‘Healing the scars:' New York to study state reparations
The commission, which will wrap up its work by the summer of 2025, will only make recommendations.
By Bill Mahoney
12/19/2023 11:44 AM EST
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York on Tuesday created a commission to study potential reparations for state residents of African descent, making it the second state after California to do so.
The commission, which will report its findings in 2025, will have a broad charge. It will examine New York’s legacy of slavery and discrimination and will make recommendations on both statutory changes and potential payments to combat generational wealth inequality.
“In New York, we like to think we’re on the right side of this — slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy,” Hochul said while signing the bill at an event in Manhattan. “What is hard to embrace is that our state also flourished from that slavery. It’s not a beautiful story, but it’s the truth.”
Hochul was joined by Black leaders in the state Legislature and the Rev. Al Sharpton in the bill signing. They praised the measure as a way to rectify generations of wrongs caused by slavery, such as housing and job discrimination. The panel will look at ways, in addition to any financial payments, to address racial and structural inequities in the state.
“Some of the media will act like [Hochul] met us here and she gave Rev. Al and all of us a check for a billion dollars,” Sharpton said. “But that’s not what this does. This is the beginning of healing the scars.”
more
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/19/new-york-reparations-00132446
