CNS News– Taking a long-awaited first step toward reparations, San Francisco supervisors will apologize to Black citizens for decades of racist laws and policies. Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the African American and descendent apology resolution.
Its passing is assured by all 11 members’ sponsorship. A large U.S. city would be among the first to do so. San Francisco is urged to “make substantial ongoing, systemic, and programmatic investments” in Black communities and avoid detrimental policies and practices. San Francisco has 46,000 Blacks.
Supervisor Shamann Walton, the lone Black board member and leading reparations proponent, stated at a committee hearing on the resolution earlier this month that “An apology from this city is very concrete and is not just symbolic, as admitting fault is a major step in making amends.”
Others feel an apology isn’t enough for atonement. According to Rev. Amos C. Brown, a member of the San Francisco Reparations Advisory Council that recommended the apology, “An apology is just cotton candy rhetoric.” Concrete actions are needed.” From over 100 municipal committee reparations ideas, an apology would be the first.
To address San Francisco’s significant racial wealth inequality, the African American Reparations Advisory Committee offered a $5 million lump-sum cash payment and roughly $100,000 in guaranteed income for eligible Black adults. On those and other proposals, nothing has happened.
Black mayor London Breed says reparations should be nationwide. Her administration cut $4 million for a reparations office this year due to a budget shortage. The previous meeting heard reparations supporters lamenting the slow pace of government action, stating Black residents still lag in health, education, and income.
In 2022, a government count found that 38% of San Francisco’s homeless were black, while making up fewer than 6% of the population. The first state to organize a reparations task force was California in 2020. In 2023, the state committee dissolved, offering many policy proposals, including monetary payout methods for descendants of slaves.
However, the California Legislative Black Caucus’ reparations bills this year do not include financial redress. Instead, they propose to compensate eminent domain victims, create a state reparations agency, ban forced prison labor, and apologize. In an interview after the committee meeting, Black San Francisco city employee Cheryl Thornton said an apology alone does little to address contemporary concerns like Black lifespans.
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She stated reparations are vital in health care. It’s due to a lack of good diet, medical treatment, and adequate education. The resolution says other states have apologized for prejudice, brutality, and enslavement of African Americans. The first large U.S. city to apologize was Boston in 2022. Boston City Council voted to create a reparations task team that year.