The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution apologizing to its black residents for the city’s hand in perpetuating “institutional racism” and discrimination.
“On behalf of the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors offers its deepest apologies to all African Americans and their descendants who came to San Francisco and were victims of systemic and structural discrimination, institutional racism, targeted acts of violence, and atrocities,” the resolution states.
“San Francisco has a long history of creating and/or enforcing laws, policies, and institutions that have perpetuated racial inequity in our city, much of which is difficult to document due to historical erasure.”
The apology follows the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee’s demand that the city should pay $5 million in cash reparations to adult black residents to remedy San Francisco’s racial wealth gap and atone for systemic racism.
While the 11 board members all approved the resolution, some critics still demanded reparations when the payouts were put on hold last year after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) did not back reparations, saying the “black legacy is about much more than cash payments.”
Mayor London Breed, who is black, also did not support cash reparations, basing her stance on budget concerns, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The city is currently facing a $245 million deficit starting in the fiscal year this July.
Rev. Amos C. Brown, a member of San Francisco’s reparations advisory committee who also recommended the city’s apology, criticized the resolution for not being enough.
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“An apology is just cotton candy rhetoric,” Brown said in a statement. “What we need is concrete actions.”
Nine states have apologized for the history of violence and discrimination against black people, according to the resolution. Many members of the city’s board who approved the apology said this was just the beginning of the reparations for San Francisco’s black community.
