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The chair of California‘s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans has hit out at reports that the group plans to recommend that $225,000 will be handed out to each person applying for the program.
In a series of interviews on December 13, Kamilah V. Moore said that the figure presented to the committee by an economic research team represents the state of California’s ‘maximum culpability’ for housing discrimination.
It only applies to people who were impacted by housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977, and not just black people.
Moore said: ‘In reality, that number would be minimized when you take into account the fact that the task force decided in March that the community of eligibility would be lineage based rather than race based.’
She added: ‘When you really look at who was really impacted by housing discrimination during that particular time period it most likely won’t be all black folks.’
In a separate interview on Spectrum News, Moore pointed out the need for a Bureau of African American affairs in order to handle the payments, pointing to the success of the Bureau of Indian Affairs record of handling similar issues for Native Americans.

Kamilah Moore said in an interview on Tuesday that the maximum payment only applies to those impacted by housing discrimination in California between 1933 and 1977
The group will meet Wednesday and Thursday for their final public meetings.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation in 2020 launching the largest slavery reparations program in the country’s history
The Reparations Task Force will congregate this week after being formed by California Governor Gavin Newsom‘s signing of a bill in 2020.
Among the questions that are expected to be addressed are when prospective recipients’ ‘harm’ started, and how the ‘form of payment’ can properly align with the ‘estimates of damage.’
The official agenda’s release comes just days after estimates indicated that California descendants of slaves and those impacted by racial setbacks could see upwards of $220,000 per person.
According to the New York Times, the focus is to address ‘housing discrimination’ in the state which occurred between 1933 and 1977. As many as 2.5 million black Californians could receive payments.
The nine-person task force is comprised of Chair Kamilah Moore, Vice Chair Dr. Amos C. Brown, San Diego Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, California State Senator Steven Bradford, Dr. Cheryl Grills, Lisa Holder, Donald K. Tamaki, Jovan Scott Lewis, and Reginald Jones Sawyer.

Moore made her remarks while speaking on Nyhiem (Lord Abba) Freedmen’s YouTube channel. Freedman refers to himself as a ‘Reconstruction-Republican’

These are the five ‘key questions’ the task force plans to discuss during the Wednesday and Thursday meetings
The group is tasked with examining how the state can pay black residents back for ‘racial terror’ and ‘enduring the economic effects’ of racism and slavery.
Moore, Chair of the panel, has stated she plans to be as ‘radical as possible’ when it comes to her role on the task force, looking at how much to give and who will receive the money.
The meetings held Wednesday and Thursday in California will include discussions on ‘enslavement,’ ‘the wealth gap,’ ‘political disenfranchisement,’ ‘mass incarceration,’ and ‘housing discrimination,’ according to the agenda.
Public comment will also be taken briefly on both days.
Cities participating in Wednesday’s witness panel include Los Angeles, Oakland, Culver City, Sacramento, Vallejo, and Alameda.
Just under an hour has been allocated on Wednesday to ‘educating the public’ and ‘formal apologies,’ the agenda states.

Task force Chair Kamilah Moore has stated she plans to be as ‘radical as possible’ when it comes to deciding who will receive reparations and how much


California State Senator Steven Bradford (left) and Dr. Cheryl Grills (right)


Task force members Lisa Holder (left) and Donald K. Tamaki (right)


Task force members Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe (left) and Jovan Scott Lewis (right)


Reginald Jones Sawyer (left) and Reparations Task Force Vice Chair Dr. Amos C. Brown
The group will discuss unfinished business and potential action Thursday around 4.45pm before officially adjourning. It’s unclear when the exact numbers and information will eventually be released.
The Reparations Task Force officially has until June 2023 to submit its final recommendations.
If the New York Times’ reported $223,000 payment estimate is accurate, the $569 billion in payouts would eclipse the state’s entire 2021 budget.
In 2021, the state allocated $512.8 billion and that number included funding for schools, hospitals, universities, highways, policing and corrections.
At the root of the meetings on reparations are concerns over the mass incarceration of black residents, unjust property seizures, devaluation of black businesses and health care.
Plans proposed in previous meetings indicate the group is hoping to have the state adopt mandatory curriculum for all teachers to take anti-bias training, raise the minimum wage in predominantly black industries, and implement policy to close the racial wealth gap in California, among other major changes.

In September 2020 California Governor Gavin Newsom signs into law a bill that establishes a task force to come up with recommendations on how to give reparations to black Americans
‘We are looking at reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction,’ task force member Jovan Scott Lewis recently told the New York Times.
Russell City is one of the examples being looked at by the task force.
The now nonexistent area had once been a safe haven for black families but was later bulldozed to make room for an industrial park.
One former resident, Monique Henderson-Ford, said she was paid just $2,200 for her home – less than a third of what she bought it for.
‘Imagine if the houses were still here,’ she said. ‘We would all be sitting on a fortune.’

One example of housing discrimination that the task force has considered is Russell City, a city that once existed near the San Francisco shoreline. Pictured is a mural in what was Russell City

The task force was told by people that lived in Russell City of how it was bulldozed to give way to an industrial plant and residents were not properly reimbursed

People line up to speak during a reparations task force meeting at Third Baptist Church in San Francisco in April

‘We are looking at reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction,’ task force member Jovan Scott Lewis recently told the New York Times
Earlier this year the task force put together a 500-page document outlining why African Americans that are descendants of 19th century slaves were due ‘comprehensive reparations.’
At the time, the group said those eligible for the reparations would have to be descendants of enslaved African Americans or of a ‘free black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century.
It’s has been reported the nine-person task force is looking at whether the payments should be made to black individuals in the U.S., even outside of California.
‘We are looking at reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction,’ task force member Jovan Scott Lewis said.
The members have also spoken with historians to get a sense of how reparations had been paid in previous circumstances, such as after World War II.

The task members have traveled the west coast speaking with community members about the idea of reparations and the setbacks the black community has endured

Kamilah Moore is chair of the California Reparations Task Force (left) and Dr. Amos C. Brown (right) is vice-chair seen here during a September reparations hearing
The reparations could have major impacts for millions of black residents.
The median wealth of black households in the U.S. is $24,100, compared with $188,200 for white households.
California is the first state to require agencies to present a separate demographic category for descendants of enslaved people.
In early December, the New York Times reported that the taskforce has spent months traveling across the West coast to learn about the effect of the policies.
The nine members of the task force have also used their position to call for the federal government to take on their concerns – a move that could cost billions to fulfill.
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