California’s reparations task force has had two years to create an historic proposal. Is that enough time?

The duty pressure has till July 1, 2023, to offer state lawmakers a report detailing how California ought to atone for previous anti-Black insurance policies. And whereas critics could scoff on the notion of an antislavery state resembling California considering reparations, the historic document reveals the state
protected and strengthened the authorized rights of slave homeowners
throughout its early days. Greater than a century later, California’s reckoning might both encourage or scare off different states watching this landmark course of unfold.

With solely seven months left for the duty pressure to complete its work and disband, I can’t assist however wonder if the timeline is definitely the biggest hurdle to its success.

Over the previous 12 months, the duty pressure has made headway on some
key points, albeit not with out controversy. Along with deciding that solely those that can show a direct lineage to enslaved Africans ought to be
eligible for reparations,
the physique additionally narrowed the listing of wrongs for which Black individuals ought to be compensated to only 5 areas: governmental property seizure, devaluation of Black-owned companies, housing discrimination and homelessness, mass incarceration and over-policing, and well being.

Shifting ahead, the duty pressure has to outline the timelines for these harms.

Jovan Scott Lewis, a activity pressure member and UC Berkeley geography professor, stated Thursday that it nonetheless has to place financial values on three of 5 harms. The one determine he offered in the course of the assembly was $223,000, which is the utmost payout that could possibly be granted to Black of us who skilled housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977.

Lewis additionally led a philosophical exploration of whether or not or not the racial wealth hole ought to be counted as one of many harms Black Californians endure, or represented throughout all 5.

Did I point out the duty pressure nonetheless has but to assign a greenback determine to the racial wealth hole?

“Figuring out the precise racial wealth hole would take directed analysis which is past the scope of labor for the financial specialists group in each time and capability as each have been allotted to them,” Lewis stated.

Job pressure member state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), floated the concept of extending the duty pressure’s tenure. The proposal is harking back to a invoice from this 12 months from fellow panelist Meeting Member Reginald Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, that might have prolonged the duty pressure’s timeline from July 2023 to July 2024.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who wrote the laws establishing the duty pressure, known as for Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto it, which he did in September. The invoice was additionally broadly condemned by reparations advocates who feared it will delay the duty pressure’s remaining report.

However possibly that wouldn’t have been such a foul factor if it had.

The duty pressure is enterprise an advanced endeavor. It’s OK to wish extra time to get it proper. I additionally perceive why members is perhaps hesitant to flat out say as a lot.

The concept of reparations stays unpopular. Solely 30% of all U.S. adults, in contrast with 77% of Black People, consider that descendants of slaves ought to get some sort of reparations, based on
Pew Analysis
knowledge from this 12 months.

The poor nationwide polling hasn’t stopped native reparations efforts in California. Representatives from Oakland, Alameda County, Hayward, Vallejo, Sacramento, Culver Metropolis and Los Angeles metropolis and county all introduced info concerning their respective reparations initiatives to the duty pressure final week.

The hearings additionally featured dozens of audio system, a lot of whom proposed their very own reparations quantities, starting from $5,000 to $350,000, for anybody who qualifies. All through every of the eight-hour marathon conferences at Metropolis Corridor, others audio system recounted heartbreaking tales of how the state’s racial injustices affected them or their households.

The heartfelt testimonials had been acceptable for a reparations discussion board in Oakland, a metropolis identified for its revolutionary Black activism and described by one viewers member as a “textbook instance” of how racism continues to make life tough for Black Californians.

Although the duty pressure is ready to dissolve subsequent summer season, each Sawyer-Jones and Bradford stated the true work will start after the ultimate report is submitted and the group has to defend its suggestions to the general public.

That dialog will occur whether or not the duty pressure has seven months or seven years to finish its proposal. The duty pressure will simply should take advantage of out of the time it has.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips seems Sundays. E-mail:
jphillips@sfchronicle.com
Twitter:
@JustMrPhillips