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Login to view embedded media https://www.thecoli.com/ As talk of reparations ripples through the federal and local governments nationwide, Evanston, Ill., has become the first city in the United States to put money in the hands of Black residents affected by years of discrimination.
“I’m excited to see that over 100 municipalities have followed in their inspiration and what's happened in Evanston. We all look forward to seeing more legislation put into law and then into practice, and then disbursed,” Robin Rue Simmons, the founder and executive director of First Repair and chairperson of the city’s reparations committee, told Yahoo News.
Simmons, a former alderwoman in Evanston, which has a 16% Black population and is located about 12 miles north of Chicago, has been a pioneer in bringing reparations to one of the Black communities affected by the aftermath of slavery in the United States.
“Most federal policy is implemented with a spark in a local community, a grassroots leader. Every other area of government we look at hyperlocally. And then it trickles up to our congressional leaders,” she said.
But Simmons recalled just having her own city in mind when she started out on the journey of repairing harm to the dwindling number of Black residents in the community.
Robin Rue Simmons poses in her living room. Robin Rue Simmons, then an alderwoman of Evanston's Fifth Ward, in 2021 with a photograph of her mother, aunt and grandmother. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar) “I'm a part of a village, the Fifth Ward of Evanston, a historically Black community, and we were losing our residents, who happened to be my neighbors, my friends and family,” Simmons said. “So the spark was the exodus of Black families, the declining homeownership rates and the widening racial gaps.”
'This isn’t over': Demand for national reparations intensifies after dismissal of Tulsa lawsuit
In months of research to bring reparations to her city, Simmons soon found out there was no other local reparations initiative on which to model an approach to the problem. Evanston started from ground zero in 2019, she said, to consider best practices for repairing harm done to its Black community.
Here’s how the city is now putting cash into the hands of its Black citizens.
What are the reparations?
Simmons said Evanston used the widening race, education and wealth gaps, as well as the mass exodus of Black residents, as markers to address the economic and educational harm they had suffered. By consensus, she said, the Black community decided that housing should be an area of priority for redress.
"Our harm report also showed that housing is an area in which we were harmed and stripped away of wealth and opportunity,” Simmons explained. “So we've started with housing.”
The Restorative Housing Program was initially funded from $10 million that came from a city sales tax on recreational cannabis.
In 2022, the city’s reparations committee started giving $25,000 to about 620 applicants, in the form of vouchers toward the purchase of a home, mortgage assistance or home renovations. The benefits are also transferable to descendants. An additional $10 million was added to the reparations pot from real estate transfer taxes. This year, the committee has expanded from vouchers to include cash, overcoming some dissent from the community and taxation hurdles.
A sign at the First Congregational Church of Evanston reads: Black Lives Matter, To God and To Us. The First Congregational Church of Evanston, UCC. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) “The biggest challenge has been staffing IT and logistics in terms of taxation. How will certain types of benefits, namely cash, impact residents that are receiving other government-funded benefits and not strip away those very important benefits like housing and food access and health care and so on?” Simmons said. “So that took years for us to get to a place with confidence.”
Who is eligible?
Residents who are receiving reparations are described as "ancestors," defined as African American or Black individuals who were at least 18 years old and living in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, or as descendants of Evanston residents living during that time. During this period, Black residents were victims of housing discrimination as a result of early city zoning laws.
Simmons says that addressing the economic disadvantage associated with factors like redlining and overcrowding is an acknowledgment that these ordinances were harmful to the Black community and were responsible for racial segregation, as well as other disparities.
Price tag on reparations for Black descendants of slaves sparks debate, as Democrat proposes $14 trillion
“To separate the harms to Evanston allowed us to have a very specific injury, with a very specific way to measure the harm, and therefore a very specific way to determine eligibility, which is everybody Black in Evanston that was here during that period and their descendants,” Simmons said.
Jo-Ann Cromer seated on her couch, with photos of her family on the walls in the background. Jo-Ann Cromer, a lifelong Evanston resident who applied for reparations, in her home on in 2021. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar) How are the funds being disbursed?
Residents can pick up their checks at the city’s Civic Center. Simmons has also requested that checks be hand-delivered to Evanston residents, with a thank-you note offering an opportunity for further engagement.
She said that along with the check, the reparations committee would hold a ceremonial dinner with elected and community leaders and a plaque would be given to each of the recipients as a reminder to hold their leaders accountable.
What’s next
The application process is closed now, as the committee prepares to develop a new program or extend the reparations program. Simmons said the next phase will focus on addressing the education gap.
“My hope is that although this is a 10-year commitment, that future city councils will prioritize reparations and continue the work even into perpetuity, or as long as it takes for us to address our racial gaps,” she said.
These are just my casual thoughts about my experience. We been pretty vocal in the past on our broadcasts about how we disagree with Killer Mike's political moves from partnering with Bernie Sanders (who has been publicly against reparations for black people), to standing next to Keisha Lance-Bottoms during the BLM riots, to helping create a bank that "brings together black and brown people", and using odd wording like "Latinx community". smh. But musically, it's been interesting seeing how he survived the music industry for 20+ years from his co-sign with Outkast, solo career, Run the Jewels albums, and back to solo. It's quite a feat considering artists these days usually burn out within a season. He has always been a good artist, but never placed among my top 10 favorite rappers. But he's solid. He has released plenty of songs I liked over the years. So it's very surprising to me in 2023, a year where it took a half a year for a hiphop album to be #1, Killer Mike released "Michael", a self-proclaimed generational album and to me, arguably the best album of the year so far. Even though he has very little competition in terms of quality hip hop albums this year, he has set a VERY high bar to match him. With that said, it was definitely an album I wanted to see live and I knew it would be well worth the money.
Instead of discussing the concert itself, I want to share my evening as a whole and how it all came together at his concert. So last night, Equis, myself, and another friend of ours met up to see Killer Mike live in concert. ATL traffic is horrible, parking prices are ridiculous, and car break-ins are rampant these days, so we decided to take MARTA, the local train service, downtown to meet up to eat and go to the venue. It's been a long time since I've taken the train downtown to Five Points which is central to the downtown area, and historically used to be a place where slave auctions used to be held in the heart of Atlanta.
But growing up, I knew it to be a place of bustling retail spaces, filled with interesting people, food, and more. Home of the infamous Underground Atlanta and the original World of Coca-Cola. It was always a lively spot for native ATLiens heading to and from work and for tourists. But not today. These days, the streets were sadly empty at 6pm on a hot, humid Thursday evening. When exiting the train station, I didn't hear any music, I couldn't hear the water from the fountains. There were only a few people on the street. They were either waiting on a bus to get home or a random junkie wandering aimlessly on the sidewalk. The air smelled of car fumes and piss. The fountains that I used to hear were dry. No water in sight.
Downtown Atlanta is dead.
It was so disappointing to see. My friends insisted that we visit the Underground to see what it's like. I reluctantly went because if it was this dead on the street, I knew going underground would be worse. And when we got there, it was worse than I imagined. No more kiosks, all the shops were gone. Just a tattoo parlor and a lone restaurant in there called Dolo's pizza. And there was only one person in there. He was dolo. lol
I suggested if we wanted to find food, it was best to walk towards Centennial Olympic Park and the CNN Center (which they recently moved out to relocate to New York). And it happens to be in the direction of the venue. So we walked and continued to see how dead this place has become. Reminiscing on "old Atlanta", if anyone told us 20 years ago that the city would turn into this wasteland, we wouldn't have believed it. It really had us wondering why so many people continue to move here. There's nothing appealing about this place anymore. To me, it's a true representation of what's going on in our country right now. Equis and I did a broadcast about a year ago explaining how Yah is pulling his creativity from this place..America, the daughter of Babylon. Everything's mid.. the culture, music, movies, all of it. Now, we physically see it. On top of that, writers and actors both in Hollywood are on strike. We're living in some interesting times.
So after eating and mourning the death of "old Atlanta", we finally walked to the Killer Mike concert which was held at a huge old church called the Tabernacle, which was the perfect venue for his concert, but I'll explain that later.
As we entered the "church", we were immediately welcomed to the sounds of classic ATL bass music and classic ATL songs provided by the dj on stage. Just as we were discussing the death of "old Atlanta", we found it here, in the Tabernacle, revived from the dead.
It was a crowded, mixed multitude of people here. Great vibes. Everyone's chillin. The stage was simply decorated with christian-like podium in the center and real white roses lining the stage. It was set up similar to a traveling pentecostal revival. The tour is called "The High & Holy Tour" so the setup was fitting. With no opening acts, Killer Mike arrived on stage with his small choir called "Midnight Revival". He immediately went into the intro song of the album, Down by Law keeping the energy up.
Overall, the concert was great. Nonstop energy. Killer Mike showcased his experienced stage presence, and treated us to an "old Atlanta" experience by not only performing records from the current album, but some classics as well and brought out surprise guests, Cee-lo, Big Boi, T.I. and Fabo (of D4L) to solidify the old Atlanta experience.
It was an interesting night to see the city as it is now, and experiencing the energy of how the city of Atlanta used to be. Oh how the times have changed.
I don't know when this started. Might have just happened. I heard about it and was like... For real? I guess Twitter is starting to monetize people but it is causing some issues cause the people getting monetized were stealing other people's content and now they are about to make money from it. LOL
The dude that made 25k is some political reply guy or something. I can't remember his name. Brian something maybe. He gets tons of people arguing in his comments which I guess is why he is getting paid so much.
I know that Twitter is a hellscape but it might be worth looking into if anyone here has a decent amount of followers with an active feed. I am all about the side hustle. I am not popular enough on there to even attempt it but some of ya'll might be. Why not try to make some extra money from it?
You need to have 500+ followers, be verified, be 18+, and follow some sort of high-profile accounts.
Login to view embedded media Just another reason for me to stay out of Walmart ..... If you need your cheap quality merchandise fix, ☕ I recommend ordering online get it deliver to your door. Or subscription service preferably We Buy Black.
I never heard this actually. I don't care if he is or not. What I don't approve if he did was extorting access to fame for some funny business. I don't believe 'Pac did shyt. Will? Hmm....not as strong. He was married (white actress from old 70s show The Mod Squad) and his daughter is a fairly well known actress.
Pretty Good Lawyer/Detective show with a peek behind the curtain of how this so called justice system works. Crime Drama/social aspects the writers seem to be getting it right catch it before Netflix cancels it!!! (2 Seasons)
My gut tells me anyone residing in California needs to get the heck out of there ASAP. Get your reparations check, and then leave, quick. They’ve discovered a water-spouting opening under the ocean off the coast of Cali that experts believe is a sign of an incoming L9 mega quake. Oregon isn’t safe either. Keep ya heads up!
I didn't think much of it but a lot of people are talking about it and it took the number one spot as of Monday I think it was. Even though it is not available in all movie theaters. My mom and dad are going to see it this weekend.
What is making me want to see it is the media coming out against it. Like it is based on a true story of how corrupt and disgusting America is when it comes to child trafficking and it sheds light on the problem on the world stage. Why would media outlets be so against this? It seems odd that Hollywood didn't want this movie to even come out and they had to fight for like 5 years to get it released.
I feel like the pedo problem is even bigger than we could imagine. WTF!
It's that Black Owned Business Review! Today, we visit Groomed By Adrian Pet Salon in New Orleans. A place we're your family pet or neighborhood White Supremacist can take a long hot flea bath.....
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