Fox News reports that the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee released its draft report last month to address reparations – not for slavery, since California was not technically a slave state, but "the public policies explicitly created to subjugate black people in San Francisco by upholding and expanding the intent and legacy of chattel slavery."
(See Ben Shapiro's related opinion piece)
In addition to the $5 million payouts and granting total debt forgiveness due to what it calls decades of "systematic repression," the committee also suggests financially supplementing lower-income recipients to reflect the Area Median Income (AMI), about $97,000, annually for at least 250 years.
Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of the Los Angeles-based Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), calls the whole proposal "ridiculous."
"The best word I can find for it is evil," he tells AFN. "First of all, California was never a slave state anyway. Secondly, how are you going to prove you're black? And thirdly, the slaves are all dead, and these people do not deserve reparations."
Peterson says the radicals pushing this are counting on white guilt.
"As I've said before, white Americans are afraid now to tell blacks no. They're afraid to correct them," he observes. "Americans are allowing these radical black males and females to get into government. These folks hate white people; they hate America. And in that stupid hatred that they have in their hearts, they think America owes them something, when America doesn't owe them anything."
He thinks the reparations will happen one way or another "because white Americans won't stand up and say no."
To be eligible for the program, the applicant must be 18 years old and have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years. They must also prove at least two of eight additional criteria, choosing from a list that includes, "Born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and has proof of residency in San Francisco for at least 13 years," and/or, "Personally, or the direct descendant of someone, incarcerated by the failed War on Drugs."
So far the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has not yet given any feedback regarding their position on the recommendations.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are pushing to establish a reparations committee at the federal level. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and 52 House Democrats proposed legislation last week seeking reparations and a national apology for slavery.
