Member of California Reparations Task Force tells residents to prepare for ‘breathtaking’ proposals

A member of California Reparations Task Force has informed the residents that they should prepare themselves for the “breathtaking” recommendations that the task force will recommend. The task force was established in 2020 by the state government amid the riots following the death of George Floyd. It was tasked to come up with recommendations for officially issuing reparations to black Americans. The group has announced prototypes of the recommendations, but its final report is due on July 1. The reparations figure was initially set at $223,329 for each eligible black person but was raised to $360,000 per person in early March.

Task force member Lisa Holder’s recent statement implies that the figure is likely to increase even further by July 1 as Californians should get ready for remedies on a scale approaching Medicare and Medicaid’s Great Society programs. Holder framed the program as a revolutionary project aimed at changing society’s fabric. The reparations will include programs that prevent racism within our major institutions, including housing, criminal-legal systems, education, health, medicine, and financial wealth and asset-building infrastructure. Holder added that reparations will likely include monetary compensation, not only for the descendants of slaves but also for persecuted black Americans. She claimed that the monetary aspect is critical to reparations as it’s a “critical component” of reparations.

According to Holder, it’s inappropriate to assume that California was added to the union as a free state and that its wealth came from anti-black policies. She claimed that the task force’s interim report established that in practice, California was a pro-slavery state, a Jim Crow state, and a post-civil rights apartheid state.

California has a budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the next fiscal year, and the last public proposal that called for $360,000 per eligible black resident was estimated to cost California over $640 billion. The final proposal will possibly include other caveats that would send the actual total much higher. These include debt forgiveness and subsidized housing, recommended by the separate San Francisco Reparations Task Force, which demanded $5 million per eligible black resident.

Progressive supporters of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) may pressurize him to implement the recommendations of the task force, even if the state legislature votes against them.

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