Last week, I introduced a resolution on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, calling for reparations for our City’s African-American community.
We can't continue to ignore our ugly history: this country was built on the enslavement of African-American bodies. And though slavery and racial discrimination were abolished, institutional racism continues to limit economic and educational opportunities for Black San Franciscans today.
We see those dynamics playing out in San Francisco -- as Black San Franciscans face injustice in housing, economic opportunity, education, and criminal justice, resulting in the continued outmigration of African-Americans from our City.
Reparations are financial amends for African-Americans whose ancestors provided free labor for hundreds of years and lived through the Jim Crow era.
I’m calling for a working group to develop a reparations plan for African-Americans in San Francisco. Reparations may take many forms, and that’s what the working group will debate, with input from the community.
But if we’re going to address the impacts of slavery, persecution, and chronic disinvestment, we must act boldly, and do so now.
Thank you for being with me,
Shamann
