Ep 40: Twenty Million... AIN'T ENOUGH!

A reflective approach to A LOT OF MONEY... Willa & Bruce’s beautiful story of development and preservation, INTERRUPTED BY A SEIZURE? Condemned - Demolished - Held - & finally A MOMENT FOR REPARATIONS ...or is it?... IS 20 MILLION ENOUGH? Reparations look unbalanced.... How can we fix and right our opportunities today? Bruce Beach - 2023.

B Daht explains more about this current pop culture historical fact.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
I never thought I would say this, but I don't
think twenty million dollars is enough. I didn't know. I
didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

(00:20):
In nineteen twelve, Willow and Charles Bruce bought some land
at the bottom of the Hill in California and built
a resort run four and Bob Black residents. Now this
nineteen twelve, so of course they got harassed violence from
the white neighbors and the KKK, but they endured and
provided rare California beach access for African Americans. About thirteen

(00:42):
years later, in nineteen the land got seized by the
Manhattan Beach Board of Trustees under imminent domain, with the
claims that it would be turned into a park, But
just five years later the property was condemned, resort demolished,
and then the land was transferred to the States. When
it was and transferred to the county, which used it
for lifeguard operations, but Low and Behold in southern California,

(01:07):
officials agreed to return the property to the living descendants
of Willa and Charles Bruce, their two great grandsons, Marcus
and Derek Bruce reparations if you will. And here's the
deal they gave. Marcus and Derek will give you a
twenty four month lease agreement where the county will pay
you four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars annually for its

(01:27):
continued use because again they use it for lifeguard operations,
and the county will pay operation and maintenance costs. The
county said the least agreement will allow the Bruce family
to realize the generational wealth previously denied them, while allowing
the county's lifeguard operations to continue for the foreseeable future
without interruption. Well, an update on that story this February

(01:48):
three is that the Bruce family has decided to sell
the Bruce's Beach property back to the county for twenty
million dollars. They said, his fight has always been about
what is best for the family, and they feel what
is best for them is selling this property and finally
rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century.
This is what reparations look like, and it's a model
that I hope governments across the country will follow. I

(02:10):
don't know, many just don't seem like enough. Seems to
me you should get twenty million dollars and the four
hundred and thirteen thousand dollars annually. I mean, I'm not
turning my nose down at twenty million dollars, but it
just doesn't seem like accurate reparations for a thriving business
in nineteen twelve that was racially taken by the city
and then giving back with a twenty million dollar price

(02:32):
tag a hundred years later. Nah. But if the Bruce
family likes it, I love it because I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either,