NYC Moves Closer To Slavery Reparations

The leftist New York City Council passed legislation on Thursday that pushes the largest city in the U.S. closer to a program that would hand out reparations to black residents.

The passage of two bills sponsored by Councilmembers Crystal Hudson and Farah Louis means NYC taxpayers will now fund a “Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Commission” along with a reparations task force, Fox News reported. The legislation will also require information signs to be posted at the site of New York City’s “first slave market,” according to a press release from the city council.

“The legacy of slavery and systemic racism has impacted all facets of our society today, and it’s important that our city recognizes and takes steps to redress these longstanding harms,” NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said. “By creating new processes to fully examine the present-day impacts of injustices inflicted on Black New Yorkers and communities, we are advancing necessary efforts to consider potential remedies that can lead to healing and reconciliation.”

Hudson, who sponsored one of the bills, said the passage of her legislation is a major step in her “Black Agenda for New York City.” She added that “it is [her] hope that as the nation’s largest city––with the biggest municipal budget––our truth, healing, and reconciliation process will work; it will identify racist, anti-Black policies at the foundation of our city’s institutions, and it will yield material solutions to address these foundational cracks.”

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Louis, whose bill focused on starting a reparations task force, said, “Throughout my tenure in the Council, we have heard countless testimonies and conducted numerous hearings revealing the ongoing impacts of historical injustices. Black women, in particular, continue to be disadvantaged in both public and private sectors, facing systemic inequities that hinder their progress and well-being. Addressing these compounded injustices is essential to forming a more just municipality and society.”

Republican City Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli blasted the legislation, telling the New York Post that he would move out of the city before paying reparations.

“If they can introduce me to one New Yorker who owned a slave I’d be happy to consider it,” he said. “But until then, I am not paying a dime as a reparation for a harm I did not cause, nor condone, nor once participated in.”

Numerous cities — and the states of New York and California — have created reparations task forces in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the protests and riots in the summer of 2020. Many of the task forces have failed to yield any significant results, and two members of Detroit’s reparations task force stepped down last year after expressing frustration over the lack of “progress.”

Even though slavery was never legal in California, the state’s exploration into slavery reparations has seen the most success, with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a state budget in July that included $12 million for reparations legislation.

Vice President Kamala Harris has also expressed her support for reparations, saying in 2019, “I think there has to be some form of reparations, and we could discuss what that is, but look, we’re looking at more than 200 years of slavery. We’re looking at almost 100 years of Jim Crow.”

She also said as a candidate in 2019 that if elected president, she would sign a bill that would provide reparations to the descendants of African slaves. The Harris campaign has not said if the Democratic nominee still supports that position.