“Simply over a yr in the past, a monster drove a whole lot of miles to kill New Yorkers, Black New Yorkers,” recalled NY State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who chairs the Meeting’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, & Asian Legislative Caucus. “On his weapon…on his gun was a phrase. And it stated, ‘That is your reparations.’
“Some could argue that the previous is the previous and that we should always transfer on. However how can we transfer on when the echoes of historical past nonetheless reverberate within the lives of hundreds of thousands? How can we construct a future on a basis stained with injustice?”
Members of the caucus introduced on June 8 that the state is now steps nearer to placing the New York State Group Fee on Reparations Treatments in place. Named beneath the not too long ago handed state meeting’s A07691 invoice, the Fee would formally study African enslavement in New York Metropolis and state, doc the methods Black individuals have been handled after New York abolished slavery in 1827, and survey the racial and financial discriminatory legal guidelines Black individuals proceed to face within the state.
East New York Assemblywoman Nikki Lucas identified that the Fee’s work, when it seems to be at reparations, particularly should attempt for lineage-based reparations. “It’s essential to strategy this matter with equity and a give attention to rectifying particular harms endured by the affected communities,” Lucas stated in an impassioned speech earlier than the ultimate vote occurred. “As discussions proceed, it’s important to advocate for lineage-based reparations to make sure justice and fairness for American freedmen who’re direct descendants of enslaved people in the USA. Reparations ought to be focused towards those that immediately skilled hurt and their descendants resulting from slavery and its enduring results.”
The invoice, which awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature to change into regulation, would have Fee members collect proof about how New York’s Black communities have fared within the state and, inside one yr, make suggestions about what sort of treatments or reparations could be applicable. The Fee’s suggestions to the legislature are usually not legally binding and don’t essentially should be adopted.
