A law establishing a commission to evaluate and lessen ongoing harm brought on by “historical injustices” was passed by the state legislature.
After the legislature overwhelmingly approved a measure creating an exploratory commission last week, New York is set to become the second state in the US to consider paying financial reparations to the descendants of black slaves.
Supporters of reparations claim the bill does not go far enough to hold the country accountable for its past sins, and Governor Kathy Hochul’s public muteness as the bill remains unsigned nearly a week after arriving on her desk has drawn attention to the issue. Additionally, critics are raising ethical and financial concerns about such programs.
The bill’s author, State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-South Ozone Park), told the Queens Chronicle after it passed both chambers of the New York legislature with sizable majorities, “Blacks are not only not equal to whites, they are indeed going backwards.” He declared, “The country needs to settle this issue by making the descendants whole.
A nine-member commission would be created under the proposed legislation to study the generational effects of racism and slavery in the state and to assess the viability of financial reparations for those affected. The commission would deliver its recommendations to the state within a year of finishing that analysis. The state legislature would have the choice to approve or disapprove of their recommendations.
The New York City City Council is considering a similar proposal, along with several other initiatives purportedly aimed at “rectifying historical injustices.”
Later this month, the reparations commission established by California, the only other state to have made an effort to estimate the total harms of slavery, racism, and discrimination against modern-day black Americans, is anticipated to present its findings. The commission’s recommendations, which are expected to include more than 100 programs and policies, address issues such as “racial terror” and “pathologizing the black family,” as well as “stolen labor and hindered opportunity” of long-deceased slaves and generations of subsequent housing segregation.
California was not a slave state, but the commission on reparations that was set up by state law in 2021 has publicly stated that it wants to develop a “reparations blueprint” that the rest of the US can use.
Reparations proponents assert that the poor economic conditions faced by black populations today are a direct result of slavery, since even freed slaves and their descendants were never given the same opportunities as their white neighbors. A nationwide reparations program could cost as much as $14 trillion, and support for the idea is sharply segregated along racial lines, with even proponents of the idea admitting in a recent poll that it was unlikely to materialize in their lifetimes.
