California set up a slavery reparations task force two years ago to determine how much money African Americans descended from slaves are due.
After dabbling around with amounts up to $200 million per person, the legislature figured out they were never going to pay cash for the trauma of living some 160 years after the abolition of the institution.
So, they set up the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery instead. Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute says California shouldn't be messing with this issue at all.
“California did not allow for slaves. Most people living in California do not have relatives who had slaves at any time.”
The Bureau is tasked with, among other things, confirming that someone is a descendant of a slave.
There will also be an educational component to the Bureau as it will be responsible to teach the public about the history and legacy of chattel slavery, displacement, gentrification, exclusion, and the link between those historic harms and present disparities.
“They will be gathering the DNA information of African Americans throughout the state of California. That will all be on record, and that could actually be used for quick and easy identification for a number of different purposes,” Dacus said.
In other words, be careful what you ask for.
“What looks like something that would be inherently somehow beneficial to African Americans could actually end up being a civil rights nightmare,” Dacus said.
