Black New Yorkers are at odds over who deserves reparations, as the commission will soon begin debating the issue.
In December, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill creating a commission to study the best way to provide reparations to descendants of slaves in the state. By February she announced the members Who will make up the committee?
The commission has not yet met, but some Black residents are already concerned that reparations will be limited to direct descendants of slaves, similar to what the California Reparations Commission announced. Was.
“That’s a false narrative,” said Bertha Lewis, director of the Brooklyn-based Black Institute. new york post. “I don’t care what California did.”
In February, New York state announced the members of a new commission to consider how to pay reparations to descendants of slaves in the state. (Manny Senator/Getty Images/File)
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She continued, “You can’t say, ‘Only descendants of slaves from the South.'” Black people faced the effects of slavery, and therefore discrimination, simply because they were Black. ”
Lewis also stressed that it can be difficult to identify direct descendants of slaves, arguing that all black people have since been affected.
“If we’re going to talk about reparations, we have to talk about the long-standing discrimination against black people within the white American system,” Lewis said.
In contrast, Mona Davids, founder of Little Africa News and a black South African, said black citizens who willingly moved to New York should receive compensation because “it was our choice to be here.” argued that it was not.
“The only beneficiaries of reparations should be descendants of chattel slavery, not African immigrants or Afro-Caribbean descendants,” David told the New York Post.
He added: “The descendants of slaves had no choice. White people benefited from slavery.”
A debate has begun over whether all black New Yorkers will receive reparations, or only descendants of slaves. (Tama Mario/Getty Images)
David also singled out African countries, some of whose rulers had previously profited from slavery.
“In many cases, it was black Africans who sold the slaves. Ghana is rich. Nigeria is rich,” she said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the New York Governor’s Office for comment.
Hochul did not elaborate on whether reparations would include all black citizens or only descendants of slaves, but even descendants of immigrants who arrived after the abolition of slavery would receive reparations. He claimed that he could be held responsible.
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“I think about the immigrants and the children of immigrants who have come here since the end of slavery,” Hochul said. “They would say, ‘We were not involved in slavery. … None of our relatives were slave owners.’ And in my mind, people There’s a part of me that’s worried about jumping into this conversation because it could create division and conflict between species.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul holds up a signed bill establishing the New York State Compensation Review Commission in New York City on December 19, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The governor continued, “These crowds and weary masses came here in search of a better life. … The slaves, the enslaved people, I think they came here willingly to pursue their dreams. We’ve been forced to live out a nightmare. And since our families came here to chase our dreams, don’t we have a role to play in ending that nightmare? Yes, we do.”
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