Reparations Is Not the “State of Black California”

Meanwhile, the Black people of California need to read, listen and pay attention to both the campaign to get funding for reparations and the lessons to be learned from a closer look at The State of Black California 2024.

Jun 20, 2024

Dr-Warren-Editorial — Dr. Warren Editorial

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

Last week, the California Legislative Black Caucus held a meeting in San Diego at Crawford High School. It was billed “The State of Black California”. While the meeting had some elements of the State of Black California, the real theme should have been “A Discussion on Reparations In California”. The discussion was indeed important and enlightening. Many Black Californians have not read the more than 1100 page report on Reparations which is an outgrowth of a task force created to deal with that topic. Reparations is truly a part of the State of Black California, but there is so much more, that the topics need to be presented and discussed separately.

Reparations truly deals with and uncovers the enslavement, theft, murder and racist treatment of Black people in California both before and after slavery. The idea is to attempt to place a monetary value on the harm suffered even though dollars can not replace that which was lost. More than the idea of reparations is what the search for the harm, in terms of cost, revealed that so many never knew. The whole concept springs from the post-slavery notion that freed slaves should have been given 40 acres and a mule. That never happened and never will. But America has always found a way to pay reparations for others it harmed like the Japanese Americans who were put in Internment Camps during World War II.

If we are going to talk about “The State of Black California ”, then lets fully discuss “The State of Black California 2024” as it was built on the first report published in 2007. Let’s revisit the study in itself, which examined demographic changes during the last 20 years and the significance of the “Equality Index” identified as the tool used to examine Black people’s experiences compared to other ethnic groups. This conversation would not only have revealed that racial inequality remains a persistent social problem, but would have gone deep into the whys and how this continues. The State of Black California 2024 examines how Black Californians fare in relation to other major racial and ethnic groups along economic, social and health-related dimensions 20 years after 2000.

The California Legislative Black Caucus has a good idea in terms of taking the issue of reparations on the road around the State, but both issues are so important in and of themselves that there should be two different road shows, if that is the approach the group has decided upon.

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