A controversial draft reparations proposal that includes a $5 million lump-sum payment for each eligible Black person could make San Francisco the first major U.S. city to fund reparations, though it faces steep financial headwinds and blistering criticism from conservatives. Tuesday’s meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will include a presentation by San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which released its draft report in December. The $5 million-per-person payment is among more than 100 recommendations ranging from offering grants to buy and maintain homes to exempting Black businesses from paying taxes. Supervisors can vote to adopt all, none or some of the recommendations and can change them. Several board members have expressed concerns over the potential hit the lump-sum payment and other options would have on the city budget, already facing a shortfall. An estimated 50,000 Black people live in San Francisco, but it’s not clear how many of them would be eligible for financial reparations. The recommendations lay out a number of possible criteria, such as living in San Francisco during a certain time period and descending from someone incarcerated for the police war on drugs. Critics say the payouts make no sense in a state and city that never enslaved Black people. Generally, reparations opponents say taxpayers who were never slave owners should not have to pay money to people who were not enslaved. Reparations advocates say that view ignores a wealth of data and documentation showing how even after U.S. slavery officially ended in 1865, government policies and practices worked to imprison Black people at higher rates, deny access to home and business loans and restrict where they could work and live. Eric McDonnell, chair of San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, said he’s disappointed by people who don’t understand the legacy of U.S. slavery and how structural racism reverberates through institutions today. “There’s still a veiled perspective that, candidly, Black folks don’t deserve this,” he said. “The number itself, $5 million, is actually low when you consider the harm.” San Francisco could be the first major U.S. city to fund reparations for Black Americans as the idea of paying compensation for slavery gains traction across cities and universities. San Francisco could even fund reparations before the state of California, which in 2020 became the first state in the U.S. to form a reparations task force. The idea has not been taken up at the federal level. Black residents once made up more than 13% of San Francisco’s population, but more than 50 years later, they account for less than 6% of the city’s residents — and 38% of the city’s homeless population. The Fillmore District once thrived with Black-owned night clubs and shops until government redevelopment in the 1960s forced out residents. Justin Hansford, professor at Howard University School of Law, says no municipal reparations plan will have enough money to right the wrongs of slavery, but he appreciates any attempts by city officials to “genuinely, legitimately, authentically” make things right. And that includes cash, he said. “If you’re going to try to say you’re sorry, you have to speak in the language that people understand, and money is that language,” he said. Led by Supervisor Shamann Walton, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors created the 15-member reparations committee in late 2020, […]
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