Last month, a task force in California recommended spending billions on reparations as proposals for the rest of the country sit idle. A University of California, Los Angeles study found that roughly two-thirds of Californians are in favor of some form of reparations, though residents are divided on what they should be. California was not a slave state.
.
- 140, mostly elderly black Evanston residents will receive $25,000 in reparations
- Chicago committed to $10 million over the next 10 years on local reparations
- Payments can come in either vouchers or cash and are funded by marijuana and real-estate transfer taxes. The program will be a ‘test run for the whole country’
A city in Illinois is expected to pay 140 mostly elderly black residents $25,000 each in reparations by the end of the year in what it is calling a ‘test run for the whole country.’
In 2019, Evanston, a city of 75,000 people north of Chicago, committed to paying $10 million over the next 10 years in local reparations and it has started to deliver on that promise nearly four years later.
First approved in March of 2021, the program will benefit black residents if they, or their ancestors, lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or if they can show they suffered housing discrimination due to the city’s policies.
It comes as black communities across the U.S. have rallied to help compensate for the legacy of slavery and discrimination they believe has become entrenched within society.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Louis Weathers – a recipient of the $25,000 – recalled the first experience he faced with racial prejudice.
The 88-year-old retired postal worker and Korean War veteran claimed the white teacher at his integrated junior high school would make it difficult for black students to show up their white peers.
‘Every time we raised our hand, she wouldn’t call on us, but when we didn’t raise our hands, she would â to make you look like a dummy,’ Weathers said.
‘We got onto that, though. When we didn’t know the answer, we raised our hands.’
Weathers will be among the first to benefit from the program which seeks to pay residents for discrimination and housing – but also works to address gaps in education and economic development.
The payments, which come in either vouchers or cash, are funded by marijuana and real-estate transfer taxes and are expected to lead the country, according to supporters.
‘I see it as like a test run for the whole country,’ Justin Hansford, a leading advocate for reparations at the federal and local level and head of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University told the outlet.
My Yankee GGrandfather was killed during the Civil War. His widow and small children were forced to sell their farm and move in with out of state relatives to survive. That generation never recovered financially from their loss. Not only that, but it also affected a few in the generation after that!
It’s only fair that I be paid reparations for the financial loss occurred in a long-ago war along with black people alive today who have never been a slave or never knew one. Being a “victim” can pay very well for some people in the US.
Forgive me if my question is as plain and obvious as the nose on our faces. Does this mean that only white people use marijuana and buy and sell property in Illinois?
I bet they are lined up to receive that.
This reeks of Obama. đ