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The California Reparations Task Force has released its final report after two years of work. It outlines a plan for reparations to Black Americans in California for the state’s participation in slavery and other acts of discrimination. The plan is now in the hands of California legislators to review, edit or dismiss.
Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette says that California does not have clean hands in the oppression of Black people. He predicts a messy debate between lawmakers when reaching their final decision.
It [The Task Force] looked at seven areas: property seized by the state, devaluation of Black businesses, housing discrimination, homelessness, health issues, mass incarceration, and over-policing.
Now the Task Force wants California to make things right. That’s better than continuing the effort by Republicans to photoshop U.S. history in order to get rid of all the blemishes. Recently, the Task Force filed its final report, all 1,075 pages of it. The document addresses right up front California’s complicity in slavery, one of the greatest evils in U.S. history.
“By participating in these horrors,” it reads, “California further perpetuated the harm that African Americans faced, imbuing racial prejudice throughout society through segregation, public and private discrimination, and unequal dispersal of federal and state funding.”
Much of the report is centered around accountability. Hey, Republicans, you guys used to preach that sermon, didn’t you? Accountability, sure you did. All through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the GOP lectured Black folks on how they had to take responsibility for their actions, own up to their mistakes and make restitution when they hurt someone or did something wrong. Well now it’s the Republicans’ turn to do all those things.
