California Reparations Panel Prioritizes Justice Over Cost.

A member of California's reparations task force, Cheryl Grills, has dismissed the total dollar amount as the "least important piece" of their proposal, despite the committee considering doling out nearly triple the state's existing budget in payments to Black residents as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination. Last month, economists predicted in a preliminary estimate that California's reparations plan could cost the state over $800 billion. The task force had previously been considering a proposal to give just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion.