Reparations for African Americans are off the table in San Francisco — at least for the foreseeable future. Mayor London Breed made it clear last month she would no longer fund a reparations office, and the city’s reparations task force held its final meeting on Monday.
Breed’s move quashed hopes for the implementation of the committee’s 150-plus recommendations, defunding the office that would have instituted them.
“I want to apologize to the Black community that we don’t have more to announce tonight,” said committee member Gloria Berry, growing teary-eyed as the few dozen largely Black audience members at City Hall murmured in an attempt to reassure her.
But the reparations committee was not entirely defanged. The group’s final meeting focused on expressing support for a San Francisco satellite campus of a historically Black college or university, one of the committee’s formal recommendations presented by Sheryl Davis, the executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.
Plans for such a satellite campus were still in its initial phases, Davis said, adding that her office has begun conversations with Tuskegee University, the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University. “The committee is sunsetting, but the work continues.”
San Francisco HBCU satellite
Davis and the Human Rights Commission are currently meeting with the City Attorney’s Office to explore the potential of a satellite HBCU campus in San Francisco, she told the committee on Monday. She said she hoped to begin speaking to supervisors in the coming months.
Technically, schools designated as historically Black colleges and universities must have been established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meaning San Francisco would have to partner with one of the existing 103 campuses in the country. Davis pointed to a recent announcement from UCLA about exploring such a partnership in Southern California, and said a similar program in San Francisco hosting HBCU students in the city for studies or internships is already partly underway.
At least 28 HBCU students would be hosted over the summer, she said.
Breed cuts reparations office
In early December, as part of some $75 million in cuts, Breed announced that a planned reparations office would be eliminated entirely from the budget.
The office would have implemented recommendations from the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which had its final meeting Monday, and was set to cost some $4 million to set up.
The reparations plan included potential one-time payments of up to $5 million to Black San Franciscans, alongside a slew of other programs that could have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, like forgiving student loans and new homeownership or rental opportunities. Staffing the office itself, however, would have cost just $4 million initially.
That $4 million was a rounding error in the city’s budget, about four times the city’s annual toilet paper spending. The cost was 0.0003 percent of the city’s total $14.5 billion budget, or 0.002 percent of the $2.3 billion under the mayor’s direct control.
Breed and the Board of Supervisors had already agreed to fund the office, but she had not promised to spend the money. She has said reparations should be handled by the federal government, not the city. The board voted unanimously in September to pass a resolution supporting the final reparations plan, now a 398-page report with no plan moving forward to implement its suggestions.
Breed, for her part, has pointed to the Dreamkeeper Initiative when asked about reparations. She created the program in 2021 with District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton to funnel funds into the city’s Black communities. It has thus far disbursed some $107 million, about half reappropriated from law enforcement budgets, to finance nonprofits, youth programs, small businesses and entities including the Bayview Opera House.
‘Your work has not been in vain’
Walton, in giving thanks to the committee members Monday, promised to “continue to push for full funding of the Office of Reparations,” and promised that “commitment at the Board of Supervisors” for the reparations plan is “still strong.”
“Your work has not been in vain,” he said, thanking members for braving “negative press, threats from the public, and racist rhetoric through the entire process” before handing out certificates of honor to each member and posing for a photograph with the committee.
In February, the Board of Supervisors will vote on Walton’s resolution formally apologizing on behalf of the city for past anti-Black harms, one of the overarching recommendations from the committee. Walton said he expected the resolution to pass with ease.
“This committee may be sunsetting, but the work of the Black community is now more imperative than ever before,” he said. “And we have to remain unified in this continued fight.”
The Board of Supervisors’ attempts to solve national issues like reparations or more recently international issues like the Israel – Hamas conflict are a complete and utter waste of time and distract from the many, many local issues they should be focused on.
“attempts to solve ” – noone there is interested in solving anything, it’s all self-indulgent theater and they know it
The graph clearly reads, “Funding by department,” which means this is the money from that department funding Dreamkeeper initiatives / programs. That is all a part of the regular budget process at this point, meaning that there is no way to prove that any money was reinvested from law enforcement. That is simply a talking point by the mayor.
From ABC 7 in 2022, “But according to an ABC Owned Television Stations analysis that looked at over 100 city and county budgets nationwide, at the time Breed made that July announcement, the department was already sitting on a $62.4 million budget increase.”
Additionally, SFPD budget increased 9% in 2023, according to the SF Chronicle. So please explain how a 9% increase in the SFPD budget equates to half of the funding for Dreamkeeper?
The harm we described in the report was not National. It was local. So many havn’t bothered to read the report.
No more reparations office! Hurray! Who said there’s never any good news?
Now if you want to do some more journalism, why not see how many of the companies that got that $107 million from Dreamkeeper have connections to Walton and/or Breed?
How much money got slathered on the patronage operators to study reparations that the city never had any intention of paying? Instead, they’ll just throw Dreamkeeper money at the same patronage nonprofits.
If past is prologue, then SF will fund these agencies as (because) the circumstance of their claimed constituencies deteriorates.
This was never happening and given the current financial climate of the city, that was even more of a guarantee. Breed previously would not commit to additional funding to the office on reparations. Thankfully she was right in this one. Walton up to his usual acting gig. He knew how this would end.
Another horse and pony show happening currently at city hall with the Israel cease-fire resolution. More distraction from focusing on solvable problems within the city.
$4 million is not 0.002 percent of $2 billion — it is 0.2 percent. Still small, but 0.002 percent would be a hundred times smaller than that.
Reparations if any should be something National Government takes up. Something to consider is how you would account for monies already paid. For example in the form of Food Stamps, Cash Aid and Free healthcare and Section 8 Housing vouchers. All these have already been paid out and should be considered in any reparations aid package.
Reparations if any should be something National Government takes up. Something to consider is how you would account for monies already paid. For example in the form of Food Stamps, Cash Aid and Free healthcare and Section 8 Housing vouchers. All these have already been paid out and should be considered in any reparations aid package.
Rely? We didn’t want to be on food stamps. We actually had our own health care, hospitals, business. We were self sufficient. Had to be because Black people weren’t welcomed in a lot of places. When we did all of these accomplishments…had the success… jealousy and hatred came in. White people in that time didn’t like to see Black Sucess…so…they burned, tortured, terrorized us. For you to think that food stamps is sufficient reparations says a whole lot about you and your humanity. A Deplorable you are.
“We were self sufficient.” 100% delusional fantasy.
Why are we paying for something we are not responsible for? Why are current taxpayers being penalized & paying the bill? So let me get this straight…. I’m supposed to feel bad, responsible & left with a bill for something that happened when my parents weren’t even alive…. How does this make other races or groups feel?
How is free money helping anyone??? This entire act of reparations is racist to our modern culture. The past is the past & yes it’s great to acknowledge the struggles of all cultures. It’s great to help provide some mental health services if people are impacted. Good mental health = monetary earning potential. SF Bay Area is diverse & celebrates it enough, all the different cultures get their month to shine. No one group or race deserves special treatment & cash allowances unless your intention is to degrade, demote or cripple hard work.
Every commission, including the Board of Supervisors, should be
required to meet in each of the 11 Supervisorial Districts on a rotating
basis each month. That way, even though it may be a might bit
inconvenient for the members, all citizens would have access
and input without fear of harassment or intimidation.
Native Americans were not even considered as 3/5ths of a person, in reparation discussions.
There is historical fact natives were the first slaves in the Americas, as well as some the last slaves, long after the emancipation proclomation by President Lincoln, who at the same time, ordered the hanging of 29 Natives, in MN.
Native Americans were slaves of other Native Americans thousands of years before Europeans ever showed up. If any reparations are to be paid, it should be by Apache/Navaho, Mohawk or Cheyenne to Puebloans, Cherokee or Quapaw.
Many Native American tribes have received money from the US gov’t. I’m a member of the Cherokee Nation and my family has received land and payouts since the early 1900’s.
Native Americans have owned and still did own black slaves… even after Lincoln ratified the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
People love to implicate “evil white men” in the slave trade, but it is FACT that Native Americans AND even black people owned slaves. Whatever fits their narrative, is what you typically hear being repeated nowadays, but read through these links and see the truth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_slave_ownership
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“Most Native American tribal groups practiced some form of slavery BEFORE the European introduction of African slavery into North America…”
“The Cherokee was the tribe that held the most people in slavery. In 1809, they held nearly 600 enslaved Africans.”
http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_indians_slavery.htm
(written by Tony Seybert, who had described himself as having submitted a master’s thesis to the history department at California State University, Northridge.)
Lincoln ordered 39 to be hanged (38 were), but he also commuted the death sentence of some 250 plus. In doing so, he had to sign his name to a horrible moment in history, and he made that sacrifice. He knew the ‘savage rapists’ bit was a lie – a lie Americans are still eager to gobble up to justify a genocide.
How dare you equate what African Americans did to build this country with the Natvie Americans
With due respect they refused to slave ad bud America and negotiated for their rights as a nation, while African Americans were not free to settle anywhere, but forced to be free labor to build America, while whites boated in and took free land and free slaves. These people deserve every bit of a 1-3 million a person. You didn’t get on here saying that to another billions of dollars handed out to the Jews who our grandfather’s fought to free in WWII. Please be wise in choosing your words, especially those that are not true. Take us out of America and see who would have built it for FREE!
Just for starters, my grandfather was a slave in South Carolina and my mother’s people were enslaved in Mississippi. And I have been discriminated against all my life. It appears that every group have been taken care of except traditional black Americans (Black’s that were in the USA prior to 1865). This nation was built on the backs of black slaves. We do not need excuses, we need our fair pay (Back pay). College is needed. But without money, we are still trapped. We need resources to determine our own future.
According to the Dreamkeeper Initiative Website the $107 million investment is not from law enforcement. It is from the following:
$38.13 million – OEWD
$21.62 million – MOHCD
$21.52 million – HRC
$18.18 million – DPH
$3.76 million – DCYF
$2.11 million – Arts Commission
$0.63 million – Early Childhood Education
$0.56 million – Fire Department
$0.45 million – Adult Probation
$0.19 million – Department of Human Resources
$0.10 million – Public Defenders
Continuing to perpetuate the Mayor’s lie that the Dreamkeeper Initiative is the divestment of law enforcement is not journalism. All I had to do was click the link you provided to find the actual department investments into the Dreamkeeper Initiative.
I am a strong proponent of the Dreamkeeper Initiative as I have seen and continue to see the impact that it is having on Black San Franciscans. It is also important that the public be properly informed about how it is financed.
Hi,
That is what the Dreamkeeper Initiative is funding, not where its funding comes from.
Best, Joe
It is nevertheless inaccurate to say the money was reappropriated from law enforcement budgets. That was a summer 2020 talking point that never came to be.
We’ve clarified that about half the money was from law enforcement budgets.
It sure seemed like Breed trying to play her constituents as suckers. It could be said that money came from any department that saw a decrease from the pre-covid proposed budget.
Thanks for update. Appreciate you looking into it.
All that for nothing. I highly doubt that Breed had no intention of ever letting any of this go forward beyond committee. A lot of lip service and no teeth. Didn’t even get a “we’re sorry”.
If reparations had ever gone to the voters, it would have lost by a humiliating margin. Better to kill it off now.
Wow.
These comments.
And surely, more to follow.
San Francisco committed great sins against our black brethren.
In the same league as Mississippi – a place where some of our haughty self righteous citizens surely think we are quite above in our attitudes towards “justice”.
And now Black American citizens have been downgraded yet again to just a part of BIPOC along with all other aggrieved parties demanding recompense.
Chattel slavery may have ended in 1865 but the Compromise of 1877 put things back to the way they were before – just within another legal framework.
And – for the most part – it’s been that way ever since.
San Francisco, if it was truly progressive, would right its own wrongs.
A national debate on the subject is irrelevant.
Well said!!
I can’t see any harm to anyone if there were funded reparations from San Francisco.
The objects seem to be “where is mine?”
No harm? Besides the cost (which even poor San Franciscans would have to shoulder through higher taxes), reparations would fan racial conflict, and reinforce a culture of dependency among black Americans. It would be absolutely terrible for them in the long run and after the money ran out they’d be back for more.
The Jewish nation went back to Germans to the tune total of 89B billion dollars received as of May 2023 and our government acted as a spear head to channel their funds to them standing guard for them.
AA towns and land have been and were stolen and 125 prosperous cities including SF were AA owned their own business and land. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Stop trying to make yourself sound good or smart, because you don’t. You pride yourself on being a reader who has an opinion worth giving then do it with research and facts and not your racist tongue which is backed up with nothing. Then come back and give all those facts and data and people will admire you for your wisdom. Now you sound ignorant of truth, with just a little research you could speak truth and facts!
In my opinion, reparations is my fellow Black Americans using the pain and suffering of our enslaved ancestors to get free money. The fact that we as Black people compare the crime of slavery with millions of innocent men, women, and children being killed during World War 2just because they were Jews, speaks to the antisemitic origins of movement for reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans.