Half a mil to put their thumbs up their asses instead of just literally giving that money directly as reparations 
Edit: I want to clarify, I fully support reparations, I’m just extremely frustrated knowing that, under liberal/bourgeoisie democracy, these types of efforts tend to get bogged down with means testing, and sometimes outright turn into thinly-veiled handouts to private corporations. All while the police budget is still increasing YOY.
That said, Evanston (city on Chicago’s northern border) did actually manage to distribute “…$25,000 in no-strings-attached direct cash payments for those eligible. Black residents who lived in Evanston during a 50-year period of discriminatory zoning laws and their direct descendants receive priority for eligibility.” So I don’t want to encourage further reactionary criticisms such as mine towards this specific subcommittee if they are able to achieve at least some form of direct payments similar to Evanston’s program.
I will believe this the minute I see this process resulting in >$500k being given as reparations. Unfortunately creating a committee to study an issue is from a well-established playbook of stringing people along.
“I’ll believe the government can do good when I see it” is a core reactionary idea. Its another strain of
we have to purge from ourselves if we’re going to sell people on a system of government that we think should directly provide housing, healthcare, education, jobs, solutions to climate change, etc.
Really, how else would you go from concept to execution? Committes can be used to string people along, but they’re also how you make big decisions in big organizations. Skepticism is warranted, but calling this nothing until the checks clear is not.
This is a government that exists within bourgeois capitalist democracy, aka a government run by the capitalists. Specifically since it’s a municipal government it’s run by real estate developers. Thinking that electing someone with specific beliefs will alter the forces shaping the trajectory of that government is, itself, brainworms.
Good things occasionally do come out of capitalist democracy, though – look at the reparations being paid right now in Evanston.
Understanding the flaws of capitalist democracy does not mean that style of democracy never ever ever does anything but harm. This is the appeal of liberalism – you get occasional carrots, and all better options are snuffed out, so do you want the carrot or do you want nothing? The socialist criticism of that is that it’ll never be enough, and will turn to fascism in a hearbeat; it’s not that those carrots do not exist.