Can California right long-past wrongs? This panel says yes.
Even before any dollar amount was suggested for reparations for Black people in California, Donald Tamaki knew some residents would get up in arms over the price tag. He had heard cynical commentary from the Bay Area to San Diego.
But as a member of the state’s Reparations Task Force, he, as well as eight other Californians, has been tasked with crafting a wide-ranging proposal to compensate Black residents for historical harms ranging from Jim Crow laws to redlining to institutionalized racism. The task force wrapped its deliberations in early May and is scheduled to meet one more time on June 29 before delivering its recommendations to the Legislature.
Early drafts of the final proposal sent pundits to calculators. They found that plan could total more than $500 billion for California, with some estimates much higher than that. Individual allocations could amount to as much as $1.2 million for eligible Black people in the state who are proved to be descendants of those once enslaved, or of free Black people living in the state before 1900.
That figure has to pay reparations, only with recommending what they should be and who should receive them. The group also noted the importance of educating the public about the reasons reparations are justified.
