The sale of Bruce’s Beach from the Bruce family to LA county becomes official Monday in a culmination of a victory won after a long fight to return the beach back to its owners.
As this sale becomes official, critics say the Bruce’s had every right to do what they with their property, but they also say there are ways they could have helped themselves— and the big picture.
The state’s return of Bruce’s Beach back to the Bruce family last summer was celebrated as a victory for reparations for African Americans— the land seized by eminent domain from Charles and Willa Bruce nine decades ago as they endured racism in Manhattan Beach.
But some are criticizing the family’s decision, made official Monday, to sell the land back to LA County for $20,000,000.
Kavon Ward, who was one of the most vocal leaders advocating to have the land returned to the Bruce’s, says at least part of it should have been used to grow the Black community in Manhattan Beach.
“It would have said you stole this land from Black people, Black people have it back and now we’re going to take up space here even though you don’t want us to,” Ward said.
Dr. Suzanne Malveaux is the dean of ethnic studies at Cal State LA.
“There were beaches we couldn’t go to so we could go there,” Malveaux said. “People have a right to do what they want to with their property but I think that as a whole as a collective we’re worse off.”
Last month on KBLA’s Tavis Smiley show, the Bruce’s attorney said the family did not want to go through the approval process required to develop the land themselves and responded to criticism the sale was hurting a larger cause.
Smiley says regarding the larger issue of reparations for African Americans, there’s still a long way to go.
“I don’t see this at all as reparations because when you steal something and you eventually return it or are forced to return it that’s not exactly reparations,” Smiley said.
The California Reparations Task Force met over the weekend in San Diego and is scheduled to make recommendations by June on the best ways to repair damage like the one done to the Bruce family.
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