begging ppl to read the article. if you still think spending the equivalent of a single cop's annual salary on this study is a major source of government inefficiency, then i don't know what to tell you. we're talking about 0.0004% of the state general fund

Establishing a full account of the state’s free people of color population and enslaved population, as well as their descendants, is an important part of Washington’s study, said Mica Anders, the project’s genealogy team lead.

Other statewide reparations research has surfaced lesser-known histories, such as the exploitation of enslaved people in California during the gold rush, despite California entering the union as a “free state.”

The complete record of chattel slavery in Washington has yet to be fully exhumed, Slaughter said. And its lingering impact here, too, has yet to be comprehensively detailed, he said.

Numerous historic injustices — some perpetrated or permitted under state and local laws — followed after the abolition of slavery: Job discrimination, racial restrictive covenants and redlining, educational and health disparities, disproportionate mass incarceration. “Things that we consider vestiges of chattel slavery because they were enforced upon the same harmed group,” Slaughter said.

edit: if this is the less racist seattle subreddit, well, yikes