Last week, New Hampshire radio host Arnie Arnesen asked me to join her show to talk about a recent story I wrote on reparations. The story was about California’s consideration of being the first U.S. state to issue reparations. Check it out here when you get a chance.

Ms. Arnesen asked me if working on the story taught me anything new about California, which made me reflect. I had learned that California was admitted to the union as a free state, but white slave owners flocking to the gold rush brought enslaved people with them, moving the evil practice west. I had learned that California enacted its own fugitive slave act, that the Ku Klux Klan terrorized people in the state during Jim Crow, that Black San Francisco and Los Angeles neighborhoods were gutted by government land seizures that shattered families and businesses.

Much of this was in a 1,100-page document put together by a task force and full of recommendations to address discrepancies in housing, education, mass incarceration, health care, and economics. Task force members I spoke with stressed a crucial point: The source materials that helped them make their recommendations should be made available to the public. They are a trove of information.  

Initial public reaction to the task force’s recommendations included widespread concern that reparations would be too expensive. Ms. Arnesen’s question made me realize why democratizing the information is so important. It has the capacity to soften hearts. Regardless of whether reparations come to fruition or not, if truth is being served, we should all eat the dish.