The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

Get my Daily BS twice-a-day news stack directly to your email.


NYC council passes slavery reparations legislation amid rotting Big Apple

by

New York City is poised to join other locations nationwide that jumped on the reparations bandwagon.

Bills passed Thursday and immediately established a reparations task force and a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Commission. The bills were sponsored by Councilmembers Crystal Hudson and Farah Louis and could set up the Big Apple as the largest U.S. city to legislate reparations.

“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 New York City Council said in a press release on Thursday.

“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 said.

According to the announcement, the commission will “establish facts about slavery in New York City and its ongoing legacies, protect and acknowledge affected persons and communities, and recommend changes for government and institutions to prevent the perpetuation and recurrence of injustices from the legacy of slavery.”

Louis believes the bills are a “crucial step towards justice and equity,” while Councilwoman Hudson hopes the measures 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.”

“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 told Fox News Digital, noting that the issue was top of mind when she ran for office.

 

“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,” she said. “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.”

Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, one of eight councilmembers who voted against the legislation, declared, “I’ll move before I’ll pay.”

“If they can introduce me to one New Yorker who owned a slave I’d be happy to consider it,” he told the New York Post which reported that ” nearly half of the council’s 51 members signed on as sponsors.”

“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,” Borelli added.

Many on social media agreed with the councilman.

1 Comment

  1. kitty on September 13, 2024 at 11:53 am

    so folks who never owned a slave have to pay folks who never were slaves?

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

today’s hot news