`The streets are still demanding justice. Not just for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, but for the African-American community that still face systemic oppression in 2020. According to The Hill, the California assembly has officially passed a proposal to establish a task force to study reparations for the African-American community.
Shirley Weber, a congresswoman, wrote the bill that would look deeper into California's history of assisting in slavery, even after abolition in 1850. The bill passed with a 56-5 vote as the matter has been a primary focus for California's Legislative Black Caucus. The meetings will begin no later than June 2021.
“The discriminatory practices of the past echo into the everyday lives of today’s Californians," Weber said. Though the bill was passed through the California Assembly on Thursday, the next move is getting it passed through Senate then signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
UCLA School of Law civil rights professor and attorney Lisa Holder explained that the panel, which is said to include eight people with expertise in racial justice reform, to properly breakdown why reparations are justified after 155 years since slavery was abolished.
“The response really has to be framed around the issue of continuing racial injustice that started back in 1619 when Africans were stolen from Africa and brought here as enslaved people,” Holder said. “Then you don’t get into this messy, unintelligible notion of who is directly linked to a slave.”
