Eugene City Councilors held one of two Work Sessions focused on reparations for Black and Indigenous People of Color and Asian Americans Wednesday.
City Policy Analyst Jason Didrick gave councilors a presentation on how other cities across the country are handling reparations. Some councilor’s liked Providence, Rhode Island’s approach.
Didrick said they’re using a three phase process, that starts with a “truth” phase that looks back at discrimination and injustice locally.
“Their state historical society actually commissioned that report and really did that deep dive on the history in the community and then taking the results of that report and turning it outwards to the community and really moving into a reconciliation phase," he said.
Didrick said this phase, which includes community discussions, then informs reparative work needed in the third phase. He adds Providence’s approach accounts for injustices against Indigenous communities.
Councilors also expressed interest in reparations for Asian American’s in future discussions. Another Work Session on this topic has not been scheduled yet.
Copyright 2021 KLCC