*The City of Ashville, North Carolina has passed a decision to provide reparations for Black American residents of the city.
Council members passed the resolution with a 7-0 vote on Tuesday, according to the Asheville-Citizen Times, via MadameNoire.
“Hundreds of years of black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today,” said Councilman Keith Young during Tuesday’s Council meeting. “It is simply not enough to remove statutes. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature.”
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Here’s more from MadameNoire:
However, instead of a cash payment the initiative will instead invest in Black ran businesses and programs dedicated to help improve the life of Black communities. It would also include improving the number of Black homeowners, access to affordable housing, and strategies to help close the wealth gap, along with disparities in education and health care. Local activists have also asked that the local police department be defunded.
And the BBC notes that: “Asheville becomes one of the first US cities to approve reparations, joining the city of Evanston, Illinois, which approved a reparations measure in 2019. the outlet writes. “Evanston is taxing the legal cannabis industry to help the black community.”
The resolution also apologizes for the city government’s role in slavery.
According to the bill, the money will go towards “strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice”.
Rob Thomas, a community activist, told NPR that the resolution is “asking you to look at the facts, and saying, yeah, this happened”.
“This many people died. This much money was taken out of the black community and it would equal this much today,” he continued. “We’re asking for people to do what is right.”
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