Gov. Kathy Hochul holds up signed legislation creating a commission for the study of reparations in New York on December 19, 2023, in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Just when it felt safe to begin thinking beyond the wasteland on every front sure to be left behind by Trump the invader, along comes New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani to remind us that on hold is a lively discussion at both the city and state level about reparations for descendants of slavery.
A cosmic eyeroll hardly does this deflating thought justice. To give the mayor his due, he was described as totally noncommittal on whether he favors cash or any remedy or none, pointedly deferring to a final report and recommendations due next June by the city’s Commission on Racial Equity.
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“I can’t give you an answer in advance of them (the recommendations), but I can tell you this is critically important because this is also what it looks like to acknowledge what history truly was,” he said. Not sure how noncommittal that actually sounds.
The simple truth, which long ago has been obscured on this issue, is that there is no settled public policy in New York, nor majority public mandate, to suggest we owe even a nickel to any descendant of slavery. Maybe for a variety of other reasons, sure, but not for that one.
I would strongly suspect that if taxpayer cash reparations for descendants of slavery were to be put to a public referendum, even in bright blue New York, it wouldn’t even be close. Not a bad thought for every politician in the state to remember, even democratic socialists, whatever that might be.
Come next July 4, it’s 200 years since New York abolished slavery, 38 years before the nation did. Gov. John Jay, a slave holder, got manumission started in 1799 and it happened, with strong resistance, gradually. Many of those deeply involved in that struggle, including Alexander Hamilton, owned or had owned slaves. No arguing slavery was deeply repugnant, and no doubt has had long-term consequences, but ours and the nation’s history with it is complicated. Cash reparations in its name, to be paid by taxpayers who had nothing to do with slavery, is also repugnant. And categorically unfair.
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Yes, we do have a moral obligation. To those who have been discriminated against or unjustly deprived of opportunity. To those holding the short end of the stick that is American prosperity. It used to be called poverty. I’m not sure what it is anymore. Race is a factor, but it’s not racial. The American dilemma has always been: How do we level the playing field without doing more harm than good, and in a way that passes judicial muster? It remains a work in progress.
As you read this, a federal trial is in the making in Evanston, Illinois, Flinn v. City of Evanston, that will likely have enormous consequences for those, including New York, anticipating racially based reparations, the big pay day. Evanston is the only city in America that has actually handed out money to purported descendants of slavery, about $7 million out of a pledged $20 million. It’s narrowly focused on housing in the city.
Hundreds of Black residents or their descendants who were discriminated against in housing from 1919 to 1969 have each gotten $25,000, from legal sale of cannabis taxes, for home improvements or mortgages, although not as cash giveaways.
The city was sued by six non-Black residents of the same era who were also victimized by the same city ordinances and activities, but do not qualify for relief. It’s a good old-fashioned civil rights suit, in reverse, with the Justice Department intervening. The judge has already denied a motion to throw out the lawsuit, which strongly suggests – along with the current legal trend since affirmative action was tossed, and the plain language of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment – that Evanston’s program will not prevail or survive.
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It’s been suggested this trial and the unknowns to follow from it are the real reason our state Legislature imbedded in the state budget this past session a two-year extension to 2029 of the final report of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Community Commission on Reparations Remedies. Advocates for the big boondoggle were quite upset at the delay.
Expectations are likely to need readjustment. California will probably be the model New York will need to look to. In California a 2023 report led to a 15-bill reparations package. But because the price tag was estimated at an impossible $500 to $800 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed several attempts at big cash dispersals and instead concentrated on systemic changes in how eminent domain is used, increasing homeownership and offering education upgrades.
Who will benefit is being carefully targeted. The state has created the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery that will administer genealogical verification after various universities develop a strict, data-based system as to who legitimately qualifies. It is not easy. The census of 1870 is the first time many former slaves were listed by a complete name.
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Bottom line is, the likely end to this reparations saga is not likely to be as exciting, or as expensive, as the buildup for it is right about now. We can only hope.