The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee wants the city to pay longtime residents millions of dollars and has advised the city to erase all financial debt for Black residents.
This recommendation comes in a draft proposal submitted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Dec. 23.
The committee recommended providing Black residents of the city with a one-time payment of $5 million as amends for systematic repression suffered by Black Americans. Residents must prove they’ve been a resident for at least 10 years and be at least 18.
The residents would also have to prove two other criteria of a list that includes being a descendant of an enslaved person, having attended San Francisco public schools during segregation, being directly affected by the failed War on Drugs, or either being born in or migrated to the city between 1940 and 1996 for at least 13 years.
The San Francisco Reparations Committee also recommended that the city supplement the income of low-income recipients to bring their annual income to $97,000, the Area Median Income or AMI. The plan would supplement recipients’ incomes annually for at least 250 years.
“Racial disparities across all metrics have led to a significant racial wealth gap in the City of San Francisco,” the panel wrote. “By elevating income to match AMI, Black people can better afford housing and achieve a better quality of life.”
The committee also recommended the city issue a formal apology for racial abuse and establish an independent Office of Reparations within the City to execute their recommendations.
“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,” reads the recommendation.
“A lump sum payment would…
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