California is the first state in the nation to create a reparations task force to study the history and effects of systemic racism on Black people, and to look at the many ways to atone for it and remedy it. Dr. Cheryl Grills is a member of that task force and a professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University.
She says of the task force’s aims: “We've got to be able to do a real come-to-Jesus moment about the realities of [racial] harms and find our way to a higher truth, a higher calling, quality of life. And an understanding that we can trust that America sees us, hears us, respects us, values us, and is willing to do the work with us to restore our sense of humanity in this country.”