At this week鈥檚 state reparations task force meeting, committee members discussed how the unequal building of infrastructure has displaced and economically disadvantaged African Americans living in California.
鈥淭he benefits and burdens of our transportation system 鈥� from highways to roads, bridges, sidewalks 鈥� have been planned, developed, sustained, to pull resources from Black communities,鈥� Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union said. 鈥淩esources that were subsequently redeployed and invested to the benefit of predominantly white communities and their residents.鈥�
The task force was convened , after the passage of . The group of nine members has been appointed to lay out the guidelines for how the state can begin to make reparations to African Americans for harm caused by things like housing discrimination, redlining and infrastructure building.
Bruce Appleyard, a city planner and professor at San Diego State University, said that certain highways have divided Black communities. He used Oakland as an example of a city where a highway was built directly down the center of a historically Black neighborhood, and how that鈥檚 caused disinvestment and fragmentation.
鈥淢ajor harm came in the way of highway development through Black neighborhoods that forcefully carved and ripped up whole communities and otherwise walling them off from adjacent communities,鈥� Appleyard said.
He said that unequal government investment in public transportation has also added to the disinvestment of Black communities.
鈥淥ftentimes, transit funding is being applied to the development of expensive rail projects that serve white suburbs and the expense of bus services that serve communities of color,鈥� Appleyard said.
Archer added that access to functioning infrastructure can often lead to deepening inequities in other ways.
鈥淪afe, accessible, reliable infrastructure is disproportionately built in white neighborhoods, connecting those residents to opportunities while Black communities continue to suffer from underdevelopment,鈥� Archer said.
The task force also discussed the possibility of asking the state to allocate some of the Biden administration鈥檚 American Rescue Plan funds towards fixing some of these unequal investments. Part of the administration鈥檚 plan has .
Earlier this year, in recovery funds, with an additional $16 billion to go directly towards cities and counties with populations over 50,000 people.
Homelessness and gentrification as other effects of discriminatory building
Task force members also heard from experts about the racial breakdown and disproportionate impact of homelessness and gentrification on Black neighborhoods across the state.
African Americans are much more likely to be homeless than other races in California. In Sacramento in particular, experts who testified said the homeless population was 34% African American, despite making up just 13% of the county鈥檚 overall population.
鈥淏lack people being overrepresented in the unhoused population is neither incidental nor accidental,鈥� Brandon Green
Experts also added that Black people were more likely to be renters and to pay a greater portion of their income towards rent. Many are also more likely to be pushed to the outer edges of cities, which require longer, more expensive commutes to get to their jobs.
鈥淭his is clearly motivated by primarily the sub-prime crisis in which Black folks were foreclosed and displaced en masse,鈥� said Darrell Owens, a data policy analyst at California YIMBY, a housing advocacy organization. 鈥淭his is something that needs reparations to combat, because it鈥檚 essentially eliminated a large swath of Black wealth and caused a mass exodus out of the state or to more suburban areas.鈥�
Task force members say they hope to recommend ways that the state can help California African Americans recoup some of these losses. A formal report from its members will be sent to the state by June of next year.
鈥淎t the root of this whole question of whether or not we should and must receive reparations is the sin and the evil that Black folks have been devalued by this national government, the whole Atlantic slave trade and wherever we have gone,鈥� Amos Brown, vice chair of the task force, said. 鈥淲hat we are asking for is no more than for our humanity to be valued.鈥�
The task force will meet again for further discussion in January.
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