{"id":561,"date":"2022-04-13T14:42:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T22:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.6zeros.net\/thezerohour\/?p=561"},"modified":"2022-04-19T10:34:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T18:34:55","slug":"california-reparations-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.6zeros.net\/thezerohour\/california-reparations-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Kamilah Moore of California Reparations Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with Kamilah Moore of the California Reparations Task Force\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ulLqaWhQY30?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>0:00<br>Kamilah Moore is a well-respected<br>0:01<br>activist who is serving as chairperson<br>0:04<br>for the california reparations task<br>0:06<br>force<br>0:07<br>she earned a degree in law at columbia<br>0:09<br>university where she specialized in the<br>0:11<br>study of reparations she is committed to<br>0:14<br>a reparations package that is in line<br>0:16<br>with international standards and repairs<br>0:18<br>the sentence of the american enslaved we<br>0:21<br>will interview her now on six zeros<br>0:25<br>[Music]<br>0:28<br>hey folks i&#8217;m jay with six zeros and i&#8217;m<br>0:31<br>here with the chairperson of the<br>0:32<br>california reparations task force camila<br>0:35<br>moore how are you this morning i&#8217;m doing<br>0:37<br>great jay thanks for having me how are<br>0:38<br>you i&#8217;m wonderful thank you for joining<br>0:41<br>so for those that are unaware can you<br>0:43<br>explain what the california reparations<br>0:45<br>task force is and how the members were<br>0:48<br>selected<br>0:49<br>yeah absolutely so the california<br>0:51<br>reparations tasks for scopes and powers<br>0:54<br>are predicated on a legislative statute<br>0:56<br>called ab3121<br>0:59<br>the formal title entitled california<br>1:01<br>reparations task force to study and<br>1:03<br>develop reparation proposals for african<br>1:06<br>americans with special consideration for<br>1:08<br>african-americans who are descendants of<br>1:10<br>persons enslaved in the united states<br>1:12<br>and essentially there&#8217;s a nine member<br>1:14<br>task force<br>1:16<br>we are mandated to meet over a period of<br>1:19<br>two years to study reparations proposals<br>1:22<br>and develop them<br>1:23<br>and five members of the task workforce<br>1:26<br>were selected by the governor gavin<br>1:28<br>newsom uh two were selected by the<br>1:31<br>speaker of the california<br>1:33<br>assembly and then the two other task<br>1:36<br>force members were selected by the<br>1:38<br>speaker of the california senate nice so<br>1:41<br>how were you selected to be in such a<br>1:44<br>prestigious role as the chairperson of<br>1:46<br>this task force<br>1:48<br>yes so i was appointed to the task force<br>1:51<br>by anthony rendon who&#8217;s the speaker of<br>1:53<br>the california assembly and at the task<br>1:56<br>force first meeting in june of 2021 we<br>2:00<br>actually um<br>2:02<br>voted for who would be the chair and the<br>2:04<br>vice chair of the task force amongst the<br>2:05<br>nine members<br>2:06<br>and um you know i made a speech to be<br>2:09<br>considered for chair<br>2:10<br>um and i was elected by my fellow task<br>2:13<br>force members to lead the way that&#8217;s<br>2:15<br>awesome now does the<br>2:17<br>weight of that really weigh on you<br>2:19<br>because think about if we take this all<br>2:21<br>the way to the end zone your name is<br>2:23<br>going to be etched in history has that<br>2:26<br>really sat on you yet<br>2:28<br>no it has not um we have a report that&#8217;s<br>2:31<br>going to be released soon in june and i<br>2:33<br>had to draft a forward for that report<br>2:36<br>and i think in drafting that forward it<br>2:38<br>kind of started to hit me that okay this<br>2:41<br>is real<br>2:42<br>it&#8217;s very real that&#8217;s awesome so<br>2:46<br>the last the sessions in march they were<br>2:48<br>very passionate very passionate sessions<br>2:51<br>and the reason why they were so<br>2:52<br>passionate is because the conversation<br>2:55<br>of eligibility came into play and the it<br>2:58<br>was very polarizing because one side<br>3:00<br>wanted the the party that is eligible<br>3:03<br>for reparations to be<br>3:05<br>race-based and then another side wanting<br>3:08<br>it to be lineage based now can you<br>3:10<br>explain for the audience the difference<br>3:12<br>between those two and the ramifications<br>3:15<br>of choosing race-based versus lineage<br>3:18<br>yes so the difference between<br>3:21<br>race versus lineage based so<br>3:24<br>a race-based standard for reparations<br>3:26<br>for the institution of slavery and their<br>3:28<br>legacies would<br>3:29<br>detail or entail all black people<br>3:32<br>regardless of national or immigrant<br>3:34<br>origin being eligible for reparations in<br>3:36<br>the state<br>3:38<br>a lineage-based requirement which would<br>3:41<br>entail<br>3:42<br>the only people who would be eligible<br>3:43<br>would be black americans who descend<br>3:46<br>from child slavery so<br>3:48<br>if you&#8217;re able to trace your lineage to<br>3:50<br>an enslaved or free person living in the<br>3:52<br>united states friday nights<br>3:55<br>prior to the 19th century then you would<br>3:57<br>be eligible for reparations and so from<br>4:01<br>a 5-4 decision the majority of the task<br>4:04<br>force members voted for lineage-based<br>4:06<br>approach<br>4:07<br>and so<br>4:08<br>i think some of the ramifications of a<br>4:10<br>race-based approach for me which is why<br>4:12<br>i didn&#8217;t support that one is the<br>4:15<br>constitutional law ramifications we had<br>4:18<br>a uc berkeley dean<br>4:20<br>uc berkeley law dean eric morinski come<br>4:23<br>to provide expert testimony to the task<br>4:25<br>force and essentially he stated that no<br>4:27<br>racial classifications are inherently<br>4:29<br>suspect to the u.s supreme court and<br>4:32<br>automatically trigger strict scrutiny<br>4:34<br>which is the highest form of scrutiny<br>4:36<br>under judicial review standards<br>4:38<br>and so he advocated for a lineage-based<br>4:41<br>standard because you know lineage-based<br>4:43<br>standard is not a race standard and thus<br>4:45<br>would not trigger strict scrutiny but<br>4:47<br>would trigger rational basis review<br>4:49<br>which is actually the lowest standard of<br>4:51<br>judicial review and it has the easiest<br>4:54<br>um<br>4:55<br>path forward um and potentially won&#8217;t<br>4:58<br>probably get struck down<br>5:00<br>um but i think the negative the other<br>5:02<br>negative implications around race for me<br>5:04<br>is the question of well how do you<br>5:06<br>improve your blackness a lot of people<br>5:07<br>are asking the questions of how do you<br>5:09<br>trace your lineage<br>5:11<br>but<br>5:12<br>how do you prove your blackness how you<br>5:14<br>know knowing that blackness is a<br>5:15<br>self-selecting category right anyone can<br>5:18<br>can check black on the forms you have<br>5:20<br>people like rachel dolezal and actress<br>5:23<br>mindy kaling&#8217;s brother who&#8217;s of the<br>5:25<br>indian descent who actually wrote a book<br>5:26<br>about<br>5:27<br>how he pretended to be black to get into<br>5:29<br>medical school and so now that was also<br>5:32<br>just a more another reason why i was<br>5:34<br>against the race-based approach because<br>5:37<br>of a potential proliferation<br>5:39<br>of black fishing um<br>5:41<br>but yeah and then on to add to that is<br>5:45<br>you have individuals that run from<br>5:47<br>blackness<br>5:48<br>and then when it&#8217;s time to get repaired<br>5:51<br>then they&#8217;ll run into the blackness fold<br>5:53<br>but then they&#8217;ll still take those<br>5:55<br>anti-black sentiments out into the world<br>5:57<br>but then have additional resources so it<br>6:00<br>would kind of in a lot of ways it would<br>6:02<br>be like typical rising tides lift all<br>6:05<br>boats you know<br>6:07<br>yeah so that would that<br>6:09<br>and the thing is a lot of the proponents<br>6:12<br>one of the things i wanted to ask is<br>6:14<br>what were where did your convictions<br>6:16<br>come from because you were so staunch in<br>6:19<br>in the lineage base so not only is it is<br>6:21<br>it wrong from a legal perspective but<br>6:24<br>from a social perspective how do you<br>6:26<br>feel about it because<br>6:28<br>there was a lot of like guilt trip and<br>6:30<br>shaming tactics used against the<br>6:33<br>individuals that were for a<br>6:34<br>lineage-based approach so why were you<br>6:37<br>so why<br>6:38<br>why is your conviction so strongly<br>6:40<br>outside of the legal ramifications and<br>6:42<br>so outside of the legal ramifications<br>6:45<br>one reason i was so passionate about it<br>6:48<br>was that secretary webber who was the<br>6:49<br>lead author of the bill she came to<br>6:51<br>provide extra testimony to the task<br>6:53<br>force as well in january of 2022 and<br>6:56<br>essentially she says that her intent<br>6:59<br>was for the bill to be lineage-based so<br>7:01<br>along with her testimony<br>7:04<br>the legal testimony<br>7:07<br>but to your point more directly if you<br>7:09<br>look at the statute<br>7:10<br>it&#8217;s very clear in terms of who the<br>7:12<br>state of california is authorized to<br>7:14<br>apologize to doesn&#8217;t say the state of<br>7:16<br>california&#8217;s authorized apologize to all<br>7:18<br>black people it verbatim says to free<br>7:21<br>african slaves and their descendants<br>7:23<br>where they&#8217;re talking about the task<br>7:25<br>force um<br>7:26<br>requirement to develop reparation<br>7:28<br>proposals even for contemporary or<br>7:30<br>present day harms<br>7:32<br>it&#8217;s still tailored and uniquely<br>7:34<br>tailored to you know those freed african<br>7:36<br>slaves and descendants and their<br>7:37<br>descendants it doesn&#8217;t say all black<br>7:39<br>people and so you know i i as a you know<br>7:43<br>a descendant of child saver myself you<br>7:45<br>know<br>7:45<br>i have my own conviction my own you know<br>7:48<br>personal convictions but<br>7:50<br>i mean just more objectively i think the<br>7:53<br>stock the statute itself<br>7:55<br>um the legal advice and<br>7:58<br>the legislative intent from secretary<br>8:00<br>weber was definitive for me that makes<br>8:02<br>sense that makes sense so staying true<br>8:04<br>to the spirit of ab3121<br>8:07<br>all together so that&#8217;s perfect so and<br>8:10<br>april 13th i believe that&#8217;s your next<br>8:12<br>session correct yes so the task force<br>8:15<br>meets again but for the first time in<br>8:17<br>person<br>8:19<br>april 13th and april 14th at third<br>8:21<br>baptist church which is vice chair<br>8:24<br>brown&#8217;s uh church where he&#8217;s a pastor<br>8:26<br>nice and so you&#8217;re going to be talking<br>8:28<br>about<br>8:29<br>how the educational system has been<br>8:31<br>weaponized against us like for instance<br>8:34<br>the school-to-prison pipeline right<br>8:36<br>that&#8217;s a way to funnel us into a system<br>8:38<br>where then they can use us as<br>8:40<br>slave labor again so so what what is the<br>8:43<br>takeaways from this session how how is<br>8:46<br>the findings from this session going to<br>8:48<br>be used to embolden our reparations<br>8:51<br>claim<br>8:52<br>absolutely so at the april 13th and<br>8:55<br>april 14th hearings as you noted we&#8217;ll<br>8:57<br>be having a series of panels on<br>8:59<br>education from you know pre-k to 12th<br>9:02<br>grade um a specific panel as you noted<br>9:05<br>on the scooter visit pipeline and even a<br>9:08<br>panel on you know college education<br>9:10<br>professional education<br>9:12<br>where we hope to hear from you know<br>9:14<br>college students but also black college<br>9:16<br>administrators<br>9:17<br>about what the state can do<br>9:19<br>to provide reparations in the<br>9:21<br>educational context for black american<br>9:23<br>citizen from child slavery understanding<br>9:26<br>the history of<br>9:27<br>you know us in this country with<br>9:29<br>education you know when we were enslaved<br>9:32<br>we were forbidden to read and write and<br>9:35<br>you know how do we make repairs for<br>9:38<br>the educational gaps and funding and<br>9:41<br>um the<br>9:42<br>not seeing ourselves in the curriculum<br>9:45<br>and so you know so many questions and so<br>9:47<br>many issues will probably be<br>9:49<br>discussed at the april 13th and 14th<br>9:52<br>hearing we hope that whatever is<br>9:54<br>discussed the nine member task force is<br>9:56<br>able to<br>9:58<br>find some solid reparation proposals to<br>10:01<br>implement into our report<br>10:03<br>awesome<br>10:04<br>and so<br>10:05<br>to pivot away from that point<br>10:08<br>when we saw<br>10:10<br>you and and uh<br>10:12<br>javon lewis and scott lewis<br>10:15<br>we really felt like we had advocates for<br>10:17<br>us in the room can you talk about the<br>10:20<br>importance of us being in those rooms so<br>10:22<br>that we can make sure that our agenda<br>10:25<br>and our opinion is being uh asserted<br>10:28<br>into the conversation yeah absolutely so<br>10:31<br>i&#8217;m a repertory justice scholar i study<br>10:33<br>international criminal law and wrote a<br>10:35<br>thesis on repertory justice for the<br>10:38<br>transatlantic slave trade the<br>10:39<br>institution of slavery and its legacies<br>10:42<br>and under international human rights law<br>10:44<br>there is a common understanding<br>10:46<br>that repertory justice processes are<br>10:48<br>supposed to be victim-led<br>10:50<br>right so in this domestic human rights<br>10:53<br>context that is reparation for the<br>10:55<br>institution of slavery in the united<br>10:57<br>states<br>10:58<br>as a repertory justice scholar i think<br>11:00<br>it&#8217;s important to center the voices of<br>11:03<br>the victims and the victims in the<br>11:05<br>situation are the descendants of shadow<br>11:08<br>slavery and sharecropping and<br>11:11<br>jim crow and the new jim crow and so<br>11:13<br>that&#8217;s why i will always advocate for<br>11:16<br>you know extended public comment<br>11:18<br>chats to be open<br>11:20<br>um<br>11:21<br>there are some issues with that<br>11:23<br>that folks have been following but i&#8217;m<br>11:25<br>always going to be a staunch advocate in<br>11:27<br>terms of making sure that you know the<br>11:30<br>victims um in this process are leading<br>11:33<br>the way so what would your advice to<br>11:36<br>young<br>11:37<br>black american descendants of the<br>11:40<br>enslaved<br>11:41<br>what would be your advice to the young<br>11:42<br>boys and girls that are thinking about<br>11:44<br>getting into civics but they&#8217;re not sure<br>11:46<br>uh you know the economic prospects of it<br>11:49<br>or they&#8217;re not sure<br>11:51<br>the viability of it what&#8217;s your advice<br>11:53<br>to them<br>11:54<br>well my advice would be to stay in<br>11:56<br>school<br>11:57<br>stay engaged right google is you know a<br>12:00<br>free option where you can always look<br>12:03<br>into current events<br>12:05<br>um into<br>12:06<br>current events that may interest you<br>12:08<br>but again stay engaged in this process<br>12:10<br>because this is something that i was<br>12:12<br>actually thinking about earlier this<br>12:14<br>morning<br>12:15<br>you know what could a reparation<br>12:16<br>proposal be<br>12:17<br>uh for you know black americans disabled<br>12:20<br>child slavery to amplify and boost our<br>12:22<br>political participation like can the<br>12:24<br>state fund you know model government<br>12:27<br>program for black youth so they&#8217;re able<br>12:29<br>to understand very early on about the<br>12:32<br>political process on the local state and<br>12:34<br>national level and obviously for black<br>12:36<br>american adults you know could a<br>12:38<br>potential reparation proposal be you<br>12:39<br>know state funding to amplify and<br>12:42<br>support potential governmental<br>12:44<br>candidates as well who are black and<br>12:46<br>very descended of child slavery<br>12:47<br>absolutely and i think that some of that<br>12:49<br>participation we&#8217;re going to see a<br>12:51<br>natural uptick in it as politics start<br>12:54<br>working for us more and more like in<br>12:56<br>that chat room there was i believe on<br>12:58<br>the march 30th session there was a<br>13:00<br>thousand people in there<br>13:02<br>there probably has never been a thousand<br>13:04<br>people in any in any like municipal<br>13:07<br>meeting a thousand black people there so<br>13:09<br>it&#8217;s like we hardly see something<br>13:10<br>working for us like<br>13:12<br>let&#8217;s get engaged so<br>13:14<br>yeah so thank you for that um and it&#8217;s<br>13:17<br>important that you know we get involved<br>13:19<br>in civics and we make sure our opinions<br>13:21<br>are being asserted in those rooms now<br>13:24<br>what&#8217;s the best way for the community to<br>13:26<br>stay involved<br>13:27<br>as this task force proceeds<br>13:30<br>yes so you can always follow me on<br>13:32<br>twitter at camila b moore<br>13:35<br>k-a-m-i-l-a-h-v<br>13:37<br>m-o-r-e or you can obviously in<br>13:41<br>please follow our website<br>13:44<br>oag.ca.gov forward slash<br>13:46<br>ab3121 you can follow the conversation<br>13:49<br>on twitter by searching hashtag ab3121<br>13:53<br>or california reparations but stay tuned<br>13:56<br>because we have a community engagement<br>13:58<br>plan process that will be rolling out<br>14:00<br>soon so we&#8217;ll have additional resources<br>14:03<br>for people to get engaged great and last<br>14:06<br>question so what&#8217;s the timeline in all<br>14:08<br>this so once you know you you do your<br>14:11<br>exploration you figure out the the<br>14:14<br>injured party what what how they were<br>14:17<br>injured and how they should be repaired<br>14:20<br>what&#8217;s the turnaround from in in in<br>14:22<br>modern new black me apartments from<br>14:25<br>exploration to cut the check what&#8217;s the<br>14:27<br>timeline between<br>14:29<br>that too so the sunset of the task force<br>14:32<br>is july 2023 so that&#8217;s when we&#8217;re<br>14:35<br>mandated to turn over our official<br>14:38<br>reparation proposals to the legislature<br>14:40<br>it&#8217;s up to the california legislature to<br>14:42<br>then adopt them<br>14:44<br>um but it&#8217;s a really quick caveat member<br>14:47<br>writer jones sawyer who is an elected<br>14:48<br>official and is a part of the task force<br>14:50<br>he introduced legislation to extend the<br>14:53<br>life of the task force so instead of<br>14:56<br>july 2023 we may potentially<br>14:59<br>uh not end our responsibilities until<br>15:01<br>july 2024 so we&#8217;ll see about that<br>15:04<br>um but to answer your question more<br>15:06<br>directly<br>15:07<br>you know it&#8217;s up to the california state<br>15:09<br>legislature to look at these proposals<br>15:12<br>and get to work and turn them into law<br>15:16<br>okay awesome well i really appreciate<br>15:18<br>your time i really appreciate you uh<br>15:21<br>taking the time to talk to the people<br>15:23<br>and interview with us it&#8217;s been awesome<br>15:25<br>thank you camila thank you<br>15:28<br>pre-order our lineage matters crewneck<br>15:30<br>at shop.6zeros.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kamilah Moore is the Chairperson of the California Reparations Task Force. 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