{"id":25621,"date":"2023-03-23T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T04:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25621"},"modified":"2023-03-23T21:02:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T04:02:49","slug":"reparations-work-in-the-bay-area-is-more-influential-than-even-critics-understand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/reparations-work-in-the-bay-area-is-more-influential-than-even-critics-understand\/","title":{"rendered":"Reparations work in the Bay Area is more influential than even critics understand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

San Francisco\u2019s reparations proposal has garnered national attention. But other Bay Area governments are pursuing their own courses to righting generational wrongs.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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

March 23, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\"San
San Francisco is one of the Bay Area municipalities that has taken steps toward making reparations for Black residents a reality. An advisory committee has until June to deliver its final recommendations to city leaders.Salgu Wissmath\/The Chronicle<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I asked Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley what motivated him to pursue a dialogue about reparations in his part of the East Bay, he paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNobody has ever asked me that,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if someone had asked, I wouldn\u2019t blame him if he forgot. A dozen years have passed since Alameda County approved his resolution<\/a>, which was more symbolic than substantive. It served as Alameda County\u2019s apology for slavery and called on the state to address widespread disparities Black people face, but it didn\u2019t actually require Alameda County to act on reparations in its own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what inspired the resolution was just being African American, having experienced discrimination in my lifetime \u2026 and then looking at wrongs that African Americans face historically and presently,\u201d Miley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statewide reparations commitment Miley hoped his 2011 resolution would ignite didn\u2019t materialize until 2020<\/a>. Now, reparations work is happening in many different places in many different ways across the U.S. And Alameda County, 12 years after acknowledging the depth of slavery\u2019s legacy within its own backyard, is playing catch-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same year that George Floyd died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, in May 2020, California passed legislation creating a first-in-the-nation task force charged with informing the public about the legacy of institutionalized racism and offering recommendations to repair it. Multiple Bay Area cities embarked on similar pursuits, including Oakland, Vallejo, Hayward, Richmond, San Francisco and Berkeley.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s reparations proposal has garnered national attention and notoriety because one of its many recommendations touches on the idea of direct $5 million payments<\/a> to harmed individuals. Meanwhile, other Bay Area governments are considering their own approaches to righting generational wrongs that have received less fanfare, but are no less important or potentially influential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richmond has a proposed reparations program that, among other things, aims to address how local redlining from the mid-1900s and predatory lending after the 2008 housing crisis forced out Black residents and prevented many others from owning a home. The city went from being 36% Black in the 1970s to 18% Black as of 2021.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richmond\u2019s reparations plan, which city leaders have not yet voted to approve, proposes giving a $25,000 grant to those who were affected by redlining and the 2008 housing crisis. The money could be used for home down payments, paying off loans, upgrading a home or covering the closing cost of a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As former Richmond City Council Member Demnlus Johnson III explained to the state\u2019s reparations task force in December, the grant idea is feasible because it would build off the efforts of local organizations already focused on housing equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richmond isn\u2019t the only East Bay city taking a precision approach to atoning for past local injustices. Last summer, Hayward launched a program called the Russell City Restorative Justice Project. Its name references the bygone Black and Latino farming community<\/a> that six decades ago was annexed into Hayward so city leaders could bulldoze the land and turn it into an industrial park. The town no longer exists, and Hayward\u2019s  redevelopment process displaced 1,400 residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayward\u2019s program is still in the process of connecting with former Russell City residents. City leaders hope the input from residents and their families can shape a happier epilogue to an ugly chapter in Hayward history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere in the East Bay, Oakland is pursuing reparations for a different disenfranchised community. Last September, it became the first California city to use land as a form of reparations for Native Americans. Thanks to a partnership between the city and the Sogorea Te\u2019 Land Trust, the Ohlone Tribe<\/a> now has exclusive usage of 5 acres of Sequoia Point in Joaquin Miller Park. Oakland\u2019s decision is a small step toward addressing how, for thousands of years, the Ohlone people lived on the land before being forcibly removed by Europeans beginning in the 18th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Miley is now trying to get Alameda County to join a reparations movement that is underway all around it. This time around, he is taking a more aggressive approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, Miley started drafting a proposal to establish a 15-person commission, composed of community members, to study reparations and what economic redress could look like for Black residents. He plans to introduce it in the coming weeks. If his fellow supervisors approve the legislation, the commission will have 12-18 months to create a draft reparations plan similar to what San Francisco created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more we can do this (reparations work) at the grassroots level and disclose some of these historical wrongs, and the more we can spread that knowledge to the broader populace \u2026 the better off we all are,\u201d Miley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, there\u2019s an irony to Alameda County getting outpaced by its neighbors. If the county had gone further a decade ago, it could be leading rather than following this important dialogue. Then again, inaction has been the hallmark of America\u2019s overall reparations dialogue since slavery was formally abolished in 1865. This isn\u2019t lost on Miley, who is intimately aware of how slowly the gears of change can move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, we have to make sure the broader public understands that this country, and state, county and city governments owe African Americans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s hope Alameda County doesn\u2019t take another decade to show it understands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Justin Phillips: jphillips@sfchronicle.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Justin Phillips<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Phillips joined The San Francisco Chronicle in November 2016 as a food writer. He previously served as the City, Industry, and Gaming reporter for the American Press in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2019, Justin also began writing a weekly column for The Chronicle\u2019s Datebook section that focused on Black culture in the Bay Area. In 2020, Justin helped launch Extra Spicy, a food and culture podcast he co-hosts with restaurant critic Soleil Ho. Following its first season, the podcast was named one of the best podcasts in America by the Atlantic. In February, Justin left the food team to become a full-time columnist for The Chronicle. His columns focus on race and inequality in the Bay Area, while also placing a spotlight on the experiences of marginalized communities in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST\u00a92023 Hearst Communications, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Francisco\u2019s reparations proposal has garnered national attention. But other Bay Area governments are pursuing their own courses to righting generational wrongs. Justin Phillips March 23, 2023 (SFChronicle.com) Comments When I asked Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley what motivated him to pursue a dialogue about reparations in his part of… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[294],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25623,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621\/revisions\/25623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}