Activists Demand ‘$200 Million for Each and Every African American’ in California

Reparations for black residents in California are forecasted to cost $800 billion — more than twice the cost of the state’s entire annual budget, but activists say that is not enough.

Last night, the task force approved recommendations for reparation payments, which are due to the state legislature by July 1, Breitbart reported. The nine-member task force called on lawmakers to make a formal apology for slavery and also requested that those eligible will receive “cash down payments.” The task force was assembled two years ago following George Floyd being killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. California was the first state to assemble a reparations task force.

If passed, a black resident, older than 71, would be eligible to receive more than $1.2 million in reparations, as reported by Fox.

But during last night’s meeting, an activist known as Rev. Tony Pierce called out the task force for being fearful of getting the black community what they really deserve.

“You know that the numbers should be equivocal to what an acre was back then. We were given 40, OK? We were given 40 acres. You know what that number is. You keep trying to talk about now, yet you research back to slavery and you say nothing about slavery, nothing,” said Pierce. “So, the equivocal number from the 1860s for 40 acres to today is $200 million for each and every African-American.”

Pierce was joined by former Black Panther Party chairwoman Elaine Brown, who called for people to turn to demonstrations, as reported by the DailyMail.

Aaron Kliegman of Fox News reported that:

These estimates include, for example, losing $2,352 per person per year of California residence for the over-policing of Black communities, $3,366 per person per year of residence for “discriminatory lending and zoning,” $13,619 per person per year of residence for “injustices and discrimination in health” and $77,000 per person for Black-owned business losses and devaluations.

While the task force’s report is just estimates, leaving it up to lawmakers to come up with tangible numbers, the task force was not instructed to identify funding sources for the reparations, according to California Justice Department officials.  

The city of San Francisco sanction reparations committee has recommended every black resident be allocated $5 million, as reported by the Associated Press (AP).