California's reparations task force will meet in person for the first time in a year

California's reparations task force will meet in person for the first time in a year

Transcript¹

California's first-in-the-nation Reparations Task Force is determining exactly how Black residents have been harmed by the legacy² of slavery. The two-day event begins Wednesday.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

California's reparations task force is resuming its work on what the state owes Black Californians. From member station KQED, Sara Hossaini reports from the place where the task force meets today.

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR³: (Singing) For he promised me...

SARA HOSSAINI, BYLINE⁴: The crowd is sparse⁵ here at the historic Third Baptist Church on Palm Sunday. Preaching, as he has for 46 years, is Dr. Amos Brown.

AMOS BROWN: Live not in despair but in hope. This word that has been delivered this morning...

HOSSAINI: Brown studied under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is an NAACP board member. His latest role is vice⁶ chair of California's reparations task force, which was established through legislation back in 2020.

BROWN: It's a given; when you take away opportunity from people, you create chaos⁷. You create carnage. You create conflict.

HOSSAINI: Brown's congregation is located in San Francisco's Fillmore District, once known as the Harlem of the West. At its peak, around 4,000 African Americans worshipped here. Many of them had come to find work at the shipyards during World War II. Black people moved here in large numbers after Japanese Americans were forced into internment⁸ camps. Black residents had begun to build a thriving community until the city embarked⁹ on decades of what it called redevelopment that demolished¹⁰ Black neighborhoods because white government leaders called them slums.

BROWN: After they had become successful, here comes the body politic¹¹ saying you've gone too far; you've gone far enough.

HOSSAINI: Brown says it's this history that's at the heart of the reparations task force's work. For 10 months, the statewide group has heard testimony¹² on slavery's legacy and how it's rippled¹³ into almost every aspect of life ever since, from lack of access to housing and bank loans to environmentally unsafe neighborhoods and biased¹⁴ policing to inadequate¹⁵ health care. This week's meeting will consider educational disparities.

CAROL O’GILVIE: I taught here in San Francisco and Berkeley, and discrimination was prominent.

HOSSAINI: Carol O’Gilvie was a teacher at the time of desegregation busing efforts. She says the inequity continued anyway.

O’GILVIE: You could walk down the hallway of a classroom, and you could tell what students were - the low-performing students, oh, they were all Black.

HOSSAINI: O’Gilvie says reparations could be one way of addressing a history of educational disparity. The task force will outline these and other harms in a detailed¹⁶ report set to be published in June. One issue it's already decided¹⁷ - who should get reparations. Some proponents¹⁸ say all Black people should be eligible¹⁹. But Marcus Champion, with the Coalition²⁰ for a Just and Equitable²¹ California, disagrees. He helped the task force hone in on descendants of slaves and free Blacks who lived in the U.S. before the 1900s.

MARCUS CHAMPION: This is, in essence, a class-action harm that's being examined.

HOSSAINI: Champion says one way to atone²² is through individual cash payments; another way could include free college tuition as a way to make up for stolen or lost opportunities. He says reparations could create a strong Black middle class and close the extreme racial wealth gap.

CHAMPION: The first step to changing the entire nation and making America all of what the Constitution says is supposed to be - No. 1, you give recompense to people that you have structurally²³ held back for generations.

HOSSAINI: The California task force is slated²⁴ to end its work next year, when it'll deliver a final reparations blueprint²⁵ to state lawmakers. From there, the legislature will decide how and whether to implement²⁶ the task force's recommendations. For NPR News, I'm Sara Hossaini in San Francisco.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

8 internment   

n.拘留

参考例句：

• Certainly the recent attacks against the internment camps are evidence enough. 很明显，最近营地遭受到的攻击就是一个足好的证明。 来自互联网
• The chapters on the internment are Both readaBle and well researched. 这些关于拘留的章节不仅具可读性而且研究得很透彻。 来自互联网

9 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

10 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

11 politic   

adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政

参考例句：

• He was too politic to quarrel with so important a personage.他很聪明，不会与这么重要的人争吵。
• The politic man tried not to offend people.那个精明的人尽量不得罪人。

12 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

13 rippled   

使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The lake rippled gently. 湖面轻轻地泛起涟漪。
• The wind rippled the surface of the cornfield. 微风吹过麦田，泛起一片麦浪。

14 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

15 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

16 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

17 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

18 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

19 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

20 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

21 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。

22 atone   

v.赎罪，补偿

参考例句：

• He promised to atone for his crime.他承诺要赎自己的罪。
• Blood must atone for blood.血债要用血来还。

23 structurally   

在结构上

参考例句：

• The house roof was (structurally) unsound. 这屋顶（结构）不牢固。
• Pinhole on shot-hole damage is never structurally significant. 针孔和蛀洞所造成的危害对结构的影响不大。

24 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

25 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

26 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。