Don Tamaki, who served on the nine-member California Reparations Task Force, will make the case that the racial pathology that resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans has its origins in the cultural values, policies, and laws that propped up slavery and its aftermath. Four months after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, which triggered the largest protests in U.S. history, the California Legislature passed AB 3121 creating the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

The Task Force convened in June of 2021, and on June 29, 2023 its ground-breaking 1,100 page Final Report was presented to the Legislature. The Final Report traces the harm of 246 years of slavery, 90 years of racial segregation after slavery ended, and decades more of continuing discrimination---resulting in today’s outcomes.

California’s history is rife with instances of how anti-Black animus so easily morphed to target other people of color too. Decades after California passed Fugitive Slave Laws and adopted Jim Crow policies, the rounding up of Japanese American families was so normal as to be beyond question.

Don Tamaki is a Senior Counsel at Minami Tamaki LLP, and participated on the legal team that reopened Korematsu v. the United States.

Event to be held virtually via zoom and in-person at J-Sei: 1285 66th Street, Emeryville, CA 94608

RSVP at Eventbrite here: Reparations for African Americans: Why Japanese Americans Should Care