IT’S REALLY LONG: I’ve been reading through the Report of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans. It’s well over 1000 pages long (and printed in a way that makes it more like 2000 pages of an ordinary book). I probably won’t be able to read every single line of it, but I will try to read as much as I can. Somebody has to, and it’s up my alley, so I should be the one.
The report is already three years old. I skimmed it when it came out, but at that point I didn’t have enough time to do more. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be acted on and that I would never have to go back to it. Alas, that has not been the case, so now that my own book is finished and a few other projects are under control, I’m trying to make the time to read and to some degree respond to the report.
I’ll be very surprised if the proposals for direct cash payments to the descendants of slaves get anywhere, but there are other aspects of the report that have already been enacted. (And I’m often surprised at what the California Legislature does, so don’t assume I’m right that direct cash payments were dead on arrival.)
So far, the most notable success of the Task Force occurred in 2025 when Gavin Newsom approved a law creating a Bureau of Descendants of American Slavery. Once a bureaucracy is established, it is nearly impossible to stop it from advancing its purposes in some way. At the same time, Newsom also signed a bill that allocated $6 Million to Cal State University to research methods for determining who is a descendant of an American slave and who isn’t. So things are moving ahead.
But he also vetoed several bills—including one that would have authorized the University of California to discriminate in favor of the descendants of slaves—in part because he understood that Prop 209 is a potential obstacle to such a scheme. Alas, that may explain why this year’s big push from reparations supporters was to authorize another referendum to gut Proposition 209. The new referendum will go on the ballot in 2028.
Meanwhile, another reparations success happened a couple days ago. Newsom signed a bill that requires corporations to disclose past profits from slavery. It’s obvious where that is intended to go.
Our Golden State legislators just can’t seem to stop themselves. This stuff will never end.
I hope to report back a little on the reparations report when I get a further in. But I already find myself occasionally taking a break to look for homes for sale in other, less crazy, states, so it may take a while.