Democracy Dies in Darkness

California calls for ‘comprehensive reparations’ for Black Americans

The interim report of the California Reparations Task Force comes as task members remain split on what reparations should look like

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June 1, 2022 at 2:38 p.m. EDT
People line up to speak during a reparations task force meeting at Third Baptist Church of San Francisco on April 13. (Janie Har/AP)
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California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations for Black Americans said it has documented 170 years of systemic discrimination by the state and demanded “comprehensive reparations” for those harmed by that history of government-sanctioned oppression.

In a 500-page report released Wednesday, a legislatively-mandated task force argues that the present-day wealth gap between Black and White Americans in California and the rest of the country is the direct result of slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining and other government policies that locked Black Americans into failing schools and over-policed communities.