San Francisco is a city in California, which was never a slave state, Nor was it even in the Jim Crow South. Despite that, its woke residents still apparently feel the need to consider and possibly even pay out reparations to black residents. And so it has a “reparations committee,” which predictably found that an exorbitant sum will need to be paid to the city’s longtime black residents to make up for racism.
In fact, the city’s reparations committee has just proposed paying each black, longtime resident $5 million. Not only that, but the reparations committee wants to grant those same longtime black residents total debt forgiveness. Beginning, the draft released by the reparations committee states:
Since the forced enslavement of people of African descent, there has been both resistance to the institution of chattel slavery and demands for redress thereof. The genetic, psychological, financial, and racial trauma experienced by Black Americans through US chattel slavery is one of the greatest crimes against humanity perpetuated by our nation. The practice of slavery in the US was uniquely violent and disruptive wherein African Americans were foundationally and systematically disconnected from knowledge of their geographies, languages, names, relatives, and historic cultural practices. Despite the efforts to yield other outcomes, Black people in America have consistently built loving families and communities, provided a blueprint for American cuisine, constructed our nation’s most notable monuments, and are the most influential creators of artistic expression globally through dance, music, fashion and language.
Continuing, it says “While neither San Francisco, nor California, formally adopted the institution of chattel slavery, the tenets of segregation, white supremacy and systematic repression and exclusion of Black people were codified through legal and extralegal actions, social codes, and judicial enforcement.”
And those are just snippets. The lengthly report goes through instance after instance of how horrible and racist San Francisco supposedly was, ignoring that its one of the best places in the world to live.
But then, after 31 pages of that glass-half-empty history lesson, the report’s authors get to their “suggestions” for reparations, framing them by saying “Objective 1: Create a comprehensive suite of financial reparations that is made immediately available to those who qualify under the eligibility parameters set forth by the Committee.” Here those are:
1.1 Provide a one-time, lump sum payment of $5 million to each eligible person.
Rationale: A lump sum payment would compensate the affected population for the decades of
harms that they have experienced, and will redress the economic and opportunity losses that
Black San Franciscans have endured, collectively, as the result of both intentional decisions and
unintended harms perpetuated by City policy.
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1.2 Supplement African-American income of lower income households to reflect the Area Median
Income (AMI) annually for at least 250 years ($97,000 in 20221).
Rationale: Racial disparities across all metrics have led to a significant racial wealth gap in the City
of San Francisco. By elevating income to match AMI, Black people can better afford housing and
achieve a better quality of life.
1.3 Provide access to a spectrum of financial education, from beginning to advanced.
Rationale: While traditional financial education emphasizes basic financial literacy, there is a need
to provide a ‘ladder’ of financial education that encompasses all levels of financial knowledge so
that resources match the broad spectrum of financial levels that exist throughout the community.
1.4 Create public bank framework2 to ensure that unbanked people have fair options and expanded
access to credit, loans, financing and other tools for leveraging financial power.
Rationale: The ongoing quest for a public bank provides an opportunity for the City to offer options
for populations that have historically been denied access to traditional financial institutions. Similar
to credit unions, a public bank can be a safety net to ensure that those on the financial margins
have access to competitive rates and can access traditional pathways to build financial resilience.
The debt forgiveness bit said:
1.6 Finance a comprehensive debt forgiveness program that clears all educational, personal, credit
card, payday loans, etc.
Rationale: Black households are more likely to hold costlier, riskier debt, and are more likely to
have outstanding student loan debt. When this is combined with lower household incomes, it can
create an inescapable cycle of debt. Eliminating this debt gives Black households an opportunity to
build wealth.
And those are just a few of the demands. Others include “Recruit a Black-owned community bank to San Francisco”, “Introduce tax credits for those who qualify for Reparations”, and “Create a Black Reparations Trust or other entity that can accept funds for the sole purpose of investing in Black communities”.
To be eligible for the reparations program, person must be 18 years old, have identified as Black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years, and must prove at least two of eight additional criteria, choosing from a list that includes, “Born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and has proof of residency in San Francisco for at least 13 years,” and/or, “Personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs.”
So get ready for longtime San Fran crackheads to line up for free money and debt forgiveness thanks to indignities they didn’t suffer and those paying for them didn’t inflict…in a state that wasn’t even involved in some of the things most hated by modern wokies.