How San Francisco quietly launched a ‘reparations’ – Latest News
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has revived a controversial benefit program as soon as lauded as a step towards “reparations” for black San Franciscans.
Known because the Dream Keeper Initiative, the relaunched program will grant $36 million to “community-serving organizations,” together with some which have supplied “Afri-centric” mental-health providers, African ancestry DNA testing, and free doulas for “African American birthing people.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks on the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention. AP
Former San Francisco Mayor London Breed talking at a podium during the ninth Annual Chinatown Night Out. Anadolu Agency through Getty Images
The Dream Keeper Initiative was based by former San Francisco Mayor London Breed in 2021, fulfilling her promise to redirect police funding to “the African American community” within the aftermath of George Floyd’s 2020 death in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In February 2021, Breed introduced that the metropolis would divert $120 million from its law-enforcement budgets to fund this system, which might in flip funnel the money to a web of left-wing nonprofits. The Board of Supervisors president hailed the initiative because the “first step towards true reparations for the Black community here in San Francisco.”
Despite its lofty ambitions, Dream Keeper was troubled from the outset.
San Francisco poured $60 million per 12 months into this system with little obvious oversight or high quality control. Nonprofits took benefit, reportedly spending a whole bunch of hundreds of taxpayer {dollars} on black-tie galas and wage will increase. Other funding reportedly disappeared into a web of shell firms, raising fraud considerations.
Daniel Lurie, the Levi Strauss-fortune inheritor who campaigned for mayor towards Breed in 2024, criticized his opponent for the fiasco.
A crowd gathered in favor of reparations rally outdoors San Francisco City Hall. AP
A protest signal studying “REPARATIONS Good for Black San Franciscans Good for All San Franciscans” at a rally. AP
“London Breed handed a blank check to her closest allies with zero oversight,” he mentioned on the time. “Hundreds of millions of dollars were mismanaged that could have been spent to solve the city’s safety, drug, and economic recovery crisis. … As your mayor, I will bring a new era of proven, accountable leadership to City Hall.”
Under stress, Breed mentioned she was “appalled” by the reviews of misuse and froze all Dream Keeper funding. But the harm was carried out: Breed discovered herself ensnared by the notion of corruption, and Lurie received the election.
Instead of abandoning Breed’s scandal-ridden program, nevertheless, Lurie appears desperate to revive it.
In March 2025, the new mayor quietly relaunched the Dream Keeper program as half of the new “RFP [request for proposals] 100” initiative, and accepted $36 million to, amongst different issues, “advanc[e] equity.”
Rev. Amos Brown speaks at a podium as Supervisor Shamann Walton holds the “California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, Final Report 2023” report. AP
Former San Francisco Mayor Breed talking during native band Metallica’s Fortieth-anniversary celebration. Getty Images
The Lurie administration’s record of RFP 100 recipients, revealed final month, reveals that the town continues to be dedicated to identification politics, with payouts for a “culturally affirming wellness” initiative, programming “rooted in a Black feminist healing framework,” and different unconventional social-welfare initiatives.
For instance, the Lurie administration awarded $600,000 to SisterWeb, which supplies free doula care to pregnant “Black women and birthing people”; $250,000 to Because Black is Still Beautiful, which has supplied therapeutic massage remedy and African ancestry DNA testing to previously incarcerated black ladies and a trans-identifying man; and $400,000 to Queer Women of Color Media Arts, which beforehand used Dream Keeper funds to help “queer and transgender Black filmmakers,” together with one who adopted two “black transmen … through their first pregnancies.”
Lurie’s workplace didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
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Though the Lurie administration has been cautious to create the looks of a legally compliant program, promising that it will “not consider any demographic data about the racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, or national orientation makeup” of candidates’ workers, management, and boards, the RFP 100 is arguably a kind of smooth reparations.
The metropolis’s Human Rights Commission, which administers RFP 100, launched its funding tips for this system in 2025. The tips state that the town will assess candidates’ “commitment to cultural responsiveness, inclusivity, and equity” and — whereas they require grantees to “serve eligible participants regardless of race … or other characteristics” — additionally they command grantees to “ensure that outreach efforst include … the Black community.” (In a assertion, HRC claimed that “nonprofits which enter into grant agreements with the City to provide services are required to ensure services are open and available to all.”)
An aerial view of downtown San Francisco skyscrapers, with the bay and hills within the background. AP
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks on the California Democratic Convention. REUTERS
The grantees’ racial commitments are even more specific. To qualify for SisterWeb’s doula providers, an particular person should “identify as Black/African American.” (Below the record of necessities, the group claims that “No one is turned away on the basis of race or ethnicity”; SisterWeb didn’t reply to our request for clarification.)
The Trump administration may take notice.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has been aggressively dismantling racially discriminatory applications. As a former San Francisco resident, she’ll be intimately conversant in the euphemisms and shell video games.
If Dhillon’s workplace decides to take motion, Mayor Lurie may need more issues than losing public funds on doulas and drag queens: He might discover himself in court docket for violating the Civil Rights Act.
Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow on the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the writer of America’s Cultural Revolution. Haley Strack is an investigative reporter at City Journal.
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