California lawmakers are moving to create a "genealogy office" that would help determine an individual's eligibility for reparations. //

"Apologies alone are inadequate reparations to victims," it continued. "But when combined with material forms of reparations, apologies provide an opportunity for communal reckoning with the past and repair for moral, physical, and dignitary harms."

Despite their seeming determination to make amends for historical wrongs, California has never been a slave state. In fact, California's admission to the Union back in 1850 was contingent upon its entry as a free state, which meant that slavery was prohibited within its borders.