Activists Demand Black Residents Receive $350K Each at California Reparations Committee

Morris Griffin holds up a sign during a meeting by the Task Force to Study and Develop Rep
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Ethan Letkeman

Activists are demanding California pay black residents and black-owned businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars each in reparations.

The demands were made in Oakland, the birthplace of the Black Panthers movement, at the City Hall on Wednesday at a California reparations committee meeting. Around 60 people gathered to discuss eligibility requirements for payments and compensation, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Max Fennell, 35, a black coffee shop owner and former triathlete, suggested that black individuals receive $350,000 each in reparations to close the racial wealth gap. He also demanded black-owned businesses receive $250,000 each and 15 to 20 acres of land, the Daily Mail reported.

“It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free. We’re not asking; we’re telling you,” Fennel said.

Furthermore, Deon Jenkins, a California senate candidate, suggested to the task force that compensation should be similar to how much it costs for a home in the state, around $800,000, to counter housing discrimination.

The committee was created after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed it into law in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and riots in 2020 and has until July 1, 2023, to complete its report and send its recommendations to the state legislature.

This image made from video from the Office of the Governor shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing into law a bill that establishes a task force to come up with recommendations on how to give reparations to Black Americans on September 30, 2020, in Sacramento, California. (Office of the Governor via AP, File)

In June, the task force released a nearly 500-page report recommending the state pay reparations for slavery, despite California entering the union as a free state in 1850. The committee further suggested that a separate public schooling system for black students be implemented, Breitbart News reported.

However, the committee voted 5-4 in March to limit reparation payments to descendants of slaves.

California’s exploration into offering reparation payments to black residents comes as other left-wing municipalities are exploring or have implemented the policy.

This week, the Boston City Council voted to create a reparations committee in “atonement” for black residents and the city’s role in financing slavery and its history of racial inequality, the AP reported. Massachusetts abolished the practice of slavery in 1783.

Last Year, Evanston, Illinois, became the first government to offer black residents reparation payments. New York is also looking into the possibility of creating a reparations committee.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.

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