Evanston aldermen Monday evening approved the first expenditures in the city’s landmark municipal reparations program designed to compensate Black residents for codified discrimination.

Officials in the suburb say the initiative, which has been in the planning stages since 2019, is designed to address the discriminatory housing policies and practices faced by Black residents. The $10 million program — the first of its kind in the nation when approved in 2019 — will be funded through marijuana sales tax revenue along with some donations.

Former President Barack Obama called out "the politics of white resistance and resentment" as one of the reasons why he didn't push for reparations while he was in office.

lack votes in this country are worth less than white votes. Joe Biden won the Electoral College because Black voters in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia turned out in significant numbers. But even with overwhelming Black support—94 percent of Detroit voted for Biden!—the outcomes in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were worryingly close.

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped a prominent advocate of reparations for his Treasury transition team.

Mehrsa Baradaran, a professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and author of the book The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, has joined Biden's transition.

In tweets unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon, Baradaran watched then-Democratic candidates sidestep the issue.

"Dear Kamala, Reparations or go home," Baradaran tweeted in 2019.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Wednesday that opens the door to the state paying reparations of some kind to Black Californians, especially those who are descendants of slaves.

The law does not commit to any specific kind of payment. It calls for a nine-member task force that will be asked to make recommendations for how reparations could be provided, such as through compensation or restitution.

For all the funky exterior of a progressive mountain redoubt, this city has until now often looked the other way when it comes to racial inequity.

Two months after days of intense racial justice protests, however, a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that had stood for nearly a century is gone. And an obelisk in the honor of Confederate-era Gov. Zeb Vance is now wrapped in black plastic, as the city considers its removal.

The City Council of Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday unanimously approved a commission to develop proposals for reparations to black community members and issued a formal apology for the city’s role in black inequality.

The resolution, signed by Mayor Esther Manheimer, directs the city to create a “Community Reparations Commission” made up of advocacy groups, businesses, and community leaders that will issue recommendations on how eventual compensation may be distributed to black residents, according to ABC News.

The city council of Asheville, North Carolina, voted unanimously to grant reparations to residents over the nation's history of slavery. The extraordinary vote was made on Tuesday when the council voted in support of the motion 7-0.

"Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today," said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the council.

"It is simply not enough to remove statutes," he added. "Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature."

George Floyd’s death just over a month ago at the hands of Minneapolis police has upended this country – yielding social unrest, public uprisings, and renewed political urgency. This angst has manifested itself into promises of police reform, the rebuke and removal of racist edifices, and a stunning declaration from corporations – Black Lives Matter.

Reparations are a recipe for rancor. Under the guise of settling a grievance, they intensify and often eternalize it. They almost inevitably plant seeds of enmity that last for generations. However large the cost, the victorious side eventually feels it settled too cheap. And the side that humbly paid comes to recognize it paid too dearly and gained nothing more than a pause in the demands. Reparations don’t repair. They turn the original grievance into institutionalized animosity.