I have, for the better part of two years, stated that reparations is more than just a check – it is about removing institutional barriers in the form of laws that have and continue to marginalize Black communities in California.
What the Task Force, and the experts hired by the Task Force, have discovered is California integrated slave laws into its systems of education, housing, law enforcement, and economic development through targeted and bigoted policies.
Reparations take many forms. Apologies and reforms help with atonement and are non-monetary. Removing slave language from our state’s constitution is another type of reparations and is currently under consideration by the Legislature.
Non office holding members of the Task Force and the Governor now look to the Legislature, of which State Senator Bradford and I are members, to see what types of reparations will be presented as a bill package based on the final report.
Until then many will continue to speculate and drive false narratives that are based upon assumptions.