San Francisco may become the first major US city to fund reparations under a contentious draft plan that calls for a $5 million lump-sum payment for every eligible Black person, though it faces significant financial challenges and harsh criticism from conservatives.
The African American Reparations Advisory Committee of San Francisco will make a presentation at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. The committee released its draft report in December.
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Around 100 proposals, including the $5 million per person payout and tax exemptions for Black-owned firms, were made. Other recommendations included incentives for house maintenance and purchase.
Supervisors can vote to undertake all, none, or some of the recommendations and can exchange them. Several board contributors have expressed concerns over the plausible hit the lump-sum payment and other picks would have on the town budget, already facing a shortfall.
An estimated 50,000 Black people live in San Francisco, however, it’s no longer clear how many of them would be eligible for monetary reparations. The guidelines lay out a variety of feasible criteria, such as dwelling in San Francisco during a positive time duration and descending from any individual incarcerated for police combat on drugs.
The rewards, according to critics, are absurd in a state and city that never kept Black people as slaves. Reparations opponents often contend that taxpayers who never owned slaves shouldn’t be required to pay money to those who were not held as slaves.
Advocates for reparations claim that perspective ignores a wealth of information and evidence that, even after US slavery was abolished in 1865, government policies and practices continued to disproportionately imprison Black people, deny them access to loans for homes and businesses, and limit where they could live and work.
The head of San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, Eric McDonnell, expressed disappointment with those who don’t comprehend the consequences of US slavery and how structural racism still permeates society 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.”
The first US city to pay for reparations was the Chicago suburb of Evanston. People who met the requirements received funding from the city for house repairs, down payments on properties, and interest or late fees owed on the municipal-owned property. A task team to explore reparations was authorized by the Boston City Council in December.
