Black political leaders tone-deaf during Black History Month? Welcome to Sacramento | Opinion
It’s hard for Black political leaders to sound tone-deaf during Black History Month but the California Legislative Black Caucus somehow managed it on Thursday morning.
Caucus members tried to focus on 15 bills that make up their “Road to Repair” agenda addressing reparations, slavery and racial conciliation. But when they were asked to address why they failed to advance the issue of reparations for the descendants of slaves in California - some would say they capitulated to Gov. Gavin Newsom - it all fell apart.
The caucus that talked for at least 30 minutes restricted questions to two minutes when questions got serious.
For legislators to talk so eloquently about repairing California for its Black folk, yet not acknowledging their failed attempts last year, says a lot about this caucus’ intentions to get real change done.
It was Saturday, Aug. 31, the last day of the 2024 legislative session, that two key bills that would have created a new state agency to oversee reparations and a fund for reparations and restorative justice were killed over the objections of protesters who had filled the Capitol.
“We owe it to our ancestors,” said Sen. Steven Bradford, a Gardena Democrat who authored the bills said at the time. “And I think we disappointed them in a way.”
As The Bee reported at the time: “As the measures were close to passing in the Legislature, they stalled in the Assembly for days. That came after Newsom raised concerns about the bill creating the new agency and his administration proposed changes that would have scrapped it, The Sacramento Bee previously reported. Those suggestions were rejected by Bradford.” Bradford, who is now running for Lt. Governor of California, was termed out of the Legislature.
Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, and vice chair of the Black Caucus was on hand last August when Bradford’s bills died and he was there Thursday.
“This year, as we do every year, we will fight to repair the harms of the past and create new ladders of opportunity for Black Californians,” Bryan said Thursday.
What Bryan said sounded smooth, but the Black Caucus hasn’t seemed to be fighting effectively for Black Californians since I arrived in Sacramento 11 months ago.
Going in circles
Being that most of these “new” bills were re-configured versions of previous ones, you’d expect a different strategy but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
For example, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Solano, has a bill that takes another go at banning involuntary servitude for prison inmates. Last year voters rejected that proposal as worded in Proposition 6.
The key difference is how Wilson has now removed the words “involuntary servitude” from her new bill. Now she wants voters to consider another proposition that would state: “Slavery in all forms is prohibited.” We’ll see if voters care about wording the next election cycle.
Also, most of these bills work in tandem so if one bill fails, it could negatively affect another.
Bryan’s AB 7 would “authorize priority admissions for descendants of American chattel slavery to higher education.” This bill would require a lineage study to determine if those seeking to benefit from it were descendants of someone who was enslaved. Luckily there is SB 437, created by Senator Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson, D-San Diego. The bill will require the California State University to create a way to determine through genealogy if someone is a descendant of an enslaved person.
The Black Caucus does appear to have a framework, but the goal that they still face is convincing their non-Black counterparts to support these bills.
Legislative Black Caucus needs a wake-up call
Listen, as a Black person there comes a time when you realize that MLK quotes are not enough. Black Californians need answers and they deserve more than what the Black Caucus is offering, which is a potential re-run of the same unkept promises.
The truth is that on Thursday the Black Caucus wanted to look hopeful and determined to get their bills passed. But the impression they give is that their only way forward requires groveling to Newsom.
If the Black Caucus wants a different outcome than last year, they need to be courageous and direct.
Black California is still counting on them, but that trust is fading.
