Last week, the New York City Council passed a highly controversial bill, establishing a commission and task force dedicated to implementing reparations for black Americans in addition to installing signage at historical slave sites.
Fox News reports:
Councilmembers Crystal Hudson and Farah Louis sponsored a pair of bills to establish a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Commission and a reparations task force. Both bills passed on Thursday and will be effective immediately.
The logistics and implementations of this reparations bill have yet to be revealed to the public. It's unclear how much it would cost the city, how much they plan on distributing amongst black New Yorkers, or the qualifications recipients must meet.
The New York City Council celebrated the new bills in a lengthy press release featured on their website.
“Today, the New York City Council voted to pass legislation establishing municipal efforts to acknowledge and address the legacy and impact of slavery and racial injustices in New York City. The package of legislation would establish a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation process on slavery within New York City (which had one of the highest rates of slave ownership in the country in the 1700s), a reparations study, informational signs at the City's first slave market, and a taskforce to consider the creation of a ‘freedom trail' commemorating abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad sites.”
The press release continues.
“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,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “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. The Council's legislation builds on the work we have done to confront historic inequities perpetuated by systemic racism, and will be coordinated in conjunction with the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies. With the advancement of these bills, along with the establishment of the NYC Commission on Racial Equity, its work, other changes approved by New Yorkers in the 2022 election and secured by city leaders, our city is continuing towards the equity and justice that our communities deserve.”
“The passage of these bills represents a significant step for New York City. The harm slavery caused Black Americans continues to be felt today. Our nation's inability to properly redress such a historic wrong allows this deep injustice to continue to manifest itself in distinct, tangible ways––be it the prison-industrial complex, predatory lending, redlining, or inequality in our school systems,” Hudson said.
Hudson said to Fox News Digital, “When I first ran for office in 2021, I released A Black Agenda for New York City, outlining six bold recommendations that would meet the urgency of the racial reckoning facing our city. One of those recommendations was the creation of a citywide Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation process centered on acknowledging the city's racist practices and historic treatment of Black New Yorkers. And it is my 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.”
It’s actually the Democrat Party that should be responsible for reparations. After all, it was that party that supported and defended slavery enough to secede from the union to maintain their slave force. New Yorkers of every persuasion should fight tooth and nail against this perversion of justice.
Sorry, but didn’t the state of New York fight for the Union? You know, freeing slaves????
New York fully abolished slavery until 1827 but started in 1799. Several decades before the civil war.
Ridiculous