A Blueprint for Reparations
- Thread starter VAiz4hustlaz
- Start date
I don't want reparations from man at this point..
I want it from the Universe and
I AM taking that shit...
Anybody who benefits from the theft of my ancestors..
I demand their health in return I want their children's and future children's health..
I claimed that shit.. and as a result.. I been feeling extra youthful lately...
Body feeling great brain focused energized
Mind clear as fuck..brain fog HA!!
Yea fuck man made reparations..
I want the karmic one..feels so much better
And lasts longer..
And as a result everyone that benefitted over the theft of my and my peoples estates.
Are going to wish they gave it all back..
But it's too late ..funny shit is .
We gonna get it all back anyway...
And I'm super Healthy and that is TRUE
WEALTH
Id rather watch the demon helpers slowly burn..
All of them.. especially the ones that sold us out
Democrats had their chance to make it right
When they had the presidency the house and the senate.
Kamala Harris said she will not do anything specifically for the true brown Americans of this country
As her party specifically said they will make sexual weirdos their number one priority...
No normal straight righteous bruh man or dude.
Could ever vote for this disgusting democratic party after their undying SPECIFIC support for sexual abnormalcy
While telling us we can't do nothing for you kniggas..
While giving illegal immigrants a gift basket of
Microwave citizenship..
While ignoring all the ex immigrant Americans that had to climb fuckin mountains to earn
Their citizenship...yeah they coming out in droves
This NOV...
So chea... universal reparations given through karma
Much sweeter and last like longer..
Health will always be greater than wealth
Especially fake promissory notes people foolishly think mone
Bruh I'm turning fifty run a forty in under five seconds no training
I'm getting six pack for the first time in my life..
Let those that have eyes see
Let those that have ears hear
Selah
I want it from the Universe and
I AM taking that shit...
Anybody who benefits from the theft of my ancestors..
I demand their health in return I want their children's and future children's health..
I claimed that shit.. and as a result.. I been feeling extra youthful lately...
Body feeling great brain focused energized
Mind clear as fuck..brain fog HA!!
Yea fuck man made reparations..
I want the karmic one..feels so much better
And lasts longer..
And as a result everyone that benefitted over the theft of my and my peoples estates.
Are going to wish they gave it all back..
But it's too late ..funny shit is .
We gonna get it all back anyway...
And I'm super Healthy and that is TRUE
WEALTH
Id rather watch the demon helpers slowly burn..
All of them.. especially the ones that sold us out
Democrats had their chance to make it right
When they had the presidency the house and the senate.
Kamala Harris said she will not do anything specifically for the true brown Americans of this country
As her party specifically said they will make sexual weirdos their number one priority...
No normal straight righteous bruh man or dude.
Could ever vote for this disgusting democratic party after their undying SPECIFIC support for sexual abnormalcy
While telling us we can't do nothing for you kniggas..
While giving illegal immigrants a gift basket of
Microwave citizenship..
While ignoring all the ex immigrant Americans that had to climb fuckin mountains to earn
Their citizenship...yeah they coming out in droves
This NOV...
So chea... universal reparations given through karma
Much sweeter and last like longer..
Health will always be greater than wealth
Especially fake promissory notes people foolishly think mone
Bruh I'm turning fifty run a forty in under five seconds no training
I'm getting six pack for the first time in my life..
Let those that have eyes see
Let those that have ears hear
Selah
Feds well-positioned to provide slavery reparations, Harvard study finds
New research shows there is “a moral case, societal norm, and governmental precedent for paying reparations” to Black Americans for continuing harms resulting in the racial wealth gap.
Perspective by Joe Davidson
When President Biden proclaimed Wednesday as Juneteenth Day of Observance, he called on Americans to “recognize how the impact of America’s original sin remains.”
He listed his administration’s accomplishments of particular interest to Black America, including “one of my proudest,” signing 2021 legislation making Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in Texas, a federal holiday.
One item not on Biden’s list is reparations, the long overdue but still controversial payments to the descendants of enslaved people in compensation for that original sin. Reparations proposals are controversial because of people like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chamber’s Republican leader, who in 2019 said “none of us currently living are responsible” for slavery.
Now, a couple of Harvard University professors, Linda J. Bilmes and Cornell William Brooks, a White woman and a Black man, refute McConnell’s argument and related ones in a detailed, well-documented academic paper timed for this week’s Juneteenth observance.
In convincing fashion, the two authors — one of European descent, the other a great-great-great-grandson of an enslaved man — write in The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences that the federal government “already has the norm, precedent, expertise, and resources to provide reparations to Black Americans.”
Washington has funded many and varied “reparatory compensation programs,” their research shows, demonstrating “that reparations for nonracial harms is regular and routine” and “that America provides reparations to nearly everyone but Black Americans, even for comparably severe harms.”
Although the politically contentious word is not commonly used to describe these forms of compensation, Bilmes and Brooks said “reparations are surprisingly commonplace practices in the federal government’s role of compensating harms.”
The reparations list goes well beyond often-cited payments to Jewish victims of the Holocaust and Japanese Americans incarcerated in World War II internment camps.
“Categories of those harmed who have been compensated include,” they wrote, “coal miners; farmers whose crops have failed; workers whose companies have gone bankrupt; victims of terrorism and natural disasters; people exposed to nuclear radiation; military veterans; individuals wrongfully convicted in the legal system; people denied earnings on tribal lands; fishermen facing depleted fish stocks; individuals harmed by pesticides, toxins, vaccines, or medical devices; workers and businesses affected by U.S. trade agreements; depositors in banks; and numerous other categories.”
The authors did not estimate the cost or mechanisms of a slavery reparations program. But “a key finding,” Bilmes and Brooks said, is “the federal government draws on designated fees, trust funds, excise taxes, subsidized insurance premiums, and customized financial arrangements to help pay for the wide system of reparatory compensation.”
One thing they recommended is a presidentially appointed national commission to study reparations, similar to one proposed by former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and in legislation, H.R. 40, offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in 2021. The professors also suggested an audit of federal reparatory compensation programs to gather more information about them.
Although the House and Senate have not voted on the 2021 bill, that doesn’t mean action on reparations is stalled.
To the contrary, said Ron Daniels, convener of the National African American Reparations Commission, the issue is “on fire” around the country, he said, citing “Reparations on Fire,” a 2022 book by D.C. lawyer Nkechi Taifa. Daniels, a longtime political activist, said he has “never, ever, ever seen a more robust” time for reparations advocacy. He pointed to the 196 co-sponsors on the House bill (the Senate legislation has 22) and scores, “maybe a couple hundred” of state and local actions related to reparations.
Evanston, Ill., is a leader on that front. As my colleague Emmanuel Felton reported earlier this month, the Chicago suburb is credited with the nation’s first government-funded reparations program. Over the past two years, it paid almost $5 million to nearly 200 Black residents. Evanston’s program now is threatened by Judicial Watch, a conservative organization suing to stop the program, because, it said, the “race-based eligibility requirement” violates the Constitution.
The lawsuit is part of a much broader attack on affirmative action, following a Supreme Court decision last year against related college admission programs. The attack extends to the fundamental — and once widely praised — American values of diversity and inclusion. Last week, Senate and House Republicans introduced the “Dismantle DEI Act” to outlaw federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — a keystone of Biden’s administration.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the Harvard professors’ arguments “do not pass the test of justice, morality, logic, ethics or efficacy” and “establish collective guilt … They mete out collective punishment and hand out collective rewards, nearly 160 years after the Civil War ended and the 13th Amendment abolished slavery.”
But the continuing impact of slavery has not been abolished.
Because of “major racial harms precipitated or aggravated by actions involving the federal government,” there is, Bilmes and Brooks wrote, “a moral case, societal norm, and governmental precedent for paying reparations for these harms and the resulting racial wealth gap.”
Compensating those harmed by slavery’s legacy is “based on this norm of generosity and the idea that America as a whole is better off if we do this,” Bilmes, a former Commerce Department chief financial officer and assistant secretary, said by email.
But as the legislation outlawing federal DEI programs demonstrates, that “norm of generosity,” or even basic fairness, stops for many people where programs to right past wrongs against African Americans begin.
To answer reparations opponents like McConnell, whose “two great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley,” according to NBC News, “owned a total of at least 14 salves in Limestone County, Alabama,” the article presents a list of issues to demonstrate “complex, interlocking, and compounding racial harms to Black Americans spanning centuries” that followed slavery and continue “into the present moment.”
The authors argue that because “Black Americans have long been deprived of the ability to accumulate wealth,” it is consistent with American norms, precedent and practice to compensate them “for unpaid contributions to the country and in recognition of the suffering endured” during slavery and since.
“Not only are reparations regular and routine,” Brooks, a former NAACP CEO and president, said in an interview, “but we actually have the experience, the expertise and the resources to do it.”
New research shows there is “a moral case, societal norm, and governmental precedent for paying reparations” to Black Americans for continuing harms resulting in the racial wealth gap.
Perspective by Joe Davidson
When President Biden proclaimed Wednesday as Juneteenth Day of Observance, he called on Americans to “recognize how the impact of America’s original sin remains.”
He listed his administration’s accomplishments of particular interest to Black America, including “one of my proudest,” signing 2021 legislation making Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in Texas, a federal holiday.
One item not on Biden’s list is reparations, the long overdue but still controversial payments to the descendants of enslaved people in compensation for that original sin. Reparations proposals are controversial because of people like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chamber’s Republican leader, who in 2019 said “none of us currently living are responsible” for slavery.
Now, a couple of Harvard University professors, Linda J. Bilmes and Cornell William Brooks, a White woman and a Black man, refute McConnell’s argument and related ones in a detailed, well-documented academic paper timed for this week’s Juneteenth observance.
In convincing fashion, the two authors — one of European descent, the other a great-great-great-grandson of an enslaved man — write in The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences that the federal government “already has the norm, precedent, expertise, and resources to provide reparations to Black Americans.”
Washington has funded many and varied “reparatory compensation programs,” their research shows, demonstrating “that reparations for nonracial harms is regular and routine” and “that America provides reparations to nearly everyone but Black Americans, even for comparably severe harms.”
Although the politically contentious word is not commonly used to describe these forms of compensation, Bilmes and Brooks said “reparations are surprisingly commonplace practices in the federal government’s role of compensating harms.”
The reparations list goes well beyond often-cited payments to Jewish victims of the Holocaust and Japanese Americans incarcerated in World War II internment camps.
“Categories of those harmed who have been compensated include,” they wrote, “coal miners; farmers whose crops have failed; workers whose companies have gone bankrupt; victims of terrorism and natural disasters; people exposed to nuclear radiation; military veterans; individuals wrongfully convicted in the legal system; people denied earnings on tribal lands; fishermen facing depleted fish stocks; individuals harmed by pesticides, toxins, vaccines, or medical devices; workers and businesses affected by U.S. trade agreements; depositors in banks; and numerous other categories.”
The authors did not estimate the cost or mechanisms of a slavery reparations program. But “a key finding,” Bilmes and Brooks said, is “the federal government draws on designated fees, trust funds, excise taxes, subsidized insurance premiums, and customized financial arrangements to help pay for the wide system of reparatory compensation.”
One thing they recommended is a presidentially appointed national commission to study reparations, similar to one proposed by former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and in legislation, H.R. 40, offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in 2021. The professors also suggested an audit of federal reparatory compensation programs to gather more information about them.
Although the House and Senate have not voted on the 2021 bill, that doesn’t mean action on reparations is stalled.
To the contrary, said Ron Daniels, convener of the National African American Reparations Commission, the issue is “on fire” around the country, he said, citing “Reparations on Fire,” a 2022 book by D.C. lawyer Nkechi Taifa. Daniels, a longtime political activist, said he has “never, ever, ever seen a more robust” time for reparations advocacy. He pointed to the 196 co-sponsors on the House bill (the Senate legislation has 22) and scores, “maybe a couple hundred” of state and local actions related to reparations.
Evanston, Ill., is a leader on that front. As my colleague Emmanuel Felton reported earlier this month, the Chicago suburb is credited with the nation’s first government-funded reparations program. Over the past two years, it paid almost $5 million to nearly 200 Black residents. Evanston’s program now is threatened by Judicial Watch, a conservative organization suing to stop the program, because, it said, the “race-based eligibility requirement” violates the Constitution.
The lawsuit is part of a much broader attack on affirmative action, following a Supreme Court decision last year against related college admission programs. The attack extends to the fundamental — and once widely praised — American values of diversity and inclusion. Last week, Senate and House Republicans introduced the “Dismantle DEI Act” to outlaw federal programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — a keystone of Biden’s administration.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the Harvard professors’ arguments “do not pass the test of justice, morality, logic, ethics or efficacy” and “establish collective guilt … They mete out collective punishment and hand out collective rewards, nearly 160 years after the Civil War ended and the 13th Amendment abolished slavery.”
But the continuing impact of slavery has not been abolished.
Because of “major racial harms precipitated or aggravated by actions involving the federal government,” there is, Bilmes and Brooks wrote, “a moral case, societal norm, and governmental precedent for paying reparations for these harms and the resulting racial wealth gap.”
Compensating those harmed by slavery’s legacy is “based on this norm of generosity and the idea that America as a whole is better off if we do this,” Bilmes, a former Commerce Department chief financial officer and assistant secretary, said by email.
But as the legislation outlawing federal DEI programs demonstrates, that “norm of generosity,” or even basic fairness, stops for many people where programs to right past wrongs against African Americans begin.
To answer reparations opponents like McConnell, whose “two great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley,” according to NBC News, “owned a total of at least 14 salves in Limestone County, Alabama,” the article presents a list of issues to demonstrate “complex, interlocking, and compounding racial harms to Black Americans spanning centuries” that followed slavery and continue “into the present moment.”
The authors argue that because “Black Americans have long been deprived of the ability to accumulate wealth,” it is consistent with American norms, precedent and practice to compensate them “for unpaid contributions to the country and in recognition of the suffering endured” during slavery and since.
“Not only are reparations regular and routine,” Brooks, a former NAACP CEO and president, said in an interview, “but we actually have the experience, the expertise and the resources to do it.”
How does any of that work if trump and republicans retake power?
This thread is for serious discussions, not spammed Twitter/X hot takes and nonsense.
Bro, in that 3000 page post where the same 3 guys post tweets from that 1 hit wonder, fat dude who caught watching bare ass vids on his live stream, and that failed comedian that learned to read at age 25; there was not ONE tweet/post about what happened to California's reparations.
Not a one! Lol
A goddamn shame. I hope they're on the DNC payroll. But I doubt they are. They're just that brainwashed and deluded. They're damn near AI or bots or some kind of X API plugin into BGOL at this point. They don't demand any kind of agenda whatsoever.
Very WEIRD that they have no original thoughts.
Just mindlessly post tweets ALL DAY!? Where they do that at?! I fucking HOPE it's a plug in!
Wish I would post Plies tweets all day . I'll be damned
Damn, link isn't live yet! I gotta see the full vid. I hope he went in on her sassy, loudmouth ass! See if she can contain that inner hoodrat while on C-SPAN.
Very WEIRD that they have no original thoughts.
Just mindlessly post tweets ALL DAY!? Where they do that at?! I fucking HOPE it's a plug in!
Wish I would post Plies tweets all day . I'll be damned
And we used to think whitebright was bad when he'd spazz out in a thread! But even he has never taken it to that level.
[/QUOTE]
serious discussions would include a plan on how to deal with republicans if they take the executive and legislative branches...
by your own admission you dont have one...so there is no serious discussion that can be made here. just circle jerk trolling....
so I'll let you ladies get back to your session..
But like your signature says, we want to see Black people win.
They only want to see Democrats win, and if that win just happens to include Black people cool. If not oh well...
But BIDEN in office NOW. And you can't primary them IF THE DEMS NEVER HELD A PRIMARY!
See geechiedaniel, you're not ready for a SERIOUS discussion. Go back to the Kamala campaign thread!
But BIDEN in office NOW. And you can't primary them IF THE DEMS NEVER HELD A PRIMARY!
See geechiedaniel, you're not ready for a SERIOUS discussion. Go back to the Kamala campaign thread!
THAT CAN'T HAPPEN IF YOU NEVER VOTE FOR THE TOP OF BALLOT/TICKET!!
What difference does it make to you personally?!!!
By your name own admission you DON'T vote for presidential candidates... theyre all the same to you anyway.
You're incapable of having a serious conversation on this topic...
You don't have a strategy for the republicans...you don't support any presidential candidate. Any candidate you express interest in is fringe as fuck and has no hope of breaking mainstream. The progress you do see coming from the left you shit on and openly encourage people to NOT vote in support of the ONLY SIDE actually listening to any concerns you have.
You shit on the Dems so hard it comes off as cheerleading for the republicans because as fucked up as it is.. there's only TWO Major parties...so if one loses the other party wins...that's not how it's supposed to be but that's how it IS.
And you got the nerve to claim this is serious discussion
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THAT CAN'T HAPPEN IF YOU NEVER VOTE FOR THE TOP OF BALLOT/TICKET!!
What difference does it make to you personally?!!!
By your name own admission you DON'T vote for presidential candidates... theyre all the same to you anyway.
You're incapable of having a serious conversation on this topic...
You don't have a strategy for the republicans...you don't support any presidential candidate. Any candidate you express interest in is fringe as fuck and has no hope of breaking mainstream. The progress you do see coming from the left you shit on and openly encourage people to NOT vote in support of the ONLY SIDE actually listening to any concerns you have.
You shit on the Dems so hard it comes off as cheerleading for the republicans because as fucked up as it is.. there's only TWO Major parties...so if one loses the other party wins...that's not how it's supposed to be but that's how it IS.
And you got the nerve to claim this is serious discussion
Geechiedanielle,
Who did you encourage Black people to vote for in 2020? Who is the current president? Who said he would create a reparations commission?
What's the answer? One word will suffice.
(Now watch the word salad and deflection and bold and capital formatting and random emojis and sassiness and everything else but the actual answer!)
Biden/Harris... mainly because I didn't want a 2nd trump term..Geechiedanielle,
Who did you encourage Black people to vote for in 2020? Who is the current president? Who said he would create a reparations commission?
What's the answer? One word will suffice.
(Now watch the word salad and deflection and bold and capital formatting and random emojis and sassiness and everything else but the actual answer!)
You're turn..who did you vote for in the 2020 presidential primaries and the general election?
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OK. So you've had what you wanted since January 2021 (I know you think Biden was in office in 2020 but I digress). You prevented a second Trump term.
That's it? That's all that mattered to you?
Didn't answer the question...who did you vote for in the 2020 presidential primaries and the general election?
You're afraid of being held accountable for your choices which is why you never about it but your not going skirt by it this time.
Be a big boy and fess up.
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Dude really thinks he is asking some thought provoking gotcha type questions.
Because the answer is already there. You pressed for Black support of Biden/Harris in 2020, and you got what's below:
Thanks for proving my point! Now return to the Twitter/X Kamala spam orgy where you belong.
Nigga you're pathetic...it's sad really..
Centerpiece Reparations Bill Derailed by Newsom's Late Request. Here's Why
Guy MarzoratiAnnelise Finney
Sep 4
Why did a bill to create a state reparations agency, the centerpiece of California’s initial attempt to introduce legislation to repair harm endured by Black Californians, fail?
SB 1403 would have formed the California American Freedman’s Affairs Agency to administer reparations programs. The bill faced little opposition from lawmakers as it moved through committees earlier in the session.
But last-minute pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff to change SB 1403 divided Black lawmakers and stalled the bill. Instead of creating the agency, the amendments proposed earmarking $6 million for the California State University system to lead a study of reparations, according to state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), the bill’s author.
SB 1403 was one of 14 bills prioritized by the California Legislative Black Caucus that were drawn from two years of work by the California Reparations Task Force. The first statewide body to study reparations issued its final report in June 2023. KQED has been following the state’s reparations work since the task force’s inception, and creating a state agency to house reparations programs was one of the task force’s first policy recommendations.
“It was the bedrock,” Bradford said. “If you don’t have the agency that stands up all of this, it’s for nothing.”
This was the first year that bills explicitly labeled as part of the reparations effort were introduced. Nine of the CLBC’s priority bills passed, including requiring a formal apology from the state for perpetuating harmful racial prejudice and discrimination.
A 10th bill — a companion measure to a proposal placed on the November ballot that seeks to remove language from the state constitution that allows involuntary servitude as punishment for criminal offenses — has already been signed by Newsom.
“Last session, that was like trying to lift an elephant, right?” said Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Fairfield), the chair of the CLBC. “This session, it was trying to lift the elephant as well, but we actually got the elephant on the ball. And so, we’ve had wins after wins after wins as it relates to our policy.”
Many of the bills were significantly watered down, and proposals for more direct relief to Black Californians were either shelved or, in the case of direct cash payments, were never formally introduced.
SB 1403 was a late addition to the CLBC’s priority package. It had the support of advocates who believed an agency, which would determine eligibility, was necessary to establish a viable reparations program.
“I don’t know of any other effort for reparations that did not come with some kind of new state or some kind of governmental institution that was set up to do all of the things,” said Chris Lodgson, lead organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, pointing to the creation of the Office of Redress Administration to identify the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II and eligible for reparations.
SB 1331, which would have created a fund to implement reparations policies, found the same fate as SB 1403. SB 1050, which would have developed a state process for reviewing claims of racially motivated uses of eminent domain and providing compensation to eligible former property owners, passed without opposition and is awaiting Newsom’s signature. The fate of the bill, which was reliant on SB 1403 passing, is uncertain.
According to Bradford, Newsom was concerned that creating an agency would create a difficult, ongoing financial commitment. California managed to close a roughly $47 billion budget shortfall this year, but according to analysis by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the General Fund faces a structural deficit in the tens of billions of dollars over the next several fiscal years.
Cost was not the only barrier. Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature showed little appetite for measures specifically benefitting Black residents. Bills aimed at targeting state grants toward Black Californians were abandoned, as was a proposal to prioritize Black applicants to state licensing boards.
Changes aimed at state prisons also proved challenging. While voters will have a chance to change prison labor rules in November, a bill to ban solitary confinement did not move forward. And Assembly Bill 1986 would have initially given the Office of the Inspector General the power to reverse book bans in state prisons. The bill now lets the Inspector General publicize the bans and voice disapproval.
“Much like this bill, that [reparations] package was designed to be the first step,” said AB 1986’s author Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles). “We know that reparations, repair for the harm that’s happened across California is going to take many, many years. It didn’t happen overnight and it’s not going to be solved in a single legislative session.”
Attention now turns to Newsom, who has to sign or veto the nine reparations bills on his desk before Sept. 30.
Newsom signed the bill creating the reparations task force in 2020, and has spoken supportively of the CLBC’s early efforts to turn task force recommendations into the law. Earlier this year, he set aside $12 million in the budget for reparations programs, though the money is currently not designated for any specific fund or program.
“I haven’t read [the Reparations report] — I’ve devoured it,” Newsom said during his Jan. 10 state budget proposal presentation. “I’ve analyzed it. I’ve stress tested [the ideas] against things we’ve done, things we’re doing, things that we’d like to do but can’t do because of constitutional constraints. And I’ve been working closely with the Black Caucus.”
Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a UCLA professor of African American studies and sociology, said Newsom’s continued engagement will be a crucial factor in determining the success of reparations efforts in California moving forward.
“He could have disengaged at the very beginning,” Hunter said. “So now we’re in it to see: How far is he willing to go?”
Hunter said he’ll be watching to see if Newsom uses his national platform and connections with a potential Kamala Harris administration to tout California’s reparations process nationally.
“I would like to see a push by the governor toward as many things that are possible in a package of reparative justice,” he added. “But also for that push to be a national call on the president to join and lock arms in this and see what is possible across the country.”
To reparations advocates, Newsom’s proposal to amend SB 1403 was an indication that his support for reparations had faltered.
According to an analysis by the Government Operations Agency, the agency would cost $3 million to $5 million annually to operate. In a letter sent on Aug. 20 to the Black legislative caucus by CJEC, the group advocated for using some of the $12 million to start the agency. SB 1403 was added to the CLBC’s priority list after the $12 million set aside made the agency financially feasible.
“We felt like at that time, with the early commitment from the governor and the pro tem and the speaker of this house of allocating $12 million to reparations, that we could potentially get it across the finish line,” Wilson said.
During the Democratic National Convention, Bradford said he began to hear that the Newsom administration had concerns about the cost of a reparations agency.
On Aug. 26, Newsom’s staff asked Bradford to pivot. Instead of creating a reparations agency, Newsom’s staff suggested creating a second study, according to Bradford, who will term out of the Legislature this year and is currently running for lieutenant governor. The study would have further researched the task force recommendations and produced a report designing a process to determine eligibility for state reparations programs.
Newsom’s office said he does not comment on proposals in the Legislature.
Bradford, who also authored SB 1331 and SB 1050, rejected Newsom’s amendment request.
“I spent two years of my life studying reparations,” he said. “We didn’t need any more study and it was now time for action. It was now time for implementation,” he said.
Under SB 1403, a genealogy unit within the agency would have established standards for proving eligibility, something the task force recommended. There was concern within the caucus that Newsom might veto SB 1403 if the bill was sent to his desk without the amendments, according to Bradford.
The bill was awaiting a final vote in the Assembly, where Bradford is not a member. It was assigned to Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), a CLBC member who served on the state’s reparations task force, to present the bill for a vote.
He stalled for days.
Wilson stressed the importance of continuing the CLBC’s historically collaborative relationship on reparations with the governor.
“We have to be strategic about it and ensure there are the votes on the floor and that it will be signed by the governor,” she said about SB 1403.
Bradford, who said it was him against the caucus, disputed the assertion.
“The governor’s administration at no time in meeting with me on this bill ever threatened to veto,” he said.
In the final hours of the session, reparations advocates protested outside the Assembly chambers. And in a surprising move, Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) attempted to present the bill, prompting a confrontation with Bryan on the Assembly Floor. A video of the interaction filmed by Essayli has garnered more than 35,000 views.
To some members of CJEC, who have been active in the state’s reparations process since the inception of the reparations task force, SB 1403’s demise is a worrying indication that, despite Newsom’s statements in support of reparations, he might be hesitant to take the bold steps they believe are required to move reparations forward.
Bradford, the CLBC’s vice chair, called the bill’s failure a “great disappointment.”
“I’ve had bills vetoed and you dust yourself off and you move forward, but the nation was watching this one,” he said, adding he’d received phone calls from legislators across the country wanting to emulate the language of the bill. “We had to strike when the iron was hot. We were at the finish line, the votes were there. And I just wish we would have had the opportunity to vote it up or down.”
Centerpiece Reparations Bill Derailed by Newsom's Late Request. Here's Why | KQED
Many reparations bills were watered down, and proposals for more direct relief were either shelved or, in the case of direct cash payments, were never formally introduced.
Whoever this Nikki Barnes person is, she's an idiot.
Based on ... ?