As a Black American who is a descendant of persons enslaved in the United States, a California resident, and a voter, I’m insulted and angered by the slate of reparations bills recently introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus.
While some of the 14 bills presented could qualify as reasonable policy, they all deserve a thumbs down regarding genuine reparations.
If you’re not distributing cash payments as part of the reparations package, you’re not doing reparations.
After two years of research, debate, meetings, and public comments in person and by Zoom, including the 111-pages of recommendations completed in 2023 by the California Reparations Task Force, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, also Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), said we have a budget shortfall. She also said in a press statement that reparations don’t only mean cash; the true meaning of the word repair involves much more. How can you repair anything without money?
The measures introduced are placed in categories representing education, civil rights, criminal justice reform, health, and business. Some of the bills contain ambiguous language. Specificity always matters in legislation.
The CLBC actually believed that the first set of measures introduced — some of them without any numbers, like remakes of previous bills — would be acceptable to Black Americans, who wouldn’t benefit from any of them.
The CLBC actually believed that they could present a reparations package that would include other people. The package should only benefit qualified Black Americans. No other groups get to piggyback on our reparations when many of them have already benefited under laws and protections that were previously meant for Black people, like affirmative action.
The CLBC must think their Black constituents are naïve, gullible, and desperate. And are OK with an installment plan when reparations should be timely and include transformative benefits.
I agree with Wilson that we need a “comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.” However, reparations should be a multi-generational package, and the first round of bills should have prioritized cash payments for all qualified Black Americans. Next, a reparations package must include targeted policies and protections enacted into a Black Agenda, eliminating the divides.
Any Black Empowerment plan must include cash. For one, the greatest crimes committed in the United States were against Black people for centuries. And money was used to build generational wealth at Black people’s expense.
I could go on. Intelligent people make up the CLBC. They know that other groups in the past have received direct payments as part of their reparations package. They’re familiar with the history of Black people in California and have seen the data.
Yet, their actions a few days ago have devalued and disrespected Black people by expecting them to accept a reparations package that’s not sustainable enough and without direct monetary payments.
Their actions have insulted Black people’s intelligence by pretending reparations are being enacted by attempting to redefine it. So far, what’s being presented has taken us away from reparations and not toward it.
Perhaps we should let our feelings concerning some of our CLBC lawmakers, whom we thought had our backs be known on election day.
Moving forward, first, we define reparations and won’t allow our lawmakers to redefine it.
Chris Lodgson, lead organizer of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, is calling on Black Americans, especially, to call or email the CLBC, telling them that the bill package isn’t good enough. We want bills with targeted, tangible, timely monetary resources for Black American descendants now, not later.
The American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) Advocacy Foundation, a grassroots organization, has formed chapters across the nation in response to a landscape rife with yawning racialized gaps, the website reads. Anyone can become a member to help and expand the reparations movement.
Meanwhile, a known adage goes like this: As go California, as go the nation.
To other states who are contemplating proposing reparations for Black Americans or, in the process, don’t model California. Right now, we have the beginnings of a reparations package full of dribble and nothing about monetary compensation.
— Vacaville author Danette Mitchell is a social issues advocate. 2022 Women of the Year Congressional Award Recipient. E-mail: damitchell@earthlink.net
