Will California Realize Reparations to Its Black Residents?

May 17, 2023

The California Reparations Task Force is to the state legislature by July 1st. California lawmakers in 2020 passed , establishing this first-of-its-kind task force to determine the scope of harm and potential for redress to the state鈥檚 Black residents. The group of nine spent two years conducting hearings and gathering testimony.

One member of the task force, Lisa Holder, told YES! Magazine in 2021 that the group鈥檚 goal was to make 鈥渆vidence-based recommendations鈥� drawn from two years of gathering testimony and documenting the harms arising from 鈥渢he original systems of oppression, like slavery and Jim Crow segregation, and the continuing and ongoing systems of oppression that we鈥檙e seeing in institutional racism and structural racism.鈥�

The task force is sending its , which includes suggested financial compensation, to the state legislature for debate and approval.

Holder, who is President of the spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar about the report in an interview on Rising Up With Sonali.

The views expressed here and on聽Rising Up With Sonali聽do not necessarily reflect the opinion of YES! 麻豆社事件.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.