A City of San Francisco committee has proposed paying each long-time black resident $5 million and giving them opportunities for tax credits and debt forgiveness as part of a reparations plan for decades of racism and “systemic oppression.”
The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee released a 60-page final draft report last month detailing reparations plans and requirements that people have to meet in order to receive monetary compensation. The committee was charged with advising the city on developing a plan for black residents to receive reparations — not for slavery, as California was a free state, but “to address the public policies explicitly created to subjugate Black people in San Francisco by upholding and expanding the intent and legacy of chattel slavery.”
The report claims that “both the enslaved, formerly enslaved and their descendants, along with other activists, scholars and advocates have called for reparations for over 200 years in the United States,” adding, “According to the United Nations, reparations ‘refers to measures to redress violations of human rights by providing a range of material and symbolic benefits to victims or their families as well as affected communities.’ Reparation must be adequate, effective, prompt, and should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.”
The Washington Examiner shared, “To receive a one-time $5 million payment, a person must have identified as ‘Black/African American’ on public documents for at least 10 years and be 18 years or older. Then, residents must meet at least two criteria, which include but are not limited to being ‘born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996,’ and ‘personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs.’ Residents can also be eligible if they are a descendant of someone enslaved through chattel slavery before 1865.”
The one-time payment being proposed “would compensate the affected population for the decades of harms that they have experienced, and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and unintended harms perpetuated by City policy,” according to the report.
In addition to the lump-sum payment, financial reparations include supplementing “African-American income of lower income households to reflect the Area Median Income (AMI) annually for at least 250 years ($97,000 in 2021).” Retirement planning services as well as tax breaks for payroll tax, business tax, property tax, and more will also be offered.
The committee’s plan also targets areas such as education, home ownership, business ownership, and entrepreneurship in the name of being equitable. Many of the proposals ask the city to “acknowledge the harm done” to black people and “take steps to prevent future harms,” acknowledged the Washington Examiner.
The final draft of the comprehensive reparations plan was sent to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for review late last month.
“The African American Reparations Advisory Committee has not yet received any feedback from the Board regarding their position on the recommendations or when the Board will schedule a hearing to formally discuss the Plan,” the committee said, as reported by Fox News.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Chronicle that he hopes the plan is approved. “There are so many efforts that result in incredible reports that just end up gathering dust on a shelf,” Peskin said. “We cannot let this be one of them.”
What this reparations committee failed to reveal in its report, in typical government fashion, was how these numerous action items will be funded. It seems that the monies needed will come from taxpayers, many of whom are barely making ends meet now.
Note that the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee is acting independently from the state government’s California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans plan, which is proposing payments of up to $223,200 for qualifying black residents. Add to this any federal reparations payments that might eventually gain funding if H.R. 40 ever passes, which seeks “a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery.”
