Opinion: California Reparations Panel Approves $1.2 Million in Payments

By Jackson Kincaid

In Brief:

The California Reparations Task Force has formally recommended that the state offer payments of up to $1.2 million to every qualifying Black resident, despite a very glaring problematic historical point.

The Background: 

California has been a free state since its inclusion into the Union in 1850. But that does not mean there was zero slavery, since people still broke the law. However, the state itself did not condone slavery and being a free state was one of their conditions for admittance into the Union. 

So while Californians are facing the possibility of their tax dollars paying out massive amounts to descendants of slavery, not a person being required to pay owned slaves, and neither did their parents nor their grandparents. So is generational punishment now to be legal?

Fox News reports the breakdown of the panel's recommendation by historical discrimination as thus:

For instance, Black residents affected by redlining by banks would receive $3,366 for each year they lived in California from the early 1930s to the late 1970s, amounting to up to $148,099. Similarly, Black residents could receive roughly $2,352 in compensation for over-policing and mass incarceration for each year they lived in California between 1970 and 2020. Those payments could amount to $115,260.

According to the New York Times, a Black Californian who is 71 years old and has lived in California his entire life could receive up to $1.2 million, according to analysis from the New York Times.

Notable Quotes: 

"Reparations are not only morally justifiable, but they have the potential to address long-standing racial disparities and inequalities."— Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)