Grace Cathedral

The Working Group has been tracking 20-odd legislative proposals on reparations introduced in the 2023/24 California legislative session. California Reparations Task Force member Don Tamaki had previewed these proposals, which were based on the Task Force’s recommendations, when he was guest homilist at the Cathedral’s 2023 Juneteenth commemoration service. By the September 30 deadline the legislature had passed and the Governor had approved 8 of the bills and a $12 million appropriation for implementation.

For those expecting major compensation and remedial measures to pass this year, the 2023/24 session would be a disappointment. Bills that failed to advance or gain the Governor’s approval would have granted special benefits and preferential treatment to the descendants of enslaved persons and created new procedures to establish eligibility and investigate claims. On the plus side of the equation, the 8 bills that were enacted into law are significant in their own right and as a marker of a journey begun. Put simply, as 2024 draws to a close the restorative dimension of racial reconciliation has become a thing we can talk about in California openly and pragmatically in the years to come.  

The centerpiece of the enacted legislative package is a slavery acknowledgment statement accepting responsibility for the harms and atrocities committed by the State and its representatives by facilitating chattel slavery and subsequently perpetuating systemic discrimination. The statement says in part: “The State of California humbly asks for forgiveness from those affected by past atrocities, both deliberately and negligently, and acknowledges and affirms its responsibility to end ongoing harm. The State of California commits to restore and repair affected peoples with actions beyond this apology.” Precedents for the slavery acknowledgment include the State’s 2005 Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program, a 2009 Assembly Resolution acknowledging official persecution of Chinese living in California and the Chinese Exclusion Act, a 2019 executive order apologizing for genocidal violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native American tribes, and the 2020 Assembly Resolution apologizing for the state’s support of unjust removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The slavery acknowledgment and commitment to restoration and repair will be prominently displayed in the State Capitol.

Another important part of the package is Proposition 6, which the legislature placed on the November ballot this summer. It would change the California Constitution by eliminating language that allows involuntary servitude, a form of slavery, as a punishment for crime. The state prison system relies on this language to compel inmates to work at whatever task the authorities choose. Grace Cathedral has officially endorsed Prop. 6. The Working Group encourages people to read the statement in support of Proposition 6 by Dean Malcolm Young and to vote in favor on November 5. 

California’s sizable budget deficit and questions about how to design race-conscious programs that can pass constitutional muster loomed in the background during the legislative session. Despite these concerns, in addition to the bills described above the legislature banned discrimination based on traits associated with race such as hair texture and style, authorized grants for career technical education in schools that serve socio-economically disadvantaged students, and required public notice when neighborhood grocery stores and pharmacies in low-income communities are closed. Mandatory implicit bias training for providers of perinatal care was expanded based on evidence of disparate adverse pregnancy outcomes for black mothers and other pregnant persons of color. Although the questions of cost and legality will arise again when the legislature reconvenes in January and another round of bills are introduced, the Working Group has faith that the arc truly does bend toward justice and that communities like ours have a role to play in bringing about social justice and reconciliation.