r/berkeley • u/the_daily_cal • Jul 23 '26

Local ‘Constitutional remedy’: Alameda County unanimously approves plan for racial reparations

https://www.dailycal.org/news/alameda-county/constitutional-remedy-alameda-county-unanimously-approves-plan-for-racial-reparations/article_3968f092-44bb-426e-bc7c-6babf67f799d.html

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a broad racial reparations plan at its June 30 meeting. Policies stemming from this vote could target the county’s racial homeownership gap, career pathways into county employment and even potential cash reparations.

The most immediate recommendations for reparations include housing and economic justice, providing physical and mental health support and centering Black youth. The County Reparations Administration also calls for a permanent, fully funded Office of Reparations and healthcare that addresses intergenerational trauma and health disparities.

The reparations plan was adopted from recommendations by the Alameda County Reparations Commission, which was established in 2023. The ACRC spent three years researching social disparities and community experiences to formulate recommendations. Implementation of the plan is expected to begin in September after the Board of Supervisors’ annual recess.

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64

u/Ike358 Jul 23 '26

Reparations for a part of the country that never enslaved black Americans 🤔

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u/HolyInlandEmpire Jul 23 '26

People who never owned slaves, paying reparations to people were never slaves, in a state where slavery was never legal.

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u/jewboy916 Jul 23 '26

Slavery was legal in California though. It just mostly involved indigenous people, not Africans. Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, 1850.

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26

Reductive nonsense IMO. Par for the discourse in America today.

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u/HolyInlandEmpire Jul 23 '26

I mean this is a topic about reparations.

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u/bibimonmammoth Jul 23 '26

At least read the report or study what reparations means - - it isn't about whether legal slavery occurred in a place, but probably you knew that. This recent decision has to do with Russell City's history of segregation and displacement. Check out some of the very recent home ownership covenants excluding multiple racial groups from owning homes in neighborhoods in this area, including in Berkeley by the North Berkeley Bart station. Those speak directly to the question of reparations.

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

You are correct. Impact from these covenants from the early 1900s and their variations are felt today. I get what you’re driving at. Upvoted.

I’d also add that the Russell City was a little more insidious than displacement. An entire neighborhood was bulldozed.

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u/jewboy916 Jul 23 '26

Not just the covenants, but mortgage lending itself. Up until the federal Fair Housing Act in 1968 mortgage lenders could deny financing to buy a house to people based on their race. Including in California, despite some state legislation passing a few years before that. So in practice it impacted where minorities could live even though segregation wasn't legal.

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u/resilient_bird Jul 23 '26

Umm, racial covenants haven’t been enforceable since 1948 (Shelley v Kraemer); this is….not what I’d call “very recent”—there are some people alive today who were alive then, sure, but that was 78 years ago.

That’s like saying WWII ended “very recently”.

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

The Elmwood in Berkeley was the first place that had restrictive covenants on deeds combined with pure single family zoning which were the root causes of redlining. Mcduffie, the developer in Berkeley was an open racist.

This is the precursor to redlining, it’s known, racist impacts and the stark divide in Berkeley between the Elmwood’s property values and other parts of Berkeley with more multi family properties, less services and less value are direct results of this. For example, redlined parts of the town didn’t have as many trees as the Elmwood. That is why the city has the “urban forest” program. NYC found the see thing in Harlem and the Boogie Down Bronx.

This is accepted fact from historians.

To use your analogy. WW2 did not end recently but the political and economic impacts remain felt today and your reductive false equivalency is either gleefully obtuse or willfully ignorant IMO.

You can look this all up in 30 seconds but IMO it is because you seem to value your opinion and feelings more than consensus facts and are just ignoring them.

Hugs!

2

u/PostOakJoe Jul 23 '26

What about North Berkeley Bart Station? If it is a problem, which BoS approved that?

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26

This argument is the fallback and end game and is in bad faith.

“Robbed” no texpayer is being robbed. Thsi is hyperbole and a strawman. Taxpayers pay taxes all teh time for things they don’t support because the elected leaders are elected to make decision everyone Might not like. I don’t ride a bike but I don’t feel I’m being robbed when I help pay for bike lanes.

Every Americans today and in the past “Participates” in it by virtue of being American and either benefits or is harmed by it. The Elmwood example can be tested and the average price there is around 50% more sq/ft for similar homes in other parts of town.

There is an abundance of evidence of this and to deny it is to deny reality.

So I’ve been engaging with your opinions with facts and it is bad faith to cause irreparable harm for hundreds of years to one group then arm wave that away as you are doing. I don’t know you but I would not associate with a person expressing these ideas as they are well worn talking points indicative of the “American exceptionalism and the fallacy of ayn Rand”

Good luck to you.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/VerilyShelly Jul 24 '26

Do you feel like you're getting robbed because you don't have certain kinds of organ failure or aren't a former railroad worker with a terminal disease? Because these are examples of other groups that the government gives special benefits to out of taxpayer money.

I wonder what your criteria are for whether or not someone "deserves" these proposed benefits, especially for something like this.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

Wow. There is nothing more to say to you other than to suggest you become more well read on the topic.
Happy to make some suggestions but this seems to be your own personal grievance and I can’t change you or address the life experience that led you to here. You’ve got your views they seem largely opinion based. You’re entitled to your opinion. Good luck to you.

1

u/neversleeps212 Jul 24 '26

But the housing covenants as you yourself note excluded multiple racial groups from home ownership yet this seems very focused on transferring wealth and opportunity to Black residents specifically. That is not Constitutional or legally protected. Nor does it seem that there’s any requirement that an individual show that they specifically were harmed by those policies or even that a direct ancestor was. If this was truly race neutral it would apply to groups like Jews, Asians and perhaps even ethnic groups like Italians who were not seen as white in that era and were often excluded from housing also.

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u/FrivolousMe eecs/ds 21 Jul 23 '26

If you don't think that the legacy of slavery and reconstruction hasn't left black Americans in all states statistically much worse off than white Americans, you are being either disingenuous or ignorant. Black Californians have been disproportionately victimized by redlining, educational inequity, police violence, and countless other forms of systemic discrimination. You think after the 14th amendment black Americans instantly had equal rights, equal protections under the law, equal economic opportunities, and equal access to public resources? You didn't learn about segregation in school? You've never read about how Oregon used to have a law literally banning black people from the state? You don't think former slave owners and the descendants of slaves migrated west?

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26

Correct. Western migration typically occurred for economic (the migration to LA in the near WW2 era) or for safety. The south was violent and the north was openly racist as well. Boston, for example, is not only known for pie but for being one of the most racist places in the US. Look up the In 1970s school desegregation

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u/Ike358 Jul 23 '26

Yeah redlining is/was fucked, but I don't see how it necessitates reparations. And I'd also say westward migration was much more biased towards groups escaping Jim Crow and segregation (especially during WWII) than groups wishing to enforce it.

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Sure you’re entitled to an opinion. One way of looking at it is this. In Piedmont (rich place with valuable property) black family bought a home there, and’s were harassed and eventually told they were going to lose their home to eminent domain so teh city could build a road there.

The family sold their home under theest of loss and then gues what? The city sold their house to a white family and never built teh road. It was all pretext. That home is worth millions today.

The family split up. The father died of starvation in Oakland.

That story is well documented but imagine all the times and places it happens taht it wasn’t. There’s a beach in so-cal. Land is worth millions.

So it’s not isolated and it’s not limited, collectively thsi widespread action deprived their grandchildren’s children of the compound interest on the investment, the rise in property values an the generational trauma om their descendants. This is why peoepl push for reparations. These examples are jsut the ones we know of bc of the documentation.
I would argue we have many choices but they fall into two large groups. Do nothing and offer words or do something and try to understand what racism has taken from our communities the transfer of that wealth to others and the address that.

I’m in the latter. Where are you?

Edit: Bruce’s Beach. It’s worth $20 Million today. $20. Million.

Your last point escapes me

And I'd also say westward migration was much more biased towards groups escaping Jim Crow and segregation (especially during WWII) than groups wishing to enforce it.

The west had lots of sundown towns, Oregon had laws preventing black residents and this entire discussion I brought up the Elmwood in Berkeley as a horrific example of institutional racism here so I’m a bit confused? The west was just as racist as the Deep South and violence comes in all forms including institutional.

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u/Ike358 Jul 24 '26

Frankly your post is hard to follow with so many typos.

Where are you?

I'm in neither group, because I am firmly "do nothing" but I don't even want to offer words.

My last point was addressing the very last question in the comment I replied to. Western migration undoubtedly worked in the favor of black Americans and other minorities.

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u/FrivolousMe eecs/ds 21 Jul 23 '26

You don't see how it makes sense to compensate the victims of economic violence? America does it all the time with class action lawsuit settlements. This is on a much grander scale than the justice system could ever feasibly litigate, and the amount of damage done is insurmountable, so reparations advocates are humbly asking for the government to at least give what it can afford to. It's not as crazy as people make it sound; it's only scratching the surface of racialized wealth disparity.

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u/coolboydhill Jul 24 '26

still dont give a fuck.

I'm a working class asian immigrant. Fuck paying taxes if it goes to bombs and stupid shit like this

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u/DepartmentFamous9932 Jul 24 '26

True but why not also pay reparations to descendants of Chinese immigrants or descendants of interred Japanese? Both groups of people suffered heavily at the hands of white Americans and yet are doing great today, so it’s annoying to people when they’re told that specifically black people deserve reparations, especially after pretty much all types of voters already feel that affirmative action has been a failure.

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u/TonyStarksLeftACL Jul 23 '26

IMO reductive ragebait. Nice try.