In February 2020, San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced legislation on behalf of the city’s official African American Reparations Advisory Committee for a reparations plan. The Advisory Committee had been formed to “highlight ways that City policies have harmed Black lives” and to determine “specific actions to address discrimination and inequities in areas such as housing, education, transit access, and food security.” This occurred at a time of renewed efforts across the country to push a Black action agenda at a time when Donald Trump was campaigning for a second term in the White House (which he went on to lose that November).
A month after Trump’s electoral defeat the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the legislation. The plan was lengthy and complex, 400 pages in all. It consisted of three “Overall Recommendations” and 22 “Financial Recommendations,” “17 “Rental and Housing” Recommendations,” and a dozen other categories, ranging from college scholarships to demanding the State use a “racial equity grid” in funding public schools to prioritizing Black San Franciscans in local industries and free home loans for Black residents. There was scarcely an area of Black lives that the Reparations Plan did not touch. If enacted, it would have radically revolutionized the way the City does business, including redirecting much of its income to Black people.
The plan was truly a Black wish list and, reading it today, one wonders if the Advisory Committee’s 15-member executive committee (all of whom were Black) were really serious, or just hoping to see what would stick to the wall. The plan was greeted by the wider public with incredulity, even shock. Particularly outrageous was the demand to “provide a one-time, lump sum payment of $5 million to each eligible person.” The plan never directly stated the precise number of Black people eligible, but the total Black population citywide was 45,000, of which the majority would have been eligible. Had all the plan’s recommendations been enacted, it would have bankrupted San Francisco for generations. All other funding needs—police, fire, streets, parks, sanitation, public health, homeless services—would have had to be terminated.
The $5 million payout was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was absurd to everyone except the Advisory Committee, a handful of Black activists, and a few far-left Whites. Even Gov. Gavin Newsom let it be known that he was opposed to cash payouts for reparations. Polls showed that a majority of Californians, including in the Bay Area, hated the Reparations Plan.
The most recent development occurred last month, when Mayor Daniel Lurie signed a bill to “create a framework” for the Plan; it did not include allocating any money but encouraged private donations. Lurie signed the bill quietly, hoping that while he worked on the “framework” the issue, which was silly from the start, would go away. It didn’t. Black activists immediately criticized him for not going far enough. A former Chair of the Reparations Advisory Committee said the signing “in no way demonstrates or represents a full-on commitment to making something happen.” He added that he and his associates will continue “to hold the city accountable for implementing broader recommendations outlined in the report.”
Clearly, radical Black activists are not going to go quietly into the night. Bloody meat was dangled in front of them, then snatched away at the last minute. Hungry and lean, they want it back.
San Francisco’s reparations battle isn’t the only one we’re dealing with: similar provisions are happening at the State level as well as in Alameda County, Oakland and several other East Bay cities. The voters have said loud and clear they are not prepared to tolerate wild, expensive and possibly unconstitutional reparations schemes. Black activists respond that they don’t care what voters want; the voters, they assert, will take what they’re given, and swallow it.
The current plan doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. My advice: throw the whole damn thing out. Activists should content themselves with Plan B: some modest, symbolic goals that don’t cost taxpayers a penny. An official apology? Sure, why not? Lurie and Newsom can both give nice little speeches about how awful we White people used to be, and assure Black people we regret it. As indeed we do. But no taxpayer dollars, not a single one, unless Lurie wants to get driven out of town and Gavin is prepared to give up his White House quest.
Steve Heimoff