{"id":24793,"date":"2023-01-15T19:48:35","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T03:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24793"},"modified":"2023-01-15T19:48:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T03:48:37","slug":"5-million-for-each-longtime-black-resident-s-f-has-a-bold-reparations-plan-to-consider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/15\/5-million-for-each-longtime-black-resident-s-f-has-a-bold-reparations-plan-to-consider\/","title":{"rendered":"$5 million for each longtime Black resident? S.F. has a bold reparations plan to consider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Justin Phillips<\/a>,\u00a0commentary <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 15, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tiffany
1of2Tiffany Carter (left), a member of SF Black Wallstreet, and Ata\u2019ataoletaeao McNealy, also known as \u201cAfatasi the Artist,\u201d chat at a recent gathering.Yalonda M. James \/ The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Tinisch<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A century after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and lamented how \u201cthe Negro still is not free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,\u201d he said during his 1963 \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King could have been describing<\/a> today\u2019s San Francisco, a 47-square-mile city that\u2019s home to more than 60 billionaires and at least 7,000 homeless people<\/a>, around 40% of whom are Black, despite Black people representing only 5% of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right up until he was assassinated in 1968, King argued that economic justice was integral to racial justice. The idea is at the core of a draft proposal<\/a> the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee presented to city leaders last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board of Supervisors created the committee, also called AARAC, in December 2020, amid a national racial reckoning. The board\u2019s legislation, while innovative, was also narrow, allowing city leaders to reject or outright ignore the committee\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More from Justin Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n