A historic California reparations task panel has heard that each Black Californian should receive $350,000 to help close the racial wealth gap and make amends for past wrongs. Businessman and former professional triathlete Max Fennell, age 35, argued before the committee that all black Californians should share in the funds. At a public hearing for the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals, he urged that black-owned enterprises should be given grants of around $250,000 and 15-20 acres of land to help further grow black wealth.
According to the Daily Mail, he told the panel, “It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free… we’re not begging; we’re telling you.” “The concretes of what I’m asking for are $250,000 in small business grants, $250,000 in land for every black American in California, and 15-20 acres of property,” he said.
In 2020, the task force will take effect thanks to legislation enacted by California Governor Gavin Newsom. For over a year, it has studied the matter and held public discussions on how to put a dollar amount on the debt owed to black Americans as a result of injustices such as slavery, segregation in housing, mass imprisonment, and others. The deadline for the panel’s report and recommendations to the state assembly is July 1.
According to the AP, there were about 60 people present at the meeting on Wednesday. The Black Panther Party, an influential civil rights organization in the 1960s and 1980s, held its founding meeting in Oakland, California.
While the panel chairwoman, Kamilah Moore, has indicated that the task force’s recommendations for reparations are likely to be more narrowly tailored, economic research presented to the team suggested that California’s maximum liability for housing discrimination inflicted upon black residents between 1933 and 1977 was about $225,000.
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According to the Daily Mail, she added that the decision made in March by the task team to make the community of eligibility based on ancestry rather than race would significantly reduce that number. “It probably wasn’t just black people who were affected by housing discrimination during that time period,” an expert says.
The task committee published its 500-page report on post-emancipation discriminatory actions toward black citizens during the summer.
It appears that the idea of reparations is being considered in other sections of the country as well. On Wednesday, for instance, the Boston City Council decided to form a special committee to look into the matter and find methods to make amends for the city’s past sins.
