A guaranteed income program and the establishment of a reparations accountability council are just two recommendations that the community reform commission ( CRC ) in Asheville, North Carolina, has made.
25 people were chosen for the Asheville Community Reparations Commission more than two years ago, in March 2022. The payment is tasked with making” small, medium, and long-term recommendations that will make substantial progress toward reparing the harm caused by public and private widespread racism,” according to the city.
A guaranteed income program is one of the recommendations that the percentage just made in four distinct categories. According to a record detailing the proposal, this plan would be used” as a way to maintain basic needs are met for individuals with low- earnings and assets” in the form of monthly income payments with” no strings attached” and” no labor requirements”.
” A assured income is meant to supplement, rather than change, the existing social safety net and can be a tool for racial and gender equity”, the commission wrote, adding that the reparations accountability entity, along with the city and county,” does determine the parameters of a program, which may benefit individuals who have been harmed by traditional, widespread, and continued wage and employment discrimination”.
According to the council,” Black People have experienced disproportionate unemployment rates and reduced opportunities to fully participate in the local job market” and that” [those who work in every sector of the local economy have been consistently and widely impoverished by discriminatory wages paid regardless of credentials and experience.”
Further, the council claimed that the city and county had engaged in urban renewal, which it claimed “destroyed many homes and businesses owned by Black families and seriously harmed many traditional minority neighborhoods, displacing many people to public housing and exploiting opportunities to build generational wealth.”
Additionally, the council is recommending additional funding to existing neighborhoods in the form of grants to “empower historically African-American communities.” Minimum funds should be, according to the council, at least$ 250, 000 per community. The council thinks that this will “relieve the harm that redlining has caused”.
Additionally, the council recommends the establishment of a Reparations Accountability Council and the establishment of an Economic Development Center for Black Asheville residents as well as the establishment of a Reparations Accountability Council, which would “oversee all CRC recommendations implemented by the city and county and their contractors.”
NEW: Asheville’s 25- member Reparations Commission released its demands:
1. a sizable business space exclusively dedicated to black businesses.
2. Money to fix up black neighborhoods.
3. Free checks and no work requirement. pic. twitter.com/qeBMgCKQVz
— End Wokeness ( @End Wokeness ) May 9, 2024
This is only the start of the council’s recommendations, according to ABC 13, with more recommendations coming soon.
This is not the only push for such programs in the U. S., as Democrats in California, for example, are pursuing reparations bills. California joined the Union in 1850 as a free state, despite this fact.
