The city of San Francisco, California, has formally apologized to its black citizens, asking for forgiveness for what the government calls “decades of systemic and structural discrimination.”
The city supervisors issued a formal apology in the form of a resolution on Tuesday, following a unanimous vote of all 11 board members.
“This historic resolution, on behalf of San Francisco, apologizes to the African American community and its descendants for decades of systemic and structural discrimination, targeted violence, and brutality, and This is an expression of our commitment to rectifying and redressing the policies and wrongdoings of the United States.” Director Sherman Walton, the only black member of the board.
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A man stands in front of the ornate dome of San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco’s Civic Center district. (Photo courtesy of The Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
“We still have much work to do, but there is no doubt that this apology is an important step.”
The resolution cites as inspiration the nine states that have previously issued similar apologies for slavery. This is similar to another US city, Boston, which has formally sought amnesty for past racist actions by its government and police.
Slavery was never legal in San Francisco, but reparations activists say the city has imposed decades of racist policies that economically harm Black residents.
San Francisco Reparations Commission says there was no formula for determining $5 per black person
A San Francisco Police Department patch can be seen on the uniform of a police officer standing during a press conference at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. (Photo by Lee Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
The formal apology is the first of more than 100 proposals submitted by the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee. The price is also the cheapest.
As previously reported, San Francisco’s proposed reparations payments to eligible Black residents were once estimated at more than $100 billion. Now, Democratic Mayor London Breed has cut the Reparations Agency to deal with an expected budget deficit in 2024. But the high cost was deemed “unrealistic” for a city already struggling with budgets and a lack of agreement on compensation. problem.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors had previously considered giving eligible black residents $5 million each in reparations to make amends for slavery.
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The photo shows an aerial view of the San Francisco skyline.
A September poll found that a majority of Californians do not support reparations. Nearly 60% of California voters opposed the cash payments, while 29% of voters supported the idea, according to a poll by the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Government, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.
“That never happened.” math formula. This is a journey for a committee that seeks to invest fully in families to put them on the path to economic well-being, growth, and vitality that chattel slavery and all the policies derived from it have destroyed. ” he said.
Eric McDonnell, chairman of the African American Reparations Advisory Commission, acknowledged that finding money to pay was not the commission’s purpose. “Our mission was not a feasibility study,” he said. “It was about assessing harm and assigning value.”
Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks and Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.
