Activists Seek Even More in Reparations from California: “$5 Million Is Too Little”

Activists have demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident as reparations for slavery and subsequent discrimination. They have dismissed payments of $5 million per person as “nothing” and “too little.”

The demands were made at a meeting of the California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. The committee was hearing comments from the public as it considers final recommendations to submit to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom’s desk to be signed into law.

The task force is considering a proposal to give just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion.

Meanwhile, the city of San Francisco is weighing its own reparations proposals at the local level. Earlier this month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors expressed “unanimous” support for a draft plan of more than 100 reparations recommendations for the city, including a proposal to dole out $5 million each to qualifying Black residents. The proposal would cost non-Black families in the city at least $600,000, according to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

However, activists argue that $5 million per person is not enough compensation, and that the figure needs to be much higher. One speaker at the meeting suggested $7.6 million per person would be more appropriate. He also called for other reparations measures such as giving 40 acres and a tractor and colleges agreeing not to raise tuition prices for foundational Black American families.

Another speaker voiced similar concerns, declaring that “$5 million is nothing” and arguing that anti-Black discrimination, such as “predatory lending,” is prevalent in the housing market. They called for a “comprehensive debt forgiveness” program that would clear all personal, educational, and credit card debt of low-income Black households.

It should be noted that it is uncertain how the state of California or San Francisco would fund reparations plans that pay out more than $5 million per person, as both are currently facing significant budget deficits.