“It stems from this idea that reparations is for an aggrieved minority that’s undeserving, and this is a handout,” he said. Tamaki said, however, that there continues to be a lack of understanding around how the racism and discrimination of slavery evolved into different modern-day forms. Tamaki said the issue wasn’t always well received when it pertained to the Japanese American community either, with some reluctant to bring up a painful time in their lives, and others fearing that such a policy would have little impact when “they already lost so much.” Across both efforts, outsiders often argue that the injustices happened in the past and therefore should be “let go.” adults saying descendants of enslaved people should be compensated in some way, according to Pew Research. Today, reparations for Black Americans elicit mixed feelings from the public, with roughly 3 in 10 U.S. In both cases, obtaining reparations has felt like somewhat of an uphill battle. “What woke us up was Martin Luther King on national television, leading peaceful demonstrators and being sicced on by dogs and being beaten by police with clubs … just to be able to go to a school, just to be able to sit in a restaurant or be in an integrated bus, and that was followed by a more militant call for Black power.” And we called ourselves ‘Orientals,’ and we just assumed we were second-class citizens,” Tamaki said. The term ‘Asian American’ was not coined yet. And though the acts of discrimination stung, he said for a long time, his family “just accepted it.” Don Tamaki at a meeting of California's reparations task force. Neighbors demanded that his family move from the area because of their ethnicity. 7 and being accused of bombing Pearl Harbor. Tamaki’s family, as well as many other Japanese Americans, had not always been open about their painful experiences in the camps or the enduring racism they contended with after the war, he said. United States, which upheld the constitutionality of the forced relocation and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. The attorney, then 31, was part of the legal team that helped reopen and overturn the landmark World War II-era Supreme Court case Korematsu v. MTYKL Foundationįorty years ago, Tamaki was serving on another task force of sorts. Don Tamaki, bottom center, was part of the legal team that helped reopen and overturn the landmark World War II-era Supreme Court case Korematsu v. Even after slavery was abolished in 1865, generations of Black Californians contended with discrimination that prevented them from establishing economic security and freedom from racial oppression and terror.
While California entered the Union as a nonslave state in 1850, thousands of enslaved Black people were taken there in the mid-1800s, typically by plantation owners, to work in the gold mines. Tamaki and his fellow task force members are scheduled to present a range of recommendations to the state Legislature on Thursday, after more than two years of public hearings and research.
0 kommentar(er)
