Deon Jenkins, California senate candidate, warns of ‘serious backlash’ in reparations debate

Activist Deon Jenkins has warned the California reparations task force that there will be a “severe backlash” if they don’t meet his demands for more than $800,000 for black residents.

Yesterday, Jenkins told the first meeting of the Task Force to Study and Develop Repair Proposals for African Americans that the money given to blacks in California should be in line with the median home price in the state, around $800,000.

After that public hearing appearance at Oakland City Hall, Jenkins, who refers to himself as a “hip hop organizer,” said in an interview, “Either they’re going to comply or it’s going to be a serious backlash.”

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 it must make a decision on repairs.

Jenkins ran for president in 2016 and 2020 and ran for the United States Senate in California in 2022, polling fewer than 7,000 votes. On his official website, Jenkins calls himself a “grassroots hip hop organizer.”

In his address to the task force, Jenkins also said: ‘Defense, money, land, grants. Four elements of every society, every nation: a defensive structure, economy, land and having access to that economy.’

He continued: ‘If that is not addressed, the repairs will not stick. Reparations: reparation is the root of the word, we can’t have reparation if those elements are not addressed.’

Also speaking Thursday was the Rev. Tony Pierce of the Black Wall Street Project, who yelled when his time to speak ran out: ‘$230,000 is not enough!’

Another speaker, Carol Williams, who said she has lived without a home since moving to the state in 1985 from Memphis, expressed her belief that all repairs should be tax-free.

She said: ‘I consider myself a foundational black American. The repair should be tax-free, so that when we get the money, the IRS won’t come after us. And I am pleading and asking that when we make the lineage decision, we save those who have been in California since 2000’.

While another speaker said: ‘I can’t even walk down the street without being judged. There is nothing you can do in this world without being judged. Why should I be judged…just because of the color of my skin?’

At Wednesday’s hearing, the 35-year-old businessman and the first black professional triathlete, Max Fennell, said each person should receive $350,000 in compensation to close the racial wealth gap and that black-owned businesses should receive $250,000, which would help them flourish.

Fennell added: “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.”

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 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.”

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 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.

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 figures.

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.