Today marks a historic day for the District of Columbia with the first ever public hearing on reparations. Bill B25-0125, “Reparations Foundation Fund and Taskforce Establishment Act of 2023” proposes to establish a task force and a reparations foundation fund to start the long overdue process of addressing the harm Black District residents endured during slavery and seek justice for their descendants.
Diverse City Fund joined fellow philanthropic partners If Foundation, a foundation for radical possibility, Hill-Snowdon Foundation, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers , ABFE- A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities among other community leaders to support this historic bill.
Read DC Fund’s testimony by Tamira Benitez, Executive Director, below.
Public Hearing on DC B25-0125
“Reparations Foundation Fund and Taskforce Establishment Act of 2023”
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Good morning, Chairman McDuffie and Committee members. My name is Tamira Benitez, and I am the Executive Director of Diverse City Fund. We are a grassroots community-led grantmaker that resources changemakers of color in DC. I am also a nearly lifelong Washingtonian who made DC my home after being displaced from El Salvador by the US federal government-financed 13-year civil war.
Diverse City Fund is dedicated to racial and social justice. We invest financial and social capital to transform systems in Washington DC. We fund and support efforts led by and rooted in communities of color to realize liberation, spark solutions, and organize against all kinds of oppression to create systemic change. Since 2011, we have resourced over 600 grassroots projects and redistributed almost $3 million. Diverse City Fund exists because racial justice has not been achieved in DC. We support the groups doing racial justice work, often with little or no money, as they cannot access government grants or traditional philanthropy. Racial justice work costs a lot of money.
As a community-led funder, DC Fund strongly supports the DC Bill B25-0125, Reparations Foundation Fund, and Taskforce Establishment Act 2023, and I would like to offer recommendations.
The history of systemic racism and oppression against Black Americans in the United States is undeniable, and it is time for Washington, DC, to address these injustices. We have all seen the studies that highlight the staggering differences between the wealth of white and Black families. The systemic racism we still find in DC continues to grow the racial gap and we must work to address the systemic harming of Black Washingtonians and people of color. However, the intergenerational wealth that dates back to slavery also needs to be accounted for, and Bill B25-0125 is a positive step toward addressing the root cause of wealth disparities.
The DC Reparations bill would establish a Task Force to study the impacts of slavery and systemic racism on Black Americans in the District of Columbia and to develop proposals for reparations to redress these harms. I recommend that the Mayor and the Council adopt a community-led approach to appointing the nine Task Force members so that District residents have a say in who develops and recommends proposals on their behalf. The bill says the Task Force will hold its first meeting no later than June 1, 2024 (line 187), and it shall sunset after December 31st, 2025 (line 221). Given the weight of the topic the Task Force will address, I strongly recommend a longer timeline. While 18 months sounds like a long timeline, the Task Force and the District will benefit by providing adequate time to assess information and formulate recommendations, especially knowing that DISB will establish a database of records relating to slaveholding. To the future Task Force, I recommend that when public witness testimony is requested, hearings be held on evenings and weekends with plenty of notice and that stipends are offered to residents who take time off to participate. Lastly, I strongly recommend including a homeownership option in Sec 3(d), which advises where monies should be redirected if a reparation program is not established by September 30, 2028.
I believe that this commission would be an important step towards addressing the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in DC. As a member of the philanthropic community, it is necessary that philanthropy acknowledges philanthropy exists because of the wealth extracted from communities of color, especially Black Americans. I am committed to supporting efforts to advance racial justice and equity, and I believe that the DC Reparations bill is an important part of this work. I urge the Committee and the DC Council to support this bill and to take action to address the harms caused by systemic racism and oppression.
In solidarity,
Tamira Benitez (she/her)
Executive Director
Diverse City Fund