Chris Lodgson is still flabbergasted by how far the movement for reparations for the damage caused by slavery has come in California. “If you had told me ten years ago that we would get a working group set up to think about compensation for the descendants of slaves, I would not have believed you”, note, moved, this Californian. Coming from a family of slaves in Georgia, he is an activist in the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, one of the main organizations involved in the campaign for repairs.
Validated in the fall of 2020 by the Democratic governor of California, a few months after the major anti-racist demonstrations triggered by the death of George Floyd, this “task force” is a first in the United States. This Thursday, June 29, the nine experts of this working group will give Californian parliamentarians a long-awaited final report.
Up to $1.2 million per eligible person?
We already know that, according to these experts, it is necessary for the State to apologize in due form to the descendants of victims. In May, the group had already come out in favor of awarding reparations in the form of “sums of money or their equivalent” to the inhabitants of California whose ancestors were victims of slavery on American territory. According to calculations by economists consulted by the task force, eligible residents should be able to receive up to $1.2 million per person (€1.1 million).
In their calculation, they took into account the financial losses generated by the racial discrimination that persisted after the abolition of the slave system. Expropriations, practice of « redlining » until the end of the 1960s (consisting of refusing or limiting real estate bank loans to African Americans), mass incarceration, unequal access to health… The United States “have grown rich on the backs of slavery” and over the decades of “discriminatory policies that followed”, note Chad Brown, porte-parole de l’association National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants.
The ire of the Republicans
These recommendations have already provoked the ire of Republicans. “They rose up saying, ‘Why should we apologize and put our hands on our wallets when California was never a slave state?’ reports Chris Lodgson. But, while it’s true that California became a free state after joining the Union in 1850, it didn’t completely banish slavery from the territory. » 4,000 slaves were thus transferred into the state by their owners during the gold rush in the middle of the 19th century.
Initiatives similar to that of the Californian task force have emerged in several American cities. San Francisco is thus working on one of the boldest plans in the country: in March, the Democratic municipality said it was considering paying $5 million to each eligible person. Dizzying sums that are far from unanimous in the state. According to a recent poll, only 27% of Californians support the experts’ recommendations. While the “Golden State” announced in May a deficit of 31.5 billion dollars (28.75 billion euros), the question of funding for repairs could become a real headache for the parliamentarians of this progressive state. .
2023-06-29 06:18:08
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