Last month, on the same day the Supreme Court declared college admissions based on race unconstitutional, the head of the California task force at the forefront of the national reparations effort, Kamilah Moore, announced on Twitter that her cause is not affected by the decision: “Our reparations recommendations are not race-based, but rather are based on lineal descent.” 

It’s a subtle distinction stemming from the California Reparations Task Force’s razor-thin 5-4 vote last year to restrict eligibility for reparations only to California residents who qualify by lineal descendant — either from an enslaved African-American or from a free African-American person living in America prior to the end of the 19th century. That eligibility criterion will exclude several hundred thousand Black people living in California — namely Caribbean, African, and South American Black immigrants who arrived in this country in the 20th century.