Reparations: Eric McDonnell and Dr. Amos Brown discuss what can be done to support the Black community on HeartBeat with Cindi Bright
Cindi Bright helped kick off Black History Month on her show HeartBeat with members of the San Francisco African American Reparations Committee Eric McDonnell and Dr. Amos Brown. They spoke about the importance of acknowledging that past injustices still play a major role in daily life today, as well as what they propose can be done to increase equities in affected communities.
“For anyone to say they are not impacted, one way or the other, by the things that have happened in our history is like saying they are in the pool but aren’t getting wet,” McDonnell said. “The reality is this is what we live with, and so we all have some level of opportunity to understand the impact of that. Reparations are an opportunity for us to make amends, create repair, and create opportunity.”
McDonnell hopes that through that creation of equitable opportunity for the Black community in San Francisco, the positive effects can begin to spread across the country.
“The effect i’m hoping for is a groundswell of civic engagement that will prompt political power to take action,” McDonnell said. “There is unfortunately nothing in the charter that requires the board of supervisors or the city to take action, however we don’t intend to allow that to happen.”
The committee is asking the city of San Francisco for a $5 million dollar investment into its Black community, funds which McDonnell believes the committee could help appropriate into a meaningful impact.
“This is basically a capital investment in individuals and families being able to re-establish themselves and create pathways to their own opportunities for economic development, health access, education and their own path towards wealth creation,” McDonnell said.
Berry agrees, saying that the need for this investment comes from hundreds of years of marginalization and systematic oppression.
“Enslavement, segregation and discrimination were public policies, and every human being that has lived today has benefited from the largess and from the wealth of previous years,” Dr. Brown said. “So the people who say ‘I wasn’t back there’, well, you’ve always been present.”
He also added that it’s important to remember that those actions still have major impacts on our country and society today. He hopes that those in power take to heart the foundations of the country and their role in creating an equitable existence for all.
“Any time a human being has been denied their amenities of human existence through a legal system, we are guilty,” Dr. Brown said.
You can watch the full episode above
