these recommendations,” Montgomery Steppe said. “After the task force issues its final report, those recommendations need strong support in the California Legislature and government. It will take all hands on deck to ensure that we push for a policy change from our state legislature.”
The task force is scheduled to meet again at 9 a.m. Saturday in Lisser Hall at Northeastern University, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., in Oakland. The meeting will be streamed live on https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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