Chair of San Francisco’s reparations committee was slammed by Nancy Pelosi at 9/11 service

The chairman of the San Francisco reparations committee was criticized by Nancy Pelosi at a 9/11 service in the wake of the attacks after insinuating the United States was to blame.

The Rev. Amos Brown is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which is considering recommendations from the city’s African American Remedies Advisory Committee to redress slavery.

The 14-person committee is considering plans to pay black residents a lump sum of $5 million, pay off debt and guarantee annual income of $97,000 for 250 years.

Nancy Pelosi, while serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives, said she supported a bill that would establish a national commission to study and consider slavery reparations.

However, two decades ago she chided Brown at a memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 attacks after he used it as a platform to express his left-wing views.

‘America, America, what did you do, whether intentionally or not, in the world order, in Central America, in Africa, where the bombs keep going off?’ asked Brown from the pulpit.

‘America, what did you do at the global warming conference when you didn’t embrace smaller nations? America, what did you do two weeks ago when I was at the world conference on racism, when you didn’t show up?

Paul Holm, who was in attendance to represent his dead partner Mark Bingham, walked out of the service, saying: “I thought this was a day of remembrance and not a political event.”

Pelosi was the only Democrat on the stage to rebuke Brown for his insensitive comments.

“The act of terrorism on 9/11 put those people out of the order of civilized behavior, and we take no responsibility for that,” he told the audience.

Amos earlier this month made a sweeping change to plans to pay $5 million in repairs to every black San Franciscan resident, saying he now believes the money should go toward community projects.

The reason for its inverted position is unclear.

Speaking on behalf of the San Francisco NAACP, Brown urged the city to redirect its focus toward education, jobs, housing, health care and a cultural center for blacks.

In a statement, Brown said: “We strongly believe that creating and funding programs that can improve the lives of those who have been affected by racism and discrimination is the best path to equality and justice.”

It comes after a public meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 14 to allow people to express their views on a plan to provide reparations to black residents.

The NAACP responded directly to the discussion, saying the investment needed to be in education, health care and economic empowerment, all of which are in line with the California task force and AARAC suggestions.

Brown said: ‘Black students don’t perform as well as their peers. We need remedial programs to help our children with reading, math, and science.

‘The school district and the city have a moral obligation to nurture all children and especially those whose families have been disadvantaged by discrimination.

‘With President Biden’s infrastructure bill, we want to see more Black people have the opportunity to get jobs in the billions of dollars of infrastructure work that will be done in our community in our state.

‘Blacks do not have the same life expectancy as the majority of the population. We need programming that has a positive impact on our health, longevity and state of mind.’

He also urged the city to create a “black downtown” and to “preserve and protect the Fillmore Heritage Center.”

Civil rights leader Brown studied under Martin Luther King Jr and was arrested during a 1961 sit-in to protest segregation in the South.

He told the San Francisco Chronicle that “America is a racist country” and he knows it, in addition to explaining that his great-great-grandfather was born into slavery in 1821.

Gavin Newsom’s committee for redress has separately recommended that each descendant of African-American slaves receive a $223,000 “housing discrimination” payment from the federal government, while it continues to investigate other areas for compensation.

It’s unclear if the group’s recommendations will be put forward nationally, but if so, it could mean Brown may be one of the recipients of the $223,000 that group recommended.

The California task force believes black Americans should get the money for “bearing the economic effects” of racism and slavery, after initially making the suggestions in the state.

In a March 2022 report, the group said those eligible for reparations would have to be descendants of enslaved African Americans or a “free black person who lived in the United States before the end of the 19th century.”

They argue the money is for discriminatory housing practices used from 1933 to 1977, and they have 12 more categories to consider.

The San Francisco Black Reparations Advisory Committee released a draft report in December to “address public policies explicitly created to subjugate blacks in San Francisco by upholding and expanding the intent and legacy of slavery.”

The group also proposes that the government eliminate all debt associated with education, credit cards, payday loans, and personal loans for black households.

It is separate from the task force created by the California legislature, which is also studying the repairs, and the San Francisco committee was formed in May 2021.

As a result, the proposal could cost the city, which has a 2022-2023 budget of $14 billion, approximately $50 billion.

Those eligible must be 18 years of age and show that they have identified themselves as Black or African American on public documents for at least ten years.

The proposals presented in San Francisco on March 14 are among some of the most generous heard to date.

Another meeting is scheduled for September.