Cash for slavery reparations in California draws cool response from Newsom
Newsom responded after a state task force calculated the cost at up to $1.2 million per person.
A state panel’s recommendation that California pay up to $1.2 million in slavery reparations is drawing a cool response from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The governor in a statement to media outlets raised questions about his stance on direct payments to the descendants of enslaved people, even as he welcomed as a “milestone” the overall work of a task force whose final report to the Legislature is expected July 1.
“Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments,” the governor said in a statement first published Tuesday by Fox News.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for clarification, but his statement signaled that he supports aspects of the task force’s recommendations aimed at addressing at compensating Black people for generations of harm from racism.
“The Reparations Task Force’s independent findings and recommendations are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote healing,” he said.
The stance could put the governor at odds with Democratic legislators if they pursue legislation enacting the landmark panel’s recommendations.
Newsom signed the task force into law in 2020, touting California being the first state to study reparations and calling the bill a corrective to the “structural racism and bias built into and permeating throughout our democratic and economic institutions” without explicitly embracing monetary compensation.
While supporters hailed the panel’s creation as an unprecedented step toward reparations — a long-discussed way to compensate African Americans for the legacy of slavery and racism — Newsom’s comments underscore the political difficulty of achieving that goal.
Beyond Newsom’s equivocation, any bills arising from the work of the task force in the coming years could face a challenging path to Newsom’s desk. California is staring down a budget deficit estimated at $22.5 billion in January.
After months of meetings and public input, the panel released a semifinal report last weekend calculating the cumulative cost of mass incarceration, housing discrimination, and healthcare inequity could amount to $1.2 million per person at the high end. It would be up to the Legislature to determine how money would be allocated.
The panel’s chair, Kamilah Brown, said on Wednesday that Newsom’s statement showed he supported the panel, noting that the concept of reparations encompasses more than compensation.