Cash payments for Black Californians, though, isn’t popular with Californians. According to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released Sunday, 59% of voters oppose cash payments, including 51% of white voters. And just 27% of the 6,000 registered voters polled feel the legacy of slavery has impacted Black people a great deal.
“They can be uncomfortable with the history, but you cannot deny the truth,” task force member state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) said at the final meeting. “Now is the time to face it, folks. To own up to the debt that is owed, to right historic wrongs here in California and across this nation. And we can do this. We can do this if we’re committed to it.”
It will be up to the state Legislature — as well as pressure from community organizers and the education of voters — to keep the momentum moving toward restitution.