San Francisco supervisor wants ADDITIONAL $50 million 'Office of Reparations' ... trends now
A San Francisco supervisor championing plans to provide a $5 million-per-person reparation payment for black people in his city has called for an additional $50 million to be set aside for an office, to handle the logistics of the payouts.
Shamann Walton, the only black person on the 11-member Board of Supervisors, first introduced a resolution for reparations in February 2020.
A committee was formed and spent two years deliberating recommendations: their report was published in December, and given its first public hearing last week.
On Tuesday, at a routine Board of Supervisors meeting, Walton said that he was making an additional request, and wanted $50 million for an 'Office of Reparations'.
'Today I am here asking again for my colleagues to support a supplemental appropriation for $50 million in order to establish the Office of Reparations and to implement approved recommendations in this fiscal year,' he said.
Shamann Walton is seen on Tuesday at a Board meeting requesting $50 million to set up an Office of Reparations in San Francisco
'The supplemental will specifically be for reparations only.
'And it will guarantee money in this budget cycle as the final report we'll receive, very soon, to set up an Office of Reparations which is already a recommendation.
'It will also fund some of the reparations recommendations after receiving the final report, and this Board makes a decision on what to fund.
'It will provide funds to create a database to start storing and vetting eligibility for reparations for final eligibility requirements.'
Walton later said he had already requested legislation from the City Attorney's office to create the office, under the city's Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission is overseeing the work of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC).
'It is time for us to prove that we support repairing the harm that has created so many negative outcomes and wealth disparities for black people in this city, by design!' Walton said, in a statement issued after the hearing.
'I want to thank my colleagues Supervisors Preston and Ronen for co-sponsoring and reiterating the commitment ALL of my colleagues have made to reparations!'
The AARAC's suggestions - 111 in total - include a $5 million lump sum given to every eligible black person; a $1 house; and a $97,000-a-year guaranteed income for 250 years.
The board will not decide on whether or not to adopt the recommendations until later this year, once the AARAC has submitted a final report.
Another meeting has been scheduled for September.
Hillary Ronen, a member of the board, told the hearing on March 14: 'You have my 100 percent support and commitment to implementing, quite frankly, all 111 of these recommendations. They are all warranted.'
Yet critics have described it as financially impossible, noting it would cost an estimated $600,000 per household for the lump sum payment alone, according to an analysis by the Hoover Institute, and asking why it was being discussed without any consideration of how it would be paid for.
The proposal has been met with fierce resistance.
'This is never going to actually happen,' said Xaviaer DuRousseau, a conservative activist who used to support BLM.
'It is so unrealistic to think that the average family in San Francisco is going to be able to pay $600,000 extra a piece.'
DuRousseau said that he felt the reparations plan was designed 'to indoctrinate people with victim mentality'
Hillary Ronen, one of the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors, said she was in favor of all 111 recomendations on the African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC) plan
DuRousseau, who was born in Chicago but moved to California aged 19, and lived in the Bay Area, told Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham he was 'disgusted' that homeless people were on the streets in large numbers while the city discussed handing out $1 homes.
The city would also pay all Home Owners Association fees or taxes associated with the property, the plan recommended.
'When people look at this list of the things that they are recommending, the most alarming thing for most is the $5 million going to each black person,' DuRousseau said.
'But for me as an American, I am looking at the list and I see that they are wanting to sell homes at $1 to black Americans.
'As an American and someone who used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is disgusting to me that we are more focused on slavery which ended in 1865 then we are focused on the veterans who are on the streets of San Francisco homeless and begging for spare change in 2023.
'That's where they need to start sending their money.'
DuRousseau said that he saw the campaign as part of a move to 'indoctrinate' black Americans into dependency.
'This is 111 ways to gaslight black Americans into thinking that we need to be dependent on a system of handouts in order to be successful,' said DuRousseau, who has previously spoken about being raised a Democrat, and then 'seeing the light'.
Hillary Ronen was among the board members praising the reparations plan
Ronen said that she thought the reparations proposals were 'warranted'
He now works as a commentator for PragerU, an advocacy group that creates videos and content to promote a conservative viewpoint.
'Black Americans have been indoctrinated with these lies for too long, and I used to fall for the lies until I took a deep dive into the videos on PragerU.com and realized how easily debunked to these fraudulent narratives around systemic racism actually are.'
He concluded that it was 'virtue signaling' by 'white liberals'.
'People are taking full advantage, they are selling their books, they are selling black people their own oppression, because it is profitable to indoctrinate people with victim mentality,' he said.
Reparations are being considered in various Democratic cities around America as a means of providing compensation to the descendants of enslaved African-Americans.
Many say they are owed not just for the time their ancestors were
