The California Freedmen reparations task force continues to stumble.
New polls show that nearly 70% of San Francisco’s Black constituents disapprove of the bills suggested by the task force in lieu of making actual cash payouts or any substantive economic changes aimed directly at Freedmen.
Suggested bills by the Democrat-led task force include inclusion of “afro” hairstyles, housing programs not specific to Freedmen and a plethora of programs that everyone including non-citizens can apply to, despite the task force being tasked with creating a financial plan to pay California Freedmen descendants for the economic depriving of the former.
“The wealth that’s been stolen from Black Americans in California has been well documented. It includes actions taken by local governments to strip Black citizens of wealth and the state itself aiding corporations that disenfranchised or discriminated against Black citizens.” said Jake Teal a PhD economist familiar with reparative legislation.
“The bills proposed by task force honestly seem slightly disrespectful. When we worked on Jewish holocaust reparations we routinely held claims conferences, submitted amicus briefs on behalf of the victims, set up offices to meet with descendants and regularly had input from prominent Jewish academics and fellow economists. But with the Black Freedmen task force there has been no resemblance of those remedies.”
Teal questions the purpose of the commission if it isn’t going to truly advocate for financial remedies for Freedmen.
“Nothing is being promoted that will tangibly change Freedman’s economic position. And I believe that is intentional. I think one bill had to do with hair do’s or what not. Not one bill addresses setting up virtual payouts for Freedmen. None of the suggested bills are advocating for creating slush fund initiatives, virtual payouts or even venture capital funds, and that is a major problem.”
Activist had pulled out from the task force last year. When first announced, thousands of attendees showed up for conferences to witness the historic first. But as the task force continued to recommend bills that had no financial significance for Freedman, constituents lost their patience.
Eventually attendants went from thousands to hundreds and finally to dozens. The few attendees who do now show up harass officials for their perceived insincerity.
Now most Californians don’t even know when public hearings for the task force take place and the most recent polls show that Black Californians in specific have soured on the task force due to its fickleness.
“Gov. Newsome said nothing about reparations until it came time to speak against cash payouts to Freedman, so the task force not fighting him reeks of cowardice in my opinion.” said Jamal Warner who is a CPA. “Its meant to be a insult, they go out of their way to help non-citizens but they have energy to fight us on something that has historical significance for the state and the whole country.”
Tamara Bradley, who teaches biology a California high school was more brazen, “They got up there, talked a lot, but proposed nothing that was tangible.” she said.
“I feel like its an incredible insult to Black people to refuse to use this task force to advocate for cash payouts, but they’ll advocate for hair styles and crown act programs that won’t help us. And when I realize that the state is going into debt to take care of illegals–it burns me up.” she said.
When asked if she would support Democrats in local, state, or federal elections Tamara said “I will definitely not be voting democrat next year. They don’t respect us, that much is clear.”
–Michael Lyles, B1Daily
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