The numbers mentioned in a draft report by California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, accounting for racial differences in life expectancy, are precise and include the statistical value of each year of human life: $13,619, wealth that is missing due to lower rates of black homeownership: $148,099, average devaluation of black-owned businesses: $77,000, and the yearly disproportionate incarceration factored by race: $159,792. The report’s recommendations will be delivered to the state legislature on June 29, and supportive lawmakers plan to propose bills enacting some of the measures by the end of the legislative session in 2024. These proposals include greater investments in schools, health care, housing, job training, and businesses in black communities, improvements in access to higher education, advancements in voting rights, and reforms in policing and public safety. The most heavily charged recommendation is offering direct compensation to eligible black residents who are descended from a person enslaved in the US, with losses calculated to go as high as $1.2 million per person, dependent on the harms claimed and the years the recipient has lived in California. This reparations effort is estimated to cost up to $800 billion, making it the largest and most complex in history, with some proposals being symbolic and others more familiar. While public support for reparations is still lacking, California is setting a potential roadmap for reparations at the federal level, where legislation has been introduced in Congress every session since 1989.
California Establishes a Cost for the Effects of Slavery and Develops a Plan for Reparations – Orange County Register
