SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California’s Reparations task force will make their final recommendations for how the state can correct the human rights violations against Black people throughout the history of the United States.
The task force is composed of legislative, legal, and civil rights leaders. It was established in Sept. 2020 and from then has been researching wrongs created by slavery and historical discriminatory practices by the state targeted at Black people.
The task force will make their final reparations recommendations to the state legislature by July 1.
Task force chair Kamilah Moore joined “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss the research being done and the initial recommendations that have garnered a lot of media attention.
A few recommendations the task force finalized is for the state of California to issue an official apology for the enslavement of Africans in the United States and to their descendants for creating systems that institutionalized discrimination against African-Americans.
The task force also recommends cash payments be made to descendants of Black people who were enslaved or who were living in the United States during the time of slavery. In order to facilitate this, the task force recommends creating a new state agency that would be in charge of reviewing claims and issuing payments.
Moore, a reparatory justice scholar, made it clear the task force did not set a dollar amount on how much the state would should pay to African-Americans. Their research focused on creating a framework to determine how much the Black community has lost because of discriminatory practices by the state.
Moore says the method of determining the amount lost by the Black community was based on five main harm areas: health harms, Unjust Property Taking, Mass incarceration/over policing, housing segregation, and devaluation of Black businesses.
Researchers determined a total loss of around $800 billion.
“We’re not saying the state owes $800 billion today, upfront, again that just shows the loss of the Black community across those harm areas.” Moore said.
Compensation amounts the task force recommends would be based on factors like a person’s lineage, age and years of residency.
After the task force provides their final recommendations, it would be up to the state legislature to determine the cash payments amount. This comes as California faces a $31.5 billion budget deficit.
“I will say when the task force started this work, we were in a historic budget surplus,” Moore said. “But one of the recommendations, again in terms of cash payments, [sic] we’re recommending that when the state provides reparations in the form of cash payments, they do it via installments.”
As the final recommendations deadline approaches, Moore also reflected on what the almost three years of meetings have been like. Due to open meetings law, the panel was only allowed to talk in a public setting, which led to some tense conversations and emotional contributions from audience members.
“That’s democracy. It’s not always pretty,” she added. “But then, also internationally, when you’re talking about victims of gross human rights violations, you know sometimes things can get intense, things can be run emotionally,”
Though Moore emphasizes she is proud of the work she and the task force have done to help write the historic wrongs in California.
Let Inside the Issues know your thoughts and watch Monday through Friday at 8 and 11 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.