(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In its recent 1,100 page final report, California’s Reparations Task Force recommended that the state legislature excuse black residents from paying child support on account of America’s unjust treatment of blacks in the past, according to the Daily Mail.
The Task Force, which called its document a “book of truth,” blamed “discriminatory” laws for having “torn African American families apart.”
One of these alleged harms was “the disproportionate amount of African Americans who are burdened with child support debt,” it said, while seeming to overlook the fact that the lack of child support would likely do greater harm to single black parents with children who would lose the benefit of additional income.
The Task Force specifically complained about the interest on unpaid child support with which many absentee fathers are hit—a 10% rate—citing it as a reason that black men are unable to maintain steady employment or maintain a home.
“As a result of the debt owed for back child support and interest, a disproportionate number of African American parents are saddled with crushing debt that hinders their ability to attend school or job training, maintain housing, and find employment if their professional licenses and/or driver’s licenses have been suspended,” the report claimed, overlooking several crucial steps that may have led to those circumstances.
It said 27% of all child-support back-payments were the result of accrued interest, leading to the conclusion that all interest on child support should be suspended for black residents in the state.
“At a minimum, the proposal recommends that the Legislature eliminate the prospective accrual of interest on child support debt for low-income parents,” the report said.
But, not willing to stop there, the Task Force also suggested that the legislature make room for “compromise and forgiveness of child support debt” based solely on “a parent’s financial circumstances and ability to pay.”
Although the final report did not put a specific number on the reparations it recommended giving to black California residents, it has floated a sum of upward around $800 billion, the Daily Mail reported.
That would come out to somewhere around $285,000 apiece for California’s 2.8 million black residents, assuming all were eligible—a much lower number than the $5 million figure floated by San Francisco’s municipal reparations task force but still enough to have a sizable impact on California’s economy.
The state also has released a reparations calculator that reveals certain factors could multiply the amount owed to a seven-figure sum.
Kamilah Moore, an intellectual property and entertainment lawyer and leader of the Task Force, celebrated the completion of the report, noting that she felt better after demanding hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations.
“It’s been very work intensive, but also very cathartic and very emotional,” she said. “We’re standing in the shoes of our ancestors to finish, essentially, this sacred project.”
