San Francisco's Slave-Disclosure Ordinance Reveals Little

San Franciscans laud themselves for being enlightened so often that it's sometimes hard to tell if we're really enlightened or just congratulating ourselves.

Last week the Board of Supervisors received the first report of San Francisco's 2006 Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance — a law that requires many companies that do business with the city to report if they had ever profited from the antebellum slave trade.

The mood at the committee was ecstatic. "It's very, very exciting," Supervisor Tom Ammiano raved. "I'm certainly very proud of our city," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi enthused.

Linda Richardson of the city's Human Rights Commission said, "I think this ordinance will go a long way ... in educating not only our constituents, but the entire country, about the impact of slavery." She added, "The rest of the country and the rest of the world will be looking to our leadership on how this ordinance is implemented."

But what exactly did we do? The actual report — all 25 pages of it (including title page and affidavits) — draws no conclusions, except that it should be considered a very important report to be reading.

Most companies potentially affected by the ordinance didn't bother to respond: Of the 27 requests sent out, only seven were returned — and only two of those (Bank of America and U.S. Bank National) could find any relevant records. Additionally, a "voluntary fund" to which companies can contribute in order to "ameliorate the legacy of the Slavery Era" netted zero dollars.

Despite the blue ribbons we're awarding ourselves, San Francisco isn't even leading this movement. A full five pages of the report (20 percent) are spent describing the slavery disclosure ordinances of other locations — including those of the state of California — most of which were passed before San Francisco's.

Total price of the report, according to the City Administrator's office: $17,088.

Asked what, exactly, the report accomplished, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell said that it had demonstrated that there are companies doing business with the city that had profited from the slave trade. But we assumed that already, right? That's why we passed the ordinance.

Still, supporters say this is a step in the right direction. They're pushing the city to expand the ordinance and to urge businesses to pay into the fund, although exactly how that will ameliorate the legacy of slavery hasn't been determined yet.

But you can bet we'll be proud of it.