California reparations task force to vote on formal apology
CTV
California's reparations task force is set to wrap up its first-in-the-nation work Saturday, voting on recommendations for a formal apology for the state's role in perpetuating a legacy of slavery and discrimination that has thwarted Black residents from living freely for decades.
California's reparations task force is set to wrap up its first-in-the-nation work Saturday, voting on recommendations for a formal apology for the state's role in perpetuating a legacy of slavery and discrimination that has thwarted Black residents from living freely for decades.
The nine-member committee, which first convened nearly two years ago, is expected to give final approval at a meeting in Oakland to a hefty list of ambitious proposals that will then be in the hands of state lawmakers.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who is cosponsoring a bill in Congress to study restitution proposals for African Americans, at the meeting called on states and the federal government to pass reparations legislation.
"Reparations are not only morally justifiable, but they have the potential to address longstanding racial disparities and inequalities," Lee said.
The California task force's recommendations range from the creation of a new agency to provide services to descendants of enslaved people to tailored calculations of what the state owes residents for decades of harms such as overpolicing and housing discrimination.
"An apology and an admission of wrongdoing just by itself is not going to be satisfactory for reparations," said Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a reparations advocacy group.
The apology crafted by the Legislature must "include a censure of the gravest barbarities" carried out on behalf of the state, according to the draft recommendation to be voted on.
