The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee recently recommended that financial reparations be made to qualifying black San Fransico residents, including a lump-sum payment of $5 million and total debt forgiveness.
Such residents who qualify for the payment must meet at least two criteria from a list of requirements, which include applicants to be at least 18 years old at the time the city enacts the committee's proposal, have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least ten years, and prove they were born in the city between 1940 and 1996.
Other requirements from the report include residents that have lived in San Francisco for at least 13 years or personally been incarcerated — or the direct descendant of someone imprisoned — during the War on Drugs, which U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon declared in 1971.
The report reads that African-Americans with less than the Area Median Income reflecting $97,000 would also receive supplements for at least 250 years.
So theoretically, your entire resume could be that you are a 27-year-old convicted drug dealer and that would be sufficient qualification for the government to pay you $5 million dollars, and pay off your car, your mortgage, and any other debts you've accumulated during the last 27 years.
The recommendation has not been approved yet, but this June the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and the mayor will review the final proposal.
Aaron Peskin, President of the Board of Supervisors, told The San Fransisco Chronicle,
There are so many efforts that result in incredible reports that just end up gathering dust on a shelf. We cannot let this be one of them.
