Black Californians Owed $800 Billion in Reparations, Economists Suggest

Black Californians are owed upward of $800 billion due to decades of discriminatory and racist practices that set back generations -- so say experts in a formal suggestion.

Gov. Gavin Newsom spearheaded efforts, starting in 2020, to determine what African-Americans in the Golden State might stand to receive if Cali decides to pay reparations ... and this astronomical number is what a group of economists is spitting out.

There's a whole task force dedicated to this issue, BTW ... consisting of state lawmakers focused on 5 key areas -- the taking of property by the government, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, housing discrimination, mass incarceration/over-policing and general health.

Mind you, the economists here considered only 3 of these categories in coming up with the $800B figure -- leaving out property taken and the devaluation of businesses for now -- which means the final estimate could be much higher. In any case, the task force will hear this new total Wednesday and take it under consideration in a scheduled meeting.

Considering there are about 2,537,000 Black residents in California -- based on 2022 U.S. Census numbers -- that would translate to each getting about $315k, more or less. That number could be different, however, based on criteria for who receives reparations.

Those would include being a certain age (18), being a resident of CA for a certain amount of time and being a descendant of an enslaved person and/or freed Black people in the U.S. as of the 19th century ... among other benchmarks, the state of California could set.

Of course, opponents would cite the obvious in pushing back on this -- namely, California was never a slave state. Also, they say taxpayers shouldn't have to foot this kind of bill for practices that were in place a long time ago ... even though Newsom and co. say otherwise.

Now, whether the reparations suggested are actually enacted is a whole other ball game. The task force would need to agree on a final number, and then send it over to the state legislature ... where it would have to be drafted into a bill and passed in both chambers. After that, Newsom himself would have to sign it.