The California Task Force on Reparations for African Americans has released its first ever report detailing recommendations to rectify wrongdoings against Black people in the state.
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Donald Tamaki, a member of the Reparations Task Force, told KCBS Radio the report is groundbreaking.
"It tracks a through line between the institution of enslavement, which began in the American continents in 1619, and every iteration of discrimination that followed, whether it was racial violence, political disenfranchisement, suppression of voting, housing, employment, labor, healthcare and so on," he said.
By studying our history, the report explains how slavery has resulted in the systemic discrimination of today, directly effecting neighborhoods and Black communities.
"So thoroughly have the effects of slavery infected every aspect of American society over the last 400 years, that it is nearly impossible to identify every 'badge and incident of slavery,' to include every piece of evidence, or describe every harm done to African Americans," the report states. "In order to address this practical reality, this interim report of the Reparations Task Force describes a sample of government actions and the compounding harms that have resulted."
"This is a topic we don't want to talk about as Americans. But, if we don't shine a light on this erased and buried history, we'll never get better as a country," Tamaki said.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, is the first of two parts, the second of which will be published in 2023. In the meantime, the task force plans to study how California was complicit with slavery and will decide which steps to take to right those wrongs. "When (California) entered the Union in 1850 as a free state, it was plenty complicit with the institution of slavery, and much of Jim Crow in terms of the customs, norms and laws were actually imported into the state, whether it was red lining or vagrancy laws, discrimination and so on," Tamaki explained. "So we'll be looking at all of those in terms of coming up with remedies."
Ultimately, the goal of the task force is to translate their work into policy laws which will change curriculum or create new housing opportunities, among other things.
Looking forward, Tamaki believes the report will be used as a guide for officials on the state and local level throughout the country. "In San Francisco there's a reparations task force. The state is the first in the country to take this on, but there are about 30 truth and reconciliation commissions going on nationwide and various cities and counties throughout that will also be, I'm sure, using this report," he said.
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