The nine-member task force voted 5-4 in favor of defining eligibility for reparations based on lineage “determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the US prior to the end of the 19th century,” the motion read.
An earlier amendment to the motion pushed for a broader definition of eligibility that would have included all 2.6 million African Americans in California, with “special consideration” for those with direct lineage to enslaved persons. That amendment failed.
Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3121 which gives “special consideration” to Black Americans who are direct descendants to enslaved people. Authored by former Assemblymember Shirley Weber, now the California Secretary of State, the bill also established a two-year reparations task force to study and develop a plan on what reparations may look like.
The task force is expected to release a reparations proposal in June 2023 with recommendations for the Legislature.
While the scope of reparations will be determined in the coming months, many task force members said they expect cash payments to be one part of the proposal as well as a formal apology. The task force said this eligibility determination will help economists tasked with quantifying the amount of reparations owed.
This vote establishes that going forward, only those Black Californians who are able to trace their lineage back to enslaved ancestors will be eligible for the state’s reparations.
Other Black Californians — such as Black immigrants — will not be eligible.
Kamilah Moore, task force chairperson, said that not going with a lineage-based approach would “aggrieve the victims of slavery.”
Others, like Los Angeles-based civil rights lawyer Lisa Holder, argued against a strict lineage approach. “We must make sure we include present day and future harms,” Holder said. “The system that folks are advocating for here, where we splice things up, where only one small slice benefits, will not abate the harms of racism.”
Cheryl Grills, a committee member and a clinical psychologist at Loyola Marymount University, also said a lineage-based approach would be “divisive” and “another win for white supremacy.”
Don Tamaki, the only non-Black member of the Reparations Task Force, said that during the Japanese American Redress Movement – which sought reparations and an apology for Japanese internment during World War II – organizers faced similar questions about determining eligibility.
“It’s rough justice,” Tamaki said. “We had to exclude groups too within our community … practical and very difficult decisions were made.”
The decision will mean that a fraction of the state’s 2.6 million Black residents — who make up 6.5 percent of the population — will benefit from reparations. While Black people are a minority in the state, they are overrepresented in the state’s carceral system, with Black men making up 28.5 percent of the state’s prison population, and nearly 40 percent of the state’s unhoused population.
Black immigrants in California will be excluded — many of whom come from East and West Africa and the Caribbean and make up roughly 178,000 people, according to 2014 data from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Tuesday’s task force also heard from 10 genealogists about why a lineage-based model is significant and how individuals might go about establishing their relationship with enslaved ancestors.
Evelyn McDowell, the chairperson of the Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage says that it is “absolutely possible” for Black Californians to trace their lineage by determining the birth year of a great or great-great grandparent in the South — and that would likely be sufficient evidence for eligibility.
Other genealogists, such as Hollis Gentry, also support a lineage-based approach, but Gentry cautions that this process will be time consuming and costly and suggests enlisting public, state, and private libraries for assistance.
Jessica Aiwuyor, the founder of the National Black Cultural Information Trust, also warns against methods of establishing lineage that are “invasive” such as DNA testing and worries that those with limited access to technology and those with disabilities may have trouble participating.
Last month, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, testified that establishing lineage in a “race-neutral fashion” is less likely to be struck down by the courts. Many people that called in for public comment, who identified themselves as direct descendants of chattel slavery, also supported this approach.
Over the last 10 months, the task force has discussed how the legacy of Jim Crow laws, redlining and housing discrimination, police brutality, environmental racism, and many other factors have led to systemic discrimination towards Black people in California.
Though California joined the Union as a “free state” under the Compromise of 1850, the state’s fugitive slave law allowed enslaved people to remain under bondage as long as they were later deported to the South.
Linda Cooley, CEO of Mad River Brewing Co. Inc., said the partnership represents the Yurok Tribe’s sovereignty being taken seriously and having a positive relationship with a professional sports team.
“It’s one of those things that you think is never going to happen. We’re never going to be at that level of recognition or taken seriously. Seems like we're either tokenized, or only considered for casinos or funny memes,” the Yurok tribal citizen said.
Around late summer in 2021, the brewery began looking to other avenues to take the company and saw how the baseball team embraced diversity.
The Giants have had a Native American Heritage Night for over a decade, which the brewery plans to participate in this year. The team hired Alyssa Nakken as MLB’s first full-time woman coach, the stadium has an LGBTQ night and "Until There's A Cure Day" event that raises awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Notably, the team implemented a way for fans to contact security after an incident at the Giants’ Native American Heritage Night in 2014.
“Any fan wearing culturally insensitive attire, using obscene or abusive language, engaging in antisocial conduct offensive to those around them or displaying any other offensive behavior is subject to removal from the ballpark,” according to the team’s website.
Fans can text 'FOUL' to 69050 if they witness such behavior.
“They’ve just been so inclusive for all these different ethnicities and we thought maybe we can take Indigenous people to that next level with them,” Cooley said.
The deal will last for two years with the drinks being sold across multiple locations in the stadium. The Mad River Brewing logo will also be on neon signs throughout the stadium.
“We are excited to welcome Mad River Brewery into our corporate partnership portfolio. Our organization is committed to promoting and celebrating our diverse community, and in partnering with Mad River, we can help give Indigenous peoples a presence beyond their borders,” Jessica Santamaria, director of partnerships & media at the San Francisco Giants, said in a press release. “Working with Mad River Brewery represents a prioritization to highlight smaller, non-traditional brands alongside ours.”
The three drinks that will be offered are: the Historic State Park IPA, which highlights the tribe’s partnership with California State Parks to return Indigenous names to parks; Steelhead Extra Pale Ale; and Undammed Huckleberry Hopped Hard Seltzer, which represents the tribe’s work to remove dams on the Klamath River, huckleberry being indigenous to the Humboldt County and what the Yurok Tribe has eaten for a very long time.
“One of the most important things we’re fighting for in Northern California is water,” Cooley said.
The moment culminates nearly two decades of effort by members of the Yurok Tribe, whose connection with the bird they call prey-go-neesh goes back to the beginning of time, with the condor considered to be among Earth's first creatures and the one that carries their prayers to the Creator.
In a recent National Public Radio interview, Yurok Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams-Claussen, a tribal member and Harvard graduate, spoke about the importance of reestablishing the birds in the northern reaches of their former territory and how the reality “seems almost unreal.”
What she’s really looking forward to, Williams-Claussen says, is “that moment when they are just a part of our life again.”
But before condors can be seen in the skies over the North Coast, this first group needs to spend some time in a release facility perched high in an area of Redwood National and State Parks with a 7-year-old “mentor” bird that is unable to be released but was brought in to help impart important social skills that the younger crew will need for life outside of captivity.
(Two of them are 2 years old and the other two are 3 years old, still youngsters for birds that don’t reach maturity until around 6 to 8 years old.)
While there, the birds will spend the next few weeks acclimating to the new surroundings, honing their condor skills and preparing to retake their spot as the region’s top scavenger.
The birds’ arrival from a Ventana Wildlife Society facility in San Simeon will be available for viewing on the Yurok Condor Live Feed, which can be found here: https://www.yuroktribe.org/yurok-condor-live-feed. (There is not an exact ETA, but it’s expected to be sometime this afternoon.)
In the protective space, the condor cohort of four will have an opportunity to test out their wings while watching others in the wild, like turkey vultures, flying on the nearby air currents — which condors can soar on for hours, traveling up to 150 miles in a day.
“The carefully designed enclosure features a large perch, a pool and a simulated power pole,” the Yurok Tribe states in a press release. “A very small amount of electricity is flowing to the mock power pole, which is a teaching tool for the young condors. When birds stand on it, they feel a slight shock to let them know to avoid the structures in the future. It does not cause pain.”
Power poles are one of many dangers the birds will face once they are released into the wild for the first time, acting as beacons of hope for their species, which still teeters on the edge of extinction.