According to a report by a California task committee looking into the long-term impacts of slavery and systemic racism on the state’s black residents, it’s estimated that $569 billion in reparations are owed to the descendants of enslaved individuals.
According to the New York Times, the nine-member panel found that black Californians with 19th-century American ancestry are entitled to $223,200 each as compensation for housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977.
This is the most significant reparations endeavor in modern history. It is the result of the work of the Reparations Task Force, established by legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020, and may result in payouts of up to $2.5 billion.
Jovan Scott Lewis, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and one of the nine members, told the Times, “We are looking about reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction.”
The group is working to reduce the wealth disparity between white and black Californians
According to the most current Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances, mentioned in the article, the median wealth of black households in the United States is $24,100, much lower than the median wealth of white families, which is $188,200.
The panel suggests compensation is primarily based on past housing discrimination against black Californians. The committee determined that several black neighborhoods were either purchased or taken by eminent domain and subsequently demolished to make way for infrastructural projects.
The government reportedly offered black homeowners less than the amount they had initially paid for their homes to get them to leave. The panel will also look into four other areas: mass incarceration, unlawful property seizures, the devaluation of black enterprises, and health care.
The Reparations Task Force will publish a report containing the final monetary amounts in the next year
The nine-person panel has been meeting for months to collect information through interviews and other means, but they can only offer recommendations to the state.
The legislature of California must determine what to do with those suggestions and whether to back the reparations for black descendants of enslaved people with political support and financial resources.
The group is also considering potential methods of distributing compensation for damages. According to the Times, recipients may choose between subsidies for housing and education or cash payouts.
source: nypost.com