San Francisco to air Black reparations plan, $5M per person

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A controversial draft reparations proposal that includes a $5 million lump-sum payment for each eligible Black person could make San Francisco the first major US city to fund reparations, though it faces steep financial headwinds and blistering criticism from conservatives.

Tuesday's meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will include a presentation by San Francisco's African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which released its draft report in December.

The $5 million-per-person payment is among more than 100 recommendations ranging from offering grants to buy and maintain homes to exempting Black businesses from paying taxes.

Supervisors can vote to adopt all, none or some of the recommendations and can change them. Several board members have expressed concerns over the potential hit the lump-sum payment and other options would have on the city budget, already facing a shortfall.

An estimated 50,000 Black people live in San Francisco, but it's not clear how many of them would be eligible for financial reparations. The recommendations lay out a number of possible criteria, such as living in San Francisco during a certain time period and descending from someone incarcerated for the police war on drugs.

Critics say the payouts make no sense in a state and city that never enslaved Black people. Generally, reparations opponents say taxpayers who were never slave owners should not have to pay money to people who were not enslaved.

Reparations advocates say that view ignores a wealth of data and documentation showing how even after US slavery officially ended in 1865, government policies and practices worked to imprison Black people at higher rates, deny access to home and business loans and restrict where they could work and live.

Eric McDonnell, chair of San Francisco's African American Reparations Advisory Committee, said he's disappointed by people who don't understand the legacy of US slavery and how structural racism reverberates through institutions today.

“There's still a veiled perspective that, candidly, Black folks don't deserve this,” he said. “The number itself, $5 million, is actually low when you consider the harm.”

The Chicago suburb of Evanston became the first US city to fund reparations. The city gave money to qualifying people for home repairs, property down payments and interest or late penalties due on property in the city. In December, the Boston City Council approved of a reparations study task force.

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