Headline Roundup • June 6th, 2022
California Task Force Seeks To Make Reparations for 'Lingering Effects' of Slavery
Black Americans,California,Economic Policy,Gavin Newsom,Race And Racism,Racial Justice,Reparations,Slavery
Summary from the AllSides News Team
A California task force is calling on lawmakers to make "comprehensive reparations" for black Americans due to the "lingering effects" of slavery.
The 500-page interim report details a wide array of state and federal government actions that have harmed black Americans since slavery was abolished about 160 years ago. This includes mass incarceration, police brutality, redlining, various economic disparities and a general "refusal to accept African Americans as victims." Additionally, the panel cited "racist, false and harmful stereotypes" that still affect black Americans today.
The nine-member task force was formed in 2020 and is the first panel of its kind in the country. Over the next year, the panel will develop a more detailed reparations plan that will likely recommend granting black Americans "direct financial compensation" and land. Meanwhile, Harvard University and a number of other legacy educational institutions have allocated large amounts of funding to study and rectify their ties to slavery.
Left-and center-rated outlets were more likely to capitalize "black" and cite voices who believe these reparations are a "continuation" of the Civil Rights Movement. Conversely, many right-rated outlets highlighted opponents of the reparations who believe they are a "joke" that prolongs "the victim narrative of black America."
Featured Coverage of this Story
California Department of Justice
California is the first state in the U.S. to establish a reparations task force for Black Americans. On June 1, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans issued a 500-page document that traces the history of white supremacy from slavery to Jim Crow through the present. It calls for ācomprehensive reparationsā for Black people harmed by a historical system of state-sanctioned oppression.
āSegregation, racial terror, harmful racist neglect, and other atrocities in nearly every sector of civil society have inflicted harms, which cascade over a lifetime and...
Janie Har/AP Photo
Californiaās reparations task force released its first of two reports detailing the stateās history of slavery and racism and recommending ways the Legislature might begin a process of redress for Black Californians, including proposals to offer housing grants, free tuition and to raise the minimum wage.
The 500-page study describes decades of state and federal government actions that harmed Black Americans ā from American slavery to the more recent redlining, mass incarceration, police actions and the widening wealth gap between Blacks and whites.
After police killed George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide...
Janie Har/AP Photo
To repay African Americans in California for the āongoing and compounding harmsā of slavery, a state task force on June 1 recommended lawmakers create 10 new offices to oversee reparations.
The interim report (pdf) by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americansāabout 500 pages longādescribes the harms slavery inflicted on African Americans and its ālingering effects on American society today.ā
One of the new state offices recommended in the report would be designed to help black Californians file for monetary reparations, while another office would help prove...
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