+
upworthy
Race & Ethnicity

California task force report outlines plans for reparations, bringing the conversation forward again

The task force believes reparations can begin to right the wrongs that "continue to physically and mentally harm African Americans today."

california, black people, reparations, task force report

California may soon have a plan to offer reparations to Black Americans.

A California state task force released a new report detailing the harm committed against Black people in American history. The nearly 500-page report gives recommendations for ways to right the wrongdoings that "continue to physically and mentally harm African Americans today." It also includes a detailed history of how the government disadvantaged Black people systemically, starting with slavery and continuing with segregation and other exclusionary acts such as discriminatory housing laws and inequity in the justice system.

"Along with a dereliction of its duty to protect its Black citizens, direct federal, state and local government actions continued to enforce the racist lies created to justify slavery," the report states, according to NPR. "These laws and government supported cultural beliefs have since formed the foundation of innumerable modern laws, policies, and practices across the nation."


The conversation around reparations for the Black community isn’t a new one by any stretch of the imagination. It goes all the way back to post Civil War era America—the government's promise of 40 acres and a mule is still part of the Black consciousness. In the last five years or so, the conversation began to ramp up again, and after the summer of 2020, it’s really been pushed forward. The protests that arose after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are what spurred the formation of the task force.

While a lot of people have heard of the term "reparations," not everyone fully understands what it means. According to a study on the effectiveness of reparations, they’re used postconflict to "reduce the risk of peace failure." An article in USA Today defines them as “compensation for historical crimes and wrongdoings with the aim of remedying injustices and helping specific groups of people or populations to prosper.”

The recommendations made in the California report include police reform and offering housing grants to those forced from their homes to make way for things like freeways and parks. They also include allowing incarcerated people to vote and making a more proactive effort to recruit Black American teachers for K-12 schools.

"What we're asking for is fair, it's just and it is right, and a nation that does not know how to admit this wrong and act in ways that are practical to show fruits of repentance is on the way to losing its soul," Amos Brown, task force vice-chair and president of the San Francisco NAACP, told NPR.

In addition to those more specific recommendations, there were some that are more broadly beneficial to society at large, including free tuition at California colleges and universities, raising the minimum wage and requiring employers to offer health benefits and paid time off.

"Without accountability, there is no justice. For too long, our nation has ignored the harms that have been — and continue to be — inflicted on African Americans in California and across the country," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release.

Reparations are really only scratching the surface when it comes to trying to repair relationships between oppressors and the oppressed. Some of the things people have suffered cannot have a price put on them, but that doesn’t mean governments shouldn’t try. If for no other reason, it shows their citizens that they’re willing to take even the smallest amount of accountability for the harm they’ve caused.

Other countries have taken similar steps. Colombia, for example, has paid millions in reparations to its citizens after a war that resulted in murder, assaults and other unspeakable acts of violence. South Africa paid $3,900 each to victims of apartheid crimes, totaling $85 million (falling short of the suggested payout of $360 million, according to a New York Times article from 2003). Germany paid reparations to Holocaust victims and gave Israel $7 billion as the nation formed, according to Vox. It’s also important to mention that Germany’s reparations from World War I financially crippled the country—it took 92 years to pay back.

After World War II, the United States paid reparations to Japanese Americans after holding 120,000 people in internment camps. But for some reason, when it comes to reparations for Black Americans, there is always hesitation on the part of the federal government.

As writer Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in his 2014 cover story for The Atlantic, "The Case for Reparations,” "it is impossible to imagine America without the inheritance of slavery." Despite acknowledgment that slavery was not only horrific (Congress only formally apologized for slavery in 2008) but fundamental to the formation of the United States of America, there are still many who think reparations aren’t necessary.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, for example, who said in 2019 at a hearing on the subject (when he was still Senate Majority Leader), "I don't think that reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea. We tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a Civil War, by passing landmark civil rights legislation, by electing an African American president."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, sponsored a bill, H.R. 40, also known as the the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act in 2019 that faced opposition. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced the bill for multiple years, starting more than two decades before Rep. Jackson Lee with no success.

That’s why it’s so important that California is taking this task force seriously. If nothing is going to be done on a federal level, it’s good to see states picking up the cause.

"It's my personal hope that people in California and across the United States utilize this report as an educational and organizing tool," Task Force Chair Kamilah Moore said in an interview with NPR.

More concrete information from the task force, including allotments and eligibility requirements will be released in 2023.

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Mom’s blistering rant on how men are responsible for all unwanted pregnancies is on the nose

“ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it."

Mom has something to say... strongly say.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, are a conservative group who aren't known for being vocal about sex.

But best selling author, blogger, and mother of six, Gabrielle Blair, has kicked that stereotype to the curb with a pointed thread on reducing unwanted pregnancies. And her sights are set directly at men.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Dad takes 7-week paternity leave after his second child is born and is stunned by the results

"These past seven weeks really opened up my eyes on how the household has actually ran, and 110% of that is because of my wife."

@ustheremingtons/TikTok

There's a lot to be gleaned from this.

Participating in paternity leave offers fathers so much more than an opportunity to bond with their new kids. It also allows them to help around the house and take on domestic responsibilities that many new mothers have to face alone…while also tending to a newborn.

All in all, it enables couples to handle the daunting new chapter as a team, making it less stressful on both parties. Or at least equally stressful on both parties. Democracy!

TikTok creator and dad Caleb Remington, from the popular account @ustheremingtons, confesses that for baby number one, he wasn’t able to take a “single day of paternity leave.”

This time around, for baby number two, Remington had the privilege of taking seven weeks off (to be clear—his employer offered four weeks, and he used an additional three weeks of PTO).

The time off changed Remington’s entire outlook on parenting, and his insights are something all parents could probably use.

Keep ReadingShow less
Science

She tattooed half her face and you'd never know it. Her skills are just that good.

This incredible medical tattoo technology is giving renewed hope to burn victims.

All images via the CBS/YouTube

Basma Hameed runs a tattoo shop, of sorts...


Meet Samira Omar.

The 17-year-old was the victim of a horrific bullying incident.

Keep ReadingShow less
Images via Alan Taylor/Flickr, used with permission.

Updating the kitchen.


Remember those beloved Richard Scarry books?

Books from when you were a kid?

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

Voice recordings of people who were enslaved offer incredible first-person accounts of U.S. history

"The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak." - Ted Koppel

Library of Congress

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn't exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

Keep ReadingShow less