By Vaiva Utaraite
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The San Francisco NAACP last week urged the SF Board of Supervisors to reject a one-time $5 million reparation payment to African Americans from the city of San Francisco.
Instead, the NAACP said the city should “make investments in five key areas to atone for a history of racism, discrimination and mistreatment.”
These five key areas include “education, jobs, housing, healthcare and a cultural center for Blacks in San Francisco,” said NAACP’s Rev. Amos Brown.
Brown urged the need for remedial programs in schools, given that “Black students don’t perform as well as their peers.”
With the inclusion of Biden’s multi-billion Infrastructure Bill, Brown noted how this would be perfect for African Americans to “get the opportunity to get jobs.”
Brown said the city “has fallen from 16 percent Black population to less than 5 percent,” indicating that discrimination and the “urban renewal” programs in the 60s and 70s were the main driving force behind this, adding, “there should be preferential treatment for Blacks to keep [them] in this city,” which involves providing more public and affordable housing options.
According to Brown, “Blacks don’t have the same lifespan as the majority population,” citing the need for programs that “positively impact [their] health, longevity, and mental health.”
“Just as there is a Japantown, a Chinatown, [African Americans] need a Black center of town,” stated Brown.
This action can be accomplished by “preserving and protecting the Fillmore Heritage Center and the surrounding blacks not only as a historic center of [the] people, but as a place to gather and grow the Black community for future generations,” said Brown.
“We strongly believe that creating and funding programs that can improve the lives of those who have been impacted by racism and discrimination is the best path forward toward equality and justice,” said Rev. Brown.
Is this seriously even being considered in San Francisco, a $5 million payout?
As far as California paying reparations I see that Newsom has been dodging the issue lately. He knows the backlash that it will create.
Honestly, they already have that – it’s called Hunter’s Point / Visitation Valley. (Though I think this is changing, as well.)
It’s unfortunate that so many people were/are trapped in federal housing projects in that area.
I recall reading that there used to (and still may) be significant violence/tension between the Japanese community (around Japantown) and the adjacent Fillmore district. Even after the city leveled much of the Fillmore district via its “redevelopment agency”.
Here’s some questions I have, though (regarding “any” reparations). Aren’t those who receive reparations included within those who have to pay them in the first place? Unless specifically excluded from paying into such funds?
And for that matter, weren’t black people included in the “pool” who were required to pay Japanese Americans who suffered from forced internment during WWII (and who were still alive at the time)?
And what about Native Americans? For example, should black people be required to pay Native Americans who were driven off (or exterminated – one way or another) the land that they (black and other groups) now live on? And if not, why not?
Or should the Mexican government (in regard to Native Americans in California, at least) be paying reparations to those remaining tribes, as well? (I guess we can let Spain off the hook, since the Mexican government subsequently took over the missions.)