(WXYZ) — Detroiters passed a proposal that would force the city to create a reparations task force by a wide margin.
With 100% of the vote in the city, Proposal R passed with 72,462 votes, equal to about 77%.
The proposal text read: “should the Detroit City Council establish a reparations task force to make recommendations for housing and economic development programs that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit?”
The language of Prop R did leave many questions of how reparations could be addressed if it passes.
There’s no timeline for the task force’s creation or recommendations, no guidance of what form reparations could take or if any action would be limited to only those who are descendants of slaves.
Proposal S, which was conceived as a backstop on reparations if the city council doesn't act diligently or at all, failed to pass with 44,800 votes against it.
That proposal would have removed language in the city charter that bars voters from appropriating city funds via ballot initiatives.
A final proposal, Prop E, passed with 53,709 people voting for it. That proposal will decriminalize the use of magic mushrooms and other entheogenic plants.
