After years of research and public debates, the California Reparations Task Force is set to vote on recommendations this weekend to compensate eligible African Americans for financial losses due to slavery, USA Today reports. On Saturday (May 6) in Oakland, the task force will have the long-awaited vote.

If the recommendations garner a majority vote, final recommendations will be submitted to the California State Legislature by June 30. Lawmakers will then decide whether to agree to the suggestions and or to modify the task force’s recommendations.

Top economists were assigned to calculate the immense impact of institutional racism which resulted in generations of economic disparities. Each economist evaluated specific time frames “since different laws and policies inflicted measurable injury across different periods,” the documents read.

The five areas of consideration for reparations are housing inequality, mass incarceration, health care inequities, the use of eminent domain to take the property of African Americans and to devalue their businesses, and the over-policing of African Americans by law enforcement.

To fairly compensate for years of systematic racial discrimination, economists have estimated that it would take $800 billion.

The five areas of consideration for reparations are housing inequality, mass incarceration, health care inequities, the use of eminent domain to take the property of African Americans and to devalue their businesses, and the over-policing of African Americans by law enforcement.

To fairly compensate for years of systematic racial discrimination, economists have estimated that it would take $800 billion.

Jovan Scott Lewis, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the task force spoke about the necessity of the process.

“This is necessary because it’s long overdue from a state and federal level,” Lewis said. “Despite the progress that the country and state continue to make in various ways, we continue to see African Americans not benefitting from this progress.”

In March 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted legislation to create a two-year reparations task force “to study the institution of slavery and its harms and to educate the public about its findings.”

Recommendations that the task force proposed are $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the erasure of personal debt and tax bills, homes in San Francisco for $1 for every eligible family, and guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for the next 250 years.

To be eligible for reparations, California citizens must have been born in or migrated to San Francisco between the years 1940 and 1996, lived in the city for at least 13 years, being displaced from the city by gentrification during the years of 1954 and 1973, being a descendant of someone who was attending the city’s public schools before they were fully desegregated.

Although the task force has made recommendations they believe will properly address the question of reparations, the California legislature will ultimately have the final say onwhat financial compensation is paid out.

“The task force is recommending a methodology, not a particular dollar amount,” Lewis stated.“That’s not our responsibility. The state Legislature will have to decide whether or not they want to provide compensation to the community based on the losses we have calculated.”

In addition to California, other municipalities that are in various stages concerning reparations are Evanston, Ill, Detroit, St. Paul. Minn., Boston, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Asheville, N.C.