October 8th 2023.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has expressed his support for a bill that would lead to reparations being given on behalf of slavery for its Black residents. His Office of Equity commissioner, Sideya Sherman, shared his belief in the bill's intentions but also signaled that the legislation should be modified to prevent overlapping language with two current state bills seeking reparations.
Adams has previously supported reparations on a state level and Sherman expressed her concerns in a city council hearing on September 19th. She stated that the task force initiated by this bill must spend at least one year to study the effects of racial discrimination before any payments could be allocated.
The bill was created by Councilwoman Farah Louis and has the encouragement of Mayor Adams and the Office of Social Equity in its pursuit of legislation that dismantles and resolves the systemic racial injustices that plague New Yorkers of color. While the decades-long federal effort for reparations has seemingly stalled, the fight for reparations is ongoing on a local level.
Evanston, Illinois, was the first city to ever pay its Black residents on behalf of their disenfranchisement due to enslavement. This monetary allotment gave $25,000 to Black current and potential homeowners for repairs or a down payment on their property, funded through a tax on marijuana sales. Other cities such as those in Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Michigan are also beginning to recognize the validity of reparations for Black Americans.
The biggest and most current plan to officially enact reparations is in California. The state's reparations task force finalized a 1,200-page document this past June. The group hopes that lawmakers will believe the findings justify reparations to those impacted by the horrors of slavery and the institutionalized racism that derived from it. California's Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, addressed that while California did not legally have slavery, its pervasive impact across the fabric of the country is one that must be remedied for true justice to occur on behalf of the Black people who have always felt its deeply ingrained discrimination.
Reparations is an important conversation that is happening in communities across the United States. Mayor Adams and his Office of Equity commissioner have expressed their support for the “spirit” of the bill that would lead to reparations given on behalf of slavery to its Black residents. It is clear that the fight for reparations is ongoing and that the need for true justice to occur on behalf of the Black people is of utmost importance.
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