Devin Grosvenor|In California, Black lawmakers share a reparations plan with few direct payments

2025-05-03 04:49:44source:ExaCryptcategory:Finance

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s Legislative Black Caucus released a slate of reparations bills to implement ideas from the state’s landmark task force on Devin Grosvenorthe issue. The proposals include potential compensation for property seized from Black owners, but do not call for widespread direct cash payments to descendants of enslaved Black people.

If approved, the proposals would expand access to career technical education, fund community-driven solutions to violence and eliminate occupational licensing fees for people with criminal records. Another proposal would pay for programs that increase life expectancy, better educational outcomes or lift certain groups out of poverty.

Some of the measures would require amending the state constitution and are likely to face opposition. In 2022, the Democrat-controlled state Senate voted down a proposal to ban involuntary servitude and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has resisted restricting solitary confinement for prison inmates.

State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, said at a news conference Thursday that the Black caucus’ priority list does not preclude individual lawmakers from introducing additional reparations legislation. He cautioned that the journey will be long and difficult, but worth it.

READ MORE California pummeled by first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers as ‘Pineapple Express’ sweeps state6 killings in likely cannabis dispute spotlight violence and risk in California’s illegal pot marketFirst of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pushes into California. Officials urge storm preparations

“This is a defining moment not only in California history, but in American history as well,” said Bradford, who served on the nine-person state task force on reparations.

But the 14 proposals are already drawing criticism from advocates who don’t think they go far enough.

Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, which pushed to create the reparations task force, said the proposals are “not reparations.”

“Not one person who is a descendant who is unhoused will be off the street from that list of proposals. Not one single mom who is struggling who is a descendant will be helped,” he said. “Not one dime of the debt that’s owed is being repaid.”

California entered the union as a free state in 1850, but in practice, it sanctioned slavery and approved policies and practices that thwarted Black people from owning homes and starting businesses. Black communities were aggressively policed and their neighborhoods polluted, according to a groundbreaking report released as part of the committee’s work.

More:Finance

Recommend

California DMV apologizes for license plate that some say mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for an “unacceptable a

US consumer sentiment slips in October on frustration over high prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ outlook on the economy soured a bit this month after two months of smal

Disney World and other Orlando parks to reopen Friday after Hurricane Milton shutdown

Stay up to date: Follow AP’s live coverage of Hurricane Milton and the 2024 hurricane season. ORL