California lawmakers advance bill creating genealogy office to determine reparations eligibility

California lawmakers have advanced a bill that would create a genealogy office to determine who is eligible for reparations handouts. The bill, SB 1403, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week in a 8-1 vote, The California Globe reported. If it becomes law, it would establish the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency, which would carry out recommendations from the state’s reparations task force. It would also create a Genealogy Office and an Office of Legal Affairs to “determine how an individual’s status as a descendant would be confirmed” and “require proof of an individual’s descendant status to be a qualifying criteria for benefits authorized by the state for descendants,” according to the bill. CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES NATION’S FIRST SERIES OF REPARATIONS BILLS, AFTER YEARS OF DELIBERATING Long-time Los Angeles resident, Walter Foster, 80, holds up a sign as the California Reparations Task Force meets to hear public input on reparations at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) The bill defines a descendant as “descendants of an African American chattel enslaved person in the United States” or “descendants of a free Black person living in the United...