A nine-member Reparations Task Force has estimated that Black Californians should be entitled to receive more than $223,000 each in reparations for the economic effects of systematic racism and slavery. This estimate comes two years after George Floyd was murdered by the police.
California was the first U.S. state to require separate demographic categories which would disclose whether someone was descended from enslaved people.
The New York Times reported that this task form was originally formed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020, and has in the past few months gathered information about the effects of policies across the state.
According to the report, those eligible for reparations would either need to descend from enslaved African Americans or from a “free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century.”
Only those who are able to prove such a lineage can claim reparations. According to the current demographic information out of the 2.6 million Black California residents, around 2 million are descended from slaves.
The reparations mainly relate to five key areas that the team identified. These include “housing discrimination, mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, devaluation of Black businesses and health care.”
According to a report by The Times, housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977 alone should lead to $569 billion in reparations for African Americans living in California.
