By Cherranda Smith Jun 4, 2021 Earlier this year, Evanston, Illinois became the first city to offer its Black residents reparations, now those residents are rejecting the program. “It’s not reparations,” longtime Evanston resident NBC News. “And that’s for sure,” Giles, a retired Chicago Public Schools educator, added. Giles automatically qualified for the $25,000 reparations payment since she lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, but she, like many other eligible residents, are hesitant because of the program’s racism and lack of community input. Hundreds of Black residents have shown their support for an online group called Evanston Rejects Racist Reparations, where they’ve demanded the program stop and go under re-evaluation.