Virtue Un-Signaled: San Francisco Halts Reparations Office Due To Budget Cuts

San Francisco has committed a dastardly act of racism, putting a halt to its virtuous office of reparations amid budget cuts.

Apparently there are more important things than transferring wealth to black people, despite everything we’ve been told. The office, which was set to launch this year, was eliminated as part of Mayor London Breed’s $75 million cuts to the city’s budget in preparation for a major deficit in 2024.

The cuts come despite a fight from supervisor Shamann Walton, who called the cuts “disheartening,” in a statement to the SF Examiner.

“I understand the importance of no cuts to existing programs, but the Black community will continue to pursue justice and equity through reparations here in San Francisco,” said Walton. “My hope is that the city’s deficit is eliminated quickly so that we can fund the Office of Reparations and fulfill the commitment made to address the historical injustices and inequities that have persisted for generations for Black San Franciscans.”

San Francisco Human Rights Commission Director, Sheryl Davis, told the outlet that despite cuts to the office of reparations, the city will continue to work on several related initiatives spawned from the effort – including locating a satellite campus in one of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities in San Francisco, and collaborating with city officials to utilize vacant storefronts.

“A lot of the work, it’ll be tight but we’ll leverage some of the funding we had in our budget,” said Davis.

The Office of Reparations was viewed as a key step in implementing the reparations plan, which was drafted by the African American Reparations Advisory Committee and accepted by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year. The $2 million would be used to hire staff who would begin to form and fund programs enumerated in the plan. -SF Examiner

In July, San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee issued their final report (pdf) with a lengthy list of recommendations, including a $5 million lump sum payment to each eligible person and additional $97,000—adjusted to median income—each per year for the next 250 years; home, renters, and commercial insurance paid by the city; selling condominiums for $1 to eligible residents; and tax abatement on sales tax for the next 250 years.