Reparation Plan Fails, And The Reasons Are Black And White

A plan to provide enhanced guidance and special opportunities for black students in Oakland has failed miserably, and the reason should come as no surprise.

Five years ago, the Oakland Unified School District initiated a groundbreaking effort to address the longstanding disparities between Black students and their contemporaries. This initiative, called “Reparations for Black Students,” made ambitious promises and received significant publicity, along with the support of district leaders who committed to closing achievement gaps and improving outcomes by 2026.

The very premise for the new “R-Word” is incredibly flawed

Over the last several decades, the word retarded has become known as the “R-Word.” The word itself comes from the word # which means to slow down, inhibit, or delay. It is still frequently used in the medical field and other lines of work to describe situations where the growth or progress of something has been slowed.

When someone was a slow learner academically, they were said to be retarded. The term was not meant to be cruel, but over time, it became a slang term people used frequently to describe anyone who made a mistake or acted irresponsibly.

Naturally, even though it is only a word, the left, in their attempt to justify their existence, vilified the term and decided that intellectual disability or developmental disability were better descriptions.

However, you won't hear any Democrats or leftists crying and whining to have reparations, the new “R-Word” relegated to the dump heap, even though the new “R-Word” is blatantly racist and carries financial consequences for innocent citizens.

The very premise for the new “R-Word” is incredibly flawed. In fact, it is so flawed that any attempt to actually enact this ridiculous idea may very well trigger the race war that some people believe the left has always desired to ignite.

We have all heard the rational argument, which can be stated very simply. You can’t demand people who have never owned slaves to pay reparations to people who were never slaves.

Sadly, that doesn’t stop groups like the Oakland Unified School District from beating a dead horse while ignoring the real problem.

In March 2021, the school board approved a resolution for reparations and formed a 24-member Black Thriving Task Force. This task force was established to develop and manage a five-year strategy to address various challenges faced by Black students. The plan focuses on improving academic performance, reducing chronic absenteeism, addressing disciplinary disparities, and enhancing family engagement.

According to former task force members, immediate issues arose.

Kevin Hill, a member of the original task force, stated that internal disputes and leadership changes hindered the initiative before it could gain significant momentum.

“It was as if we all got together and wasted our collective breath for a whole year. One of the harsh realities I learned in this process is that the district can just wait people out.”

A report from the outlet indicates that disagreements arose regarding school closures, governance issues, and the role of district officials in implementing the group’s recommendations. These tensions became intense enough that the original task force reportedly stopped meeting after about a year.

The collapse was especially noticeable considering the magnitude of the district's initial promises.

The resolution proposed establishing a “Black Thriving Fund” to support several key initiatives. This fund is intended to help recruit more Black educators, broaden curriculum offerings that focus on Black history and culture, provide anti-racism training for staff, and enhance support for families in need. This initiative was created in response to concerning data from the district, which indicated that Black students often face disproportionate disciplinary actions and experience lower academic outcomes.

A “black thriving fund” is just a cover for more DEI

A “black thriving fund” is just a cover for more DEI. Ignore merit and responsibility, and hire more black teachers to make the students feel comfortable, while forgetting to hold them responsible. Then feed their victim complexes by providing anti-racism training that isn’t needed or part of the real problem.

During that period, district officials presented statistics from the 2018-2019 school year, showing that Black students made up 22 percent of total enrollment but represented 57 percent of all student suspensions. Furthermore, Black students receiving special education services faced even higher suspension rates.

Yes, because they break the rules more frequently and, even when given special education opportunities, fail to capitalize on them and instead throw them away.

Former task force director Lawanda Wesley told reporters, “We kept looking at these data points, chronic absenteeism, literacy, mathematics, it was just dismal.”

Five years later, nothing has changed.

District testing data from 2025 revealed that Black students continued to have the lowest proficiency rates in both math and English within OUSD. Nearly half of Black students were classified as chronically absent, and suspension rates remained high compared to other student groups.

Much of the public support for the reparations initiative seems to have eroded. The district’s reparations webpage has not been updated since 2021, public meetings have stopped, and enrollment trends are declining. Currently, Black students make up a smaller percentage of the student body. less than 20 percent of district enrollment, a significant decline from previous decades, as many Black families have left Oakland.

More lip service, nothing more

In 2023, in response to pressure from the local teachers’ union, district officials reinstated a modified version of the task force. Unlike the original initiative, this new approach emphasizes targeted support programs, family engagement efforts, and resources allocated to 11 designated "Black Thriving Schools," in which Black students make up at least 40 percent of the enrollment.

Translation: Let’s segregate and show favoritism and claim that we are being progressive, even though the results never change,

Supporters argue that meaningful work is still happening behind the scenes. Some educators highlight specialized staff positions and ongoing support programs as evidence that the initiative is still active, even if it no longer resembles the highly publicized vision presented in 2021.

Critics argue that the district quietly abandoned several original commitments while the underlying academic challenges remain largely unchanged.

More lip service, nothing more.

Like it or not, separate societies do exist. There is a black society, an Asian society, a White society, a Latin society, etc. But within each society, there are disciplines that allow them to blend and assimilate. The Black society needs to look in the mirror and accept some realities that continue to drag them down.

Rejecting the notion of victimhood and returning to disciplined family structures, specifically the nuclear family, which typically consists of a mother, father, and their children. In sociology, this type of family is often referred to as a conjugal family and represents the fundamental unit of a traditional immediate family.

That family unit creates stability and the desire to advance. Not all will succeed, but not all out of any racial group do. Still, blaming the world and seeking to make others pay, through special programs that fail miserably and accomplish nothing, or by straight-up monetarily rewarding a racial group for failure, will only create division, hatred, and ultimately confrontation.