Reparations experts say an apology to San Francisco’s black residents means nothing unless backed up by action.
“Reparations are the remedies that make the rhetoric of apology meaningful,” said Roy Brooks, a reparations scholar and law professor at the University of San Diego. told USA Today.
“You can’t just say sorry and walk away,” Brooks told USA Today, adding that “an apology wasn’t enough.”
Mr. Brooks edited the 1999 book When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversial Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice.
San Francisco On Tuesday, it voted to issue a formal apology to Black residents after decades of “systemic racism.”
San Francisco’s proposed reparations plan could cost the city $100 billion: Report
All 11 pieces San Francisco Board of Supervisors He sponsored and signed a resolution apologizing for the city’s complicity in “systemic and structural discrimination.”
Roy Brooks, a law professor at the University of San Diego who specializes in reparations issues, said San Francisco’s apologies to black residents mean nothing unless they are backed up by action. (YouTube screenshot)
When the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Commission released its final recommendations last July, it said, “The City and County of San Francisco and their agencies formally apologize for past harms and commit to continued, systematic and “We must commit to providing substantial compensation.” Programmatic investments in Black communities to address historical harm. ”
Civil rights lawyer says cash payments to descendants of slaves ‘recognize the harm’ caused by slavery
The resolution will be taken after the committee The city claimed it was owed millions of dollars. Dozens of dollars in compensation to black residents for discrimination. The commission proposed that eligible Black adult residents receive $5 million in cash and a guaranteed income of nearly $100,000 annually to address racial wealth disparities in the city.
Mayor London Breed said the $5 million payment could reach $100 billion, far exceeding the city’s $14 billion annual budget, according to the LA Times. The newspaper added that Breed had not promised cash compensation.
Brooks said local governments are “relying on lower-cost rehabilitation compensation” because budget constraints can make it difficult for local governments to implement financial compensation, according to USA Today.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Brooks points out that Evanston, Illinois’ form of reparations, which provided housing subsidies to black residents as a remedy for generations of past property undervaluations by white appraisers, allowed black families to accumulate wealth over generations. It delayed the effort to accumulate.”
“This is not a cash payment, which most people think of,” Brooks said.
“But they actually did something,” he added.
The Evanston City Council passed the nation’s first reparations plan, promising black residents $10 million over 10 years.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said. He said his city showed how reparations could become a “tangible” reality.
San Francisco supervisors said the apology was just that: an apology. Start of reparations for black residents In the city.
Descendants of slaves who built the University of Missouri seek more than $70 billion for unpaid slave labor
City officials unanimously passed a formal apology, but some criticized the measure as insufficient before it was passed because other reparations were on hold due to budget issues.
A person puts on a reparations rally hat during a rally for reparations at the African Burial Grounds National Monument in New York City, July 23, 2021. (Getty Images)
Coach Sherman Walton reportedly acknowledged that the apology was an important step, but said more needs to be done.
“This historic resolution apologizes on behalf of San Francisco to the African American community and its descendants for decades of systemic and structural discrimination, targeted violence, and brutality. .” Walton told CBS News. “We still have much work to do, but this apology is certainly an important step.”
Rev. Amos C. BrownOfficials who are members of the San Francisco Reparations Advisory Committee, which recommended that the city pass a formal apology, also said that alone is not enough.
“Apologies are just cotton candy rhetoric,” Brown said. “What we need is concrete action.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“People want an apology,” Supervisor Dean Preston said. “But they also want a commitment not to repeat the harm.”
Preston said city officials supported issuing an apology but still wanted to build “unaffordable housing primarily for wealthy white people” on public land.
