(RepublicanJournal.org) – New York City has now officially jumped on the reparations bandwagon. The city’s health department is pushing for federal payments to the descendants of slaves, claiming that handouts would fix what 158 years of emancipation haven’t. Mayor Eric Adams (D) is backing the move.
On July 18, the New York Post revealed a new report by the NYC Department of Health titled “Analyzing the Racial Wealth Gap and Implications for Health Equity.” The report, backed by Mayor Adams’s administration, calls for a federal reparations scheme to “seek acknowledgment, redress, and closure” for the injustice of slavery — even though nobody alive in the US today was a slave or owned one. In an attempt to make reparations relevant to the 21st Century, despite slavery having been abolished in 1865, the report also demands compensation for “Jim Crow, and ongoing systemic racism” even though New York never had any Jim Crow laws.
Last year Mayor Adams, who is black, demanded reparations from corporations if “the foundation of their wealth came from slavery,” claiming this is “long overdue.” Adams and other reparations advocates say the controversial policy would eliminate the wealth gap between black and white Americans; the new NYC report claims this would also reduce health inequalities.
Reparations have a lot of support on the Left, but Conservatives are less happy. NYC’s council minority leader, Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), blasted Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan for the report. He highlighted Vasan’s previous support for controversial policies that included distributing crack pipes through vending machines and firing unvaccinated city workers.
Gerard Kassar, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York, pointed out that New York is already dealing with health inequalities by having the most generous Medicaid program in the country and added, “We’re not living in the past.” However, the New York Legislature has already approved a reparations commission and is waiting for Governor Kathy Hochul (D) to sign off on it. A similar commission in California recently came up with recommendations that would cost the state’s taxpayers an eye-watering $100 billion. Now, white New Yorkers could be next in line for a reparations shakedown.
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