California Assembly Passes Reparations Bill

TOPLINE

A bill creating a task force to study how reparations could be implemented statewide passed the California Assembly this week as Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S. force leaders to reckon with the country’s history of racism. 

KEY FACTS

Crucial quote

“The discriminatory practices of the past echo into the everyday lives of today’s Californians… We seem to recognize that justice requires that those who have been treated unjustly need the means to make themselves whole again,” said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, the author of the bill, said.

Key background

Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, politicians have started taking the idea of reparations seriously. A federal bill establishing a commission to study the issue was introduced in 2019 and House Democrats hope Congress will vote on the legislation later this year, CNN reported. The city of Evanston, Illinois, which is outside Chicago, created a first-in-the-nation program last year that uses taxes on legal marijuana sales to fund reparations (the city hopes to start making payments later this year or early next). And Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said this week he supports studying the feasibility of reparations after being hesitant about them for years.

Tangent

The U.S. in 1988 paid reparations to survivors of Japanese internment camps during World War II, giving each person $20,000.