The human race and racism: Reparations

We often begin the new year looking back at our accomplishments and our unfinished tasks. Surrounded by divisiveness and animosity we wish for a better world and resolve anew to do our part, no matter how small it might be, to contribute to change and repair. Indeed, reparations are a way that can help construct a better community for all of us.

Many reparations are desperately needed. Our planet, the plants and animals who live here with us, and the many in our community who have been harmed by human actions past and present – all are past due reparation. We can examine harm we've done as individuals and take steps to repair it but governments also commit harms and we must ensure our governments should provide reparations for those harms committed as well.

Where to begin?

Last year, we received a report detailing harms and recommending reparations for the legacy of racial policies that date back as far as our slavery past which, despite slavery's foundational role for much of our country, has yet to be addressed. (https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/full-ca-reparations.pdf and well worth the read)

The report includes hundreds of recommendations that align with reparations principles used the world over. Simply put, governments who commit harm have the obligation to address it through restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and the guarantee to not repeat or continue these actions. This begins with a public apology, and will also include public education, and funded programs to address any remaining systemic discrimination and racism.

Despite California being a "free" state, slavery was openly practiced here with at least 1500 enslaved people. We had a tougher Fugitive Slave Law than the national one and since slave hunters didn't have to produce proof that someone was a runaway, even free Black people weren't safe from abduction. Black folks were not allowed to testify in California courts against whites. California led the way in segregation and Jim Crow laws with a "separate but equal" doctrine even before the US Supreme Court decision in Plessy v Fergusson in 1896. And California was a Ku Klux Klan haven, particularly after 1900.

Housing discrimination wasn't banned in California until 1963 but even after that enforcement was spotty at best and job discrimination has had a similar history. The list goes on: racial terror; political disenfranchisement; separate and unequal education; racism under the guise of urban renewal; the pathologizing of the African American family; control over creative, cultural, and intellectual African American life; stolen labor and hindered opportunity, an unjust legal system, a significant and demonstrable wealth gap created by lack of opportunity. Most of the wealth of Americans is tied up in home ownership. Racial discrimination in lending practices and forcing Blacks into small undesirable communities prevented each generation from accumulating equity in their homes and passing it on. And the mental and physical health toll was enormous.

The report was delivered to our California Legislature in time to be considered for the 2024 session beginning this month. Many of our local legislators hold unprecedented positions of power in the Legislature this year. Let's urge them to enact this legislation on our behalf and urge our local leaders not only to communicate their support as well but also to look carefully at local actions that have created instances of harm and repair them, too.

By starting here, we can begin to build the local community we wish for and perhaps extend to the world beyond.

Email your questions and comments to jamesmccully2571@gmail.com.