Kitchen from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

A new report by The Washington Post highlights the challenges faced by the city of San Francisco eight months after the city passed a resolution to provide reparations and shares the grievances of black constituents who have become impatient for the city to deliver on its promise.

Last year, a city government panel made headlines with its proposal to offer monetary reparations to eligible Black residents, with certain individuals potentially receiving up to $5 million—yet the Post story attests that these people have received nothing more than an “apology” so far, as the allocation of funds for the project has been drastically reduced.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors issued an eight-page resolution last month stating, “The San Francisco Board of Supervisors offers its deepest apologies to all African Americans and their descendants who came to San Francisco and were victims of systemic and structural discrimination, institutionalize racism, targeted acts of violence, and atrocities.”

This gesture, while symbolic, ostensibly represents the initial step towards implementing the more than 100 recommendations put forth by the city’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee—yet the sentiment has not been universally accepted as sufficient.

University of San Diego Law professor Roy Brooks expressed skepticism about the city's approach.

“Saying sorry or apologizing is not enough. You need a redemptive act to make the rhetoric of remorse believable.”

This criticism is echoed in the actions of the Board of Supervisors, with member Dean Preston asserting that the apology, though significant, cannot serve as the sole measure of redress.

The pursuit of further reparative measures has been complicated by what The Washington Post describes as “harsh economic realities,” particularly highlighted by Mayor London Breed’s decision to cut the budget for a government Office of Reparations from $75 million.

The responsibility for carrying forward the committee's proposals has now fallen to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, under the direction of Sheryl Evans Davis. The commission has prioritized a series of reparations-based projects, including the ambitious goal of establishing satellite campuses for Historically Black Colleges and Universities within the city.

However, Davis has voiced concerns over the feasibility of direct monetary compensation, such as the proposed $5 million payments, due to potential legal challenges stemming from California’s Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in public institutions.

Amid these developments, Stephen Hanlon, a legal representative for Black descendants of the Rosewood massacre victims, emphasized the importance of tangible compensation over symbolic gestures.

“We did not seek an apology from the state because we believed that if we did, that might be all we would get. It was very important to our clients that the state pay money for what it had done to the Rosewood family in 1923,” Hanlon said in an email to the Post.