There are bound to be more than a few residents of San Francisco who will push back on an outrageous proposal by a committee set up to study the issue of making payments to blacks for past slavery, also known as reparations.
Only, there is one problem right off the bat: California was never a slave state.
According to Fox News, the reparations committee is proposing to make long-time black residents of the city overnight millionaires, paying each of them $5 million and offering total debt forgiveness for decades of alleged “systematic repression” faced by them.
The outlet noted further:
The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which advises the city on developing a plan for reparations for Black residents, released its draft report last month to address reparations – not for slavery, since California was not technically a slave state, but “to address the public policies explicitly created to subjugate Black people in San Francisco by upholding and expanding the intent and legacy of chattel slavery.” The draft plan includes a long list of financial recommendations for Black San Francisco residents, including a one-time, lump sum payment of $5 million to each eligible individual.
“While neither San Francisco, nor California, formally adopted the institution of chattel slavery, the tenets of segregation, white supremacy and systematic repression and exclusion of Black people were codified through legal and extralegal actions, social codes, and judicial enforcement,” the draft says.
“A lump sum payment would compensate the affected population for the decades of harms that they have experienced, and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and unintended harms perpetuated by City policy,” the draft continued.
In order to become eligible for the taxpayer-supported program, applicants have to be 18 years old and have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years. In addition, they have to prove two of eight other criteria from a list that includes “Born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and has proof of residency in San Francisco for at least 13 years,” and/or, “Personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs.”
In addition, taxpayers would be on the hook for centuries, being forced to supplement lower-income recipients’ income by raising it to the Area Median Income level or about $97,000 annually (for now) for the next 250 years.
“Racial disparities across all metrics have led to a significant racial wealth gap in the City of San Francisco,” the proposal argues. “By elevating income to match AMI, Black people can better afford housing and achieve a better quality of life.”
The plan would also establish “a comprehensive debt forgiveness program” that clears away an eligible person’s student and housing loans, credit card debt, and all other debts.
“Black households are more likely to hold costlier, riskier debt, and are more likely to have outstanding student loan debt,” the draft says. “When this is combined with lower household incomes, it can create an inescapable cycle of debt. Eliminating this debt gives Black households an opportunity to build wealth.”
The panel is to submit their ‘plan’ to Mayor London Breed, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission in June.
