Commentary
Secretary of State Shirley Weber recently spoke at California State University–Sacramento on reparations for black Californians for slavery and other harms. While in the Assembly, she authored Assembly Bill 3121, which authorized the state reparations task force. She said it’s moving toward issuing a report in July:
Since California is now moving toward being the fourth largest economy in the world, and we can do everything else, we can talk about reparations. Apologies without action means very little.And she told KCRA 3:
There have been reparations given to all kinds of other individuals, but there’s been no serious effort to repair the damage done to African Americans in this country. Whether it’s been financial, legislative, educational, all those kinds of things, and it’s unquestionable that the damage has been done and that we must do something, otherwise we can’t really move forward because that legacy is there.KCRA 3 also summarized some of her comments: “She said those who are descendants of people who were enslaved, or descendants of Black people who lived during the time of slavery but were free, would be the focus of the reparations program.”
