Sacramento News & Review
Support Local Independent Journalism Sign up for our newsletter!
  • News
    • Crime Beat
    • COVID-19
    • Police Reform
    • Q&A
  • Voices
    • Greenlight
    • Essay
    • Fifteen Minutes
    • Ask Joey
    • Ask 420
  • Arts+Culture
    • Food
    • Music
    • Home & Garden
    • Rebooting the Arts
  • Calendar
  • Solving Sacramento
    • Rebooting the Arts
    • Housing
    • About Solving Sacramento
  • Sponsor Spotlight
  • Connect with SN&R
    • Become a supporter
    • Tax deductible support
    • Get the Newsletter
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
    • Contact Us
  • Archives
    • Best of Sac
    • Local Dining
    • SAMMIES
    • SN&R Print Archive
Hot Topics
  • March 9, 2021 | In light of recent deaths, Sacramento City Hall faces reckoning on warming centers
  • July 14, 2025 | UPDATE: Murder for a changing Media – Serafini trial delves into double-lives, poison fantasies and roses made in jail cells from toilet paper
  • July 14, 2025 | National focus shines on Sutter Health Park and surrounding areas as A’s settle into town
  • July 10, 2025 | Brenda Solórzano on urgency, resilience and the future of philanthropy
  • July 10, 2025 | 8 Sacramento events to experience in July
  • July 9, 2025 | Audience finds treasure at ‘In a Nutshell’ June show in Sacramento
Spotlight Community

A Leg Up, Not a Hand Out

Professional headshot of Monita Porter, deputy director of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce Monita Porter, deputy director of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONITA PORTER

By: Anne Stokes October 17, 2024

Reparations can give Black communities the opportunity to thrive

For generations, Black and African Americans have faced discrimination and an uphill battle for basic civil liberties. This systemic inequality has resulted in families and communities with less wealth, less educational opportunities, over-representation in the criminal justice system and shorter life expectancy.

While the concept of reparations has been around since the end of the Civil War, efforts to realize reparations were more recently revived with the formation of California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans in 2020. It is the first state to make such moves.

“We want to acknowledge the harm that anti-Black policies designed to target Black Californians and that has prevented them from bettering themselves,” says Monita Porter, deputy director of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce. “Reparations could really serve as a stimulus to Black communities, it could promote and incentivise innovation and creativity … it’s something that it’ll help folks not just continue to survive.”

“Reparations could really serve as a stimulus to Black communities, it could promote and incentivise innovation and creativity, … it’s something that it’ll help folks not just continue to survive.”

Monita Porter, Deputy Director, Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce

What are reparations?

While cash payments are the most well-known, there are many elements to reparations, mainly pertaining to justice, voting, education, health, business and housing, and can include:

  • Education investments
  • Inclusion in school curriculum
  • Identification and elimination of racial bias in standardized tests, assessments and professional career examinations
  • Affordable and accessible health care
  • Affordable housing and the elimination of anti-Black housing policies akin to redlining
  • Law enforcement accountability
  • Acknowledgments and apologies

“Reparations can exist as housing vouchers, it can exist as paying for education, reparations can exist as mental health assistance, it can come in so many different forms,” Porter says. “A lot of what reparations are is is taking account of the trauma that has happened and how generationally it has led to the outcome of the Black community.”

Misconceptions

In the Central Valley, reparations support is evenly split. Opponents decry it as unnecessary despite the fact that the effects of slavery still affect Americans.

“Even though slavery was abolished, there are still lingering negative effects that are embedded in multiple ways, whether we talk about legally, politically, economically, educationally, culturally, environmentally, the remnants of it still exists in policy, and there’s racist ideology that is embedded institutionally,” Porter says. “You know, we see it every day. The first step to fighting for racial equality is just that acknowledgment.”

As to matters of funding, proposed sources include recreational marijuana tax revenues, a private “superfund” from wealthy donors, or payments diverted from the state budget in installments.

How reparations can help communities as a whole

Ultimately, by providing Black Americans and families with more avenues to success, entire communities benefit, not just those receiving reparation payments.

“Reparations can lead to the development of new businesses, products, technologies and services that will benefit us all, not just those beneficiaries of those businesses, but the wider community,” Porter says. “It happened, let’s acknowledge it, and let’s move on. … And that acknowledgment is reparations.”

For more information on the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce programs, visit fmbcc.com or call 559-441-7929.

TOPICS:black communityreparations

Our content is free, but not free to produce

If you value our local news, arts and entertainment coverage, become an SN&R supporter with a one-time or recurring donation. Help us keep our reporters at work, bringing you the stories that need to be told.

Become a supporter
Newsletter

Stay Updated

For the latest local news, arts and entertainment, sign up for our newsletter.
We'll tell you the story behind the story.

    • Previous post
    • Next post

    About the Sponsor

    MOVE The Valley
    Move the Valley (fka the Fresno County Civic Engagement Table) is a regional integrated civic engagement table focused on ending the profitability of white supremacy, amplifying the electoral voices of the community and building regional political infrastructures. Move the Valley acts as a multi-racial and multigenerational coalition focusing on integrated voter engagement, voter education, and get out the vote (GOTV) efforts within historically marginalized and excluded communities.

    Related Articles

    No Picture

    News, Voices

    Essay: The case for reparations


    COVID-19, News, Voices

    Sounding the alarm


    Meet the sponsors

    • Berkeley Strategy Advisors
      Berkeley Strategy Advisors

      published 5 articles

    • BRIDGE Housing
      BRIDGE Housing

      published 3 articles

    • California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls
      California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls

      published 1 article

    • California Workforce Association
      California Workforce Association

      published 13 articles

    • City of Elk Grove
      City of Elk Grove

      published 11 articles

    • City of Roseville
      City of Roseville

      published 12 articles

    • Del Paso Boulevard Partnership
      Del Paso Boulevard Partnership

      published 28 articles

    • Exotic Plants
      Exotic Plants

      published 6 articles

    • Joshua's House Hospice
      Joshua's House Hospice

      published 4 articles

    • Midtown
      Midtown

      published 11 articles

    • MOVE The Valley
      MOVE The Valley

      published 9 articles

    • N&R Publications
      N&R Publications

      published 5 articles

    • Northern California Research
      Northern California Research

      published 10 articles

    • Sacramento County Department of Child Family and Adult Services
      Sacramento County Department of Child Family and Adult Services

      published 6 articles

    • Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services
      Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services

      published 5 articles

    • Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services
      Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services

      published 6 articles

    • Sacramento County Office of Education
      Sacramento County Office of Education

      published 2 articles

    • Sacramento County Probation Department
      Sacramento County Probation Department

      published 11 articles

    • Sacramento Regional Transit District
      Sacramento Regional Transit District

      published 28 articles

    • SEIU
      SEIU

      published 30 articles

    • Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
      Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

      published 1 article

    • The California Endowment
      The California Endowment

      published 65 articles

    • Volunteers of America
      Volunteers of America

      published 8 articles

    • Workforce Development Board of Solano County
      Workforce Development Board of Solano County

      published 4 articles

    • Yuba Water Agency
      Yuba Water Agency

      published 8 articles

    Our Sponsors

    Berkeley Strategy Advisors BRIDGE Housing California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls California Workforce Association City of Elk Grove City of Roseville Del Paso Boulevard Partnership Exotic Plants Joshua's House Hospice Midtown MOVE The Valley N&R Publications Northern California Research Sacramento County Department of Child Family and Adult Services Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services Sacramento County Office of Education Sacramento County Probation Department Sacramento Regional Transit District SEIU Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The California Endowment Volunteers of America Workforce Development Board of Solano County Yuba Water Agency

    Categories

    Community

    Tags

    2020 affordable housing art astrology Black Lives Matter board of supervisors California cannabis City Council city hall climate change coronavirus COVID-19 COVID-19 in Sacramento Donald Trump election food gardening gavin newsom George Floyd homeless homelessness horoscopes jobs Joe Biden letters Mayor Darrell Steinberg music november election pandemic police reform president donald trump presidential election protests public health Q&A sacramento sacramento county Sacramento police Sacramento Regional Transit District SacRT SEIU Stephon Clark strong mayor taxes
    Newsletter

    Stay Updated

    For the latest local news, arts and entertainment, sign up for our newsletter.
    We'll tell you the story behind the story.

      Recent Posts
      • UPDATE: Murder for a changing Media – Serafini trial delves into double-lives, poison fantasies and roses made in jail cells from toilet paper
      • National focus shines on Sutter Health Park and surrounding areas as A’s settle into town
      • Brenda Solórzano on urgency, resilience and the future of philanthropy
      • 8 Sacramento events to experience in July
      • Audience finds treasure at ‘In a Nutshell’ June show in Sacramento
      Links
      • Newsletter Signup
      • Follow us on Twitter
      • Find us on Facebook
      • SN&R Archives
      • Best of Sac
      • SAMMIES
      • RSS
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Service
      • Contact Us
      Become a supporter
      Categories
      • 2020 election (86)
      • Arts+Culture (948)
      • Ask Joey (1,017)
      • Cannabis (42)
      • COVID-19 (313)
      • Crime Beat (147)
      • Food (109)
      • Greenlight (492)
      • Home & Garden (81)
      • Housing (105)
      • Music (278)
      • News (1,706)
      • Q&A (34)
      • Rebooting the Arts (253)
      • Solving Sacramento (396)
      • Stage (74)
      • Voices (526)

      © 2019+ Sacramento News & Review