May 27th 2024.
After several years of groundwork, the state of California has made significant progress in addressing the injustices faced by Black individuals. Three bills, spearheaded by Democratic State Sen. Steven Bradford, have been passed by the state's Senate. These bills have been designed to create funding sources for the compensation of Black Californians who have been historically oppressed and marginalized.
According to Rep. Bradford, the state has a great responsibility to rectify the wrongs committed against Black people through enslavement, segregation, discrimination, and stigmatization. He firmly believes that these bills are not handouts or acts of charity, but rather a fulfillment of the promise and debt owed to the descendants of slavery. As he aptly puts it, "If you can inherit generational wealth, you can also inherit generational debt."
One of the bills will establish a fund for reparations, while another will provide compensation for land that was taken through eminent domain for racially biased reasons. The third bill will create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency, which will oversee the distribution of funds and support future projects aimed at compensating Black individuals or their descendants who resided in California during the 19th century. However, the source of funding for these bills is currently unclear as the previous version, which proposed using 6% of the state budget reserve, has been eliminated.
Additionally, the bill establishing the Freedmen Affairs Agency will also establish a Genealogy Office and an Office of Legal Affairs. The latter will have the authority to review, investigate, and determine the status of applications for compensation of land taken through eminent domain.
In a move to acknowledge and apologize for the state's role in perpetuating slavery, the California Divide reports that the Senate has also advanced a bill, AB 3089. This bill, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, was written following his term on the state's task force that studied the harms inflicted on Black residents. As Jones-Sawyer eloquently stated, "We were people's properties in this state, and it was defended by the State Supreme Court and other courts."
Assuming these three bills are passed by the Assembly, they will then be presented to California's Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, for approval. However, two other bills, SB 1007 and SB 1013, did not make it to the vote as they were not designated as priority bills by the California Black Caucus for this year's legislative session.
Governor Newsom has shown support for non-monetary forms of reparations, but has also been cutting funding from various areas, including education, to manage the state's budget. Senator Bradford has been critical of some of the bills advanced by the Caucus, although he acknowledges that they are a step in the right direction. He further stated that more work will need to be done in the future to address the issue fully.
Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer also believes that these bills are crucial in closing the wealth gap between Black and white individuals. As he aptly puts it, "All of the bills are important...Taken in totality, it's not just inching this or inching that. All of these bills have a significant impact on moving forward with closing the wealth gap."
In related news, despite an unconstitutional ruling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to pay Black farmers $5 billion in reparations. This further highlights the ongoing efforts to rectify the injustices faced by Black individuals and communities.
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