>
A black California businessman demanded $600,000 from California taxpayers during the state’s first reparations task force meeting Wednesday.
Deliberations began on how to quantify how financial compensation might be calculated and what might be required to prove eligibility.
Speaking at the public hearing was 35-year-old businessman and the first black professional triathlete, Max Fennell, who said each person should receive $350,000 in compensation to close the racial wealth gap and black-owned businesses should receive $250,000, which would help them prosper.
Fennell added: “It’s a debt that is owed, we work for free,” he said. ‘We are not asking; we are telling you.
Businessman and professional triathlete Max Fennell spoke at the debate saying: “It’s a debt that is owed, we work for free,” he said. ‘We are not asking; we are telling you.
He concluded his comments by saying, “The tangible elements of what I’m asking for is $350,000 per Black American in California, that’s a tangible $250,000 grant for small businesses and 15-20 acre land.”
Fennell posted a video on Instagram showing him at the hearings, with about 60 other people, along with the caption: “Witnessing history with the tribe.”
Since 2021, the first of its kind in the nation task force has been delving into history and scholarship to make the case for reparations to the descendants of enslaved Black people in California.
‘The group has until July 1 before having to make a decision on repairs.
Task force chair Kamilah Moore listens to public comments during the meeting.
Former Democratic congressional candidate Morris Griffin holds a sign during the rally
Max Fennell and fellow activist Deon Jenkins pictured after the meeting, Jenkins asked for reparations in the amount of $800,000 to be delivered
The committee met Wednesday at City Hall in Oakland, a city that was the birthplace of the Black Panthers but has lost part of its African-American population as rising home prices forced people to leave. .
California Senate candidate Deon Jenkins spoke at the hearing, saying any money designed to counter housing discrimination must be in line with the median home price in the state, around $800,000.
Meanwhile, Demnlus Johnson III, a member of the Richmond City Council, said it’s remarkable that the issue is being talked about publicly.
“You have to name a problem to address it,” he said. “Of course we want it addressed now, the urgency is now, but just to have it all aired out and put online is quite a feat.”
The meeting drew a paltry crowd of activists at Oakland City Hall on Wednesday.
Kerby Lynch, foreground, and Patrice L. Taraji, both representing the City of Vallejo, California, speak during a witness panel from local municipal remediation efforts at a meeting of the Task Force to Study and Develop Proposals for repair for african americans
Task force member Dr. Jovan Lewis, left, speaks with task force chair Kamilah Moore during a meeting.
Task force vice chair Dr. Amos Brown, left, speaks with outgoing Richmond, Calif., city council member Demnlus Johnson III during a break in meetings.
The day before the hearings were to begin, the committee chair referred to reports that the group plans to recommend that $225,000 be awarded to each person who applies for the program.
In a series of interviews on December 13, Kamilah V. Moore said the figure presented to the committee by an economic research team represents the state of California’s “maximum fault” for housing discrimination.
It only applies to people who were affected by housing discrimination between 1933 and 1977, and not just black people.
Moore said: “Actually, that number would be minimized when you take into account the fact that the task force decided in March that community eligibility would be based on lineage rather than race.”
He added: “When you really look at who was actually affected by housing discrimination during that particular time period, it’s most likely not all black people.”
Kamilah Moore said in an interview Tuesday that the maximum payment only applies to those affected by housing discrimination in California between 1933 and 1977.
In a separate interview on Spectrum News, Moore noted the need for a Bureau of African American Affairs to handle payments, noting the success of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ track record in handling similar issues for Native Americans.
Moore opened the hearing on Wednesday by saying: ‘The September meeting in Los Angeles and today’s meeting in Oakland characterized a stage of development. Now, we’re not really looking for people to provide personal, expert testimonials.’
She continued, “It’s important to get this right because we’re setting a precedent for other states and localities, and for the federal government as well.”
Oakland Councilman Carroll Fife pointed to California’s homelessness issues.
These are the five ‘key questions’ the working group plans to discuss during meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.
Fife said: ‘Homelessness is off the charts in California. And that’s partly because there have been populations, particularly black Americans, who have been denied access to housing.’
Committee members will make preliminary policy recommendations, such as audits of government agencies that deal with child welfare and incarceration with the goal of reducing disparities in the way blacks are treated.
The group discussed how the state can address its impact on Black families whose property was seized through eminent domain. The issue drew renewed attention after lawmakers voted last year to return a beachfront property known as Bruce’s Beach to the descendants of black residents who owned it until it was taken over in the 20th century.
Officials from Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities spoke about local repair efforts.
That included Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad, vice chair of the Los Angeles Remedial Advisory Commission, created last year by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti. The commission’s goal is to advise the city on a pilot program to distribute reparations to a group of black residents, but it does not have a set timetable for finishing its work.
In September, economists began listing preliminary estimates of what the state could owe as a result of discriminatory policies. But they said they need more data to come up with more complete numbers.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former Assemblywoman, wrote the bill that created the state task force, and the group began its work last year.
The bill was signed into law in September 2020 after a summer of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota. .
In June, the task force released a 500-page report outlining the discriminatory policies that fueled housing segregation, criminal justice disparities, and other realities that hurt black Californians in the decades after abolition. slavery.