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California's first-in-the-nation task force on reparations is at a crossroads, with members divided on which Black Americans should be eligible for compensation. Some want to limit financial and other compensation to descendants of enslaved people, while others say that all Black people in the U.S., regardless of lineage, suffer from systemic racism in housing, education and employment, reports the Associated Press. The committee is not even a year into its two-year process and there is no compensation plan of any kind on the table.

Kamilah Moore, the committee's chair, favors eligibility based on lineage, rather than race. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber argued for prioritizing descendants for generations of forced labor, broken family ties and police terrorism. Critics say that California has no obligation to pay up, given that the state did not practice slavery and did not enforce Jim Crow laws. However, reparations defenders argue that, despite representing only 5 percent of the state's population, Black residents are over-represented in jails, prison and homeless populations, and continue to face discrimination in the form of home appraisals.