Eleven US mayors — from Los Angeles to tiny Tullahassee, Oklahoma — have pledged to pay reparations for slavery to a small group of black residents in their cities, saying their aim is to set an example for the federal government on how a nationwide program could work.
The mayors had no details on how much it would cost, who would pay for it or how people would be chosen.
All of those details would be worked out with the help of local commissions comprised of representatives from black-led organizations set up to advise the mayor of each city.
However, the mayors said they are committed to paying reparations instead of just talking about them.
“Black Americans don’t need another study that sits on a shelf,” said St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s first black female mayor and a member of the group. “We need decisive action to address the racial wealth gap holding communities back across our country.”
The effort comes as Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the US, has become a federal holiday. US President Joe Biden signed a bill on Thursday that was passed by the US Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19, as a holiday.
Slavery officially ended in the US in 1865 with the adoption of the 13th amendment to the US constitution.
However, it has never passed.
Friday’s announcement marks the largest city-led effort at paying reparations to date, but it is not the first. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors in March voted to appoint a 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
The group of mayors, dubbed Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, is led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
Their stated goal is for these reparations programs to “serve as high-profile demonstrations for how the country can more quickly move from conversation to action on reparations for Black Americans,” according to the group’s Web site.
“Let me be clear: Cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” Garcetti told a news conference on Friday to announce the group. “When we have the laboratories of cities show that there is much more to embrace than to fear, we know that we can inspire national action as well.”
Choosing a full-fledged confrontation with the US due to the loss of a megacontract for submarines for Australia, France is making a risky bet and other nations are not rushing to its defense. After Australia renounced its deal for conventional submarines in favor of US nuclear-powered ones, France took the extraordinary step of pulling its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra for consultations. Bertrand Badie, an international relations professor at the Sciences Po institute in Paris, said France had put itself in a position where it can only appear to be backing down or losing face once its ambassador returns to the US,
Could delivering COVID-19 immunity directly to the nose — the area of the body via which it is mostly transmitted — help conquer the pandemic? The WHO says clinical trials are under way to evaluate eight nasal spray vaccines that target COVID-19. The most advanced effort so far by China’s Xiamen University, the University of Hong Kong and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy has completed phase 2 trials. “When the virus infects someone, it usually gets in through the nose,” said researcher Nathalie Mielcarek, who is working with the Lille Pasteur Institute to develop a nasal spray vaccine against whooping cough. “The
PLANNING TO REOPEN: Amid 1,607 new COVID-19 cases, the country is making a shift away from lockdowns, acknowledging that outbreaks will happen Australia reported 1,607 new coronavirus cases yesterday as states and territories gradually shift from trying to eliminate outbreaks to living with the virus. Victoria, home to about a quarter of Australia’s 25 million people, recorded 507 cases as Premier Daniel Andrews said a weeks-long lockdown will end once 70 percent of those 16 and older are fully vaccinated, whether or not there are new cases. Andrews said the state might reach that vaccination threshold around Oct. 26. About 43 percent of Victorians have been fully vaccinated, 46 percent nationwide. “We will do so cautiously, but make no mistake, we are opening this place
OLD WAYS: The Ministry of Women’s Affairs also seems to have closed, as its sign was replaced with one for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice The Taliban have effectively banned girls from secondary education in Afghanistan, by ordering high schools to reopen only for boys. Girls were not mentioned in Friday’s announcement, which means boys would be back at their desks next week after a one-month hiatus, while girls would still be stuck at home. The Taliban Ministry of Education said that secondary-school classes for boys in grades 7 to 12 would resume yesterday, the start of the Afghan week. “All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions,” the statement said. The future of girls and female teachers, stuck at home since the Taliban took
RSS