Racial Reparations Commission Established In New York State

Just days after the New York City Comptroller released a report that detailed deep and severe disparities in the net household wealth, home values, retirement savings, investment income, and student debt between racial groups in New York, disparities that are suspected to be linked back to New York's long history of institutional racial discrimination, the Governor takes steps to do something about it.

The New York State Establishes The Community Commission on Reparations Remedies

The newly established commission comes several months after the New York State Legislature debated and passed New York Senate Bill S1163A / Assembly Bill A7691 to create a pathway for the Empire State to study what should be done about New York's part is slavery and discrimination and what actions should be taken on those recommendations.

Read More: Officials Looking At Offering Reparations In New York

The New York Comptrollers Report concludes that New York's history of institutional racial discrimination is a primary driver of the gaps between different ethnic groups.

The nine-member commission will be made up of three members who will be appointed by the governor, three by the assembly, and three by the senate, and are charged to study the effects of slavery in the state and make recommendations on what steps are needed to fix it, which can include reparations in whatever form it may take.

Reparations is about more than monetary compensation – it’s about atoning and a guarantee of nonrepetition... We need to change our political structures and laws to ensure Black New Yorkers are empowered. This is an important step in changing a long history of systemic racism and discrimination.
-Michaelle Solages, Member of New York State Assembly, 22nd District.

According to the NAACP, reparations can be in the form of a national (or state) apology, rights to the cannabis industry, financial payment, social service benefits, and/or land grants to every descendant of an enslaved African American and Black person a descendant of those living in the United States including during American slavery through the Jim Crow era.