New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not rule out awarding cash reparations to people impacted by slavery in the Big Apple during an interview on Tuesday, but said he was looking forward to the release of the findings by the city's commission."If a commission studying reparations in this city recommended cash reparations for people impacted in New York City, would you support that recommendation?" Charles Blow asked Mamdani during an interview for "The Root."Blow also noted Mamdani's statement from when he was running for mayor that read, "New York City participated actively in the slave trade and furthered its legacy through racist institutions, policies, and laws.The city should reconcile and repair this legacy of slavery, stolen wealth and discrimination."NEW YORK FAR-LEFT GROUP CLAIMS REPARATIONS 'OWED' AS BLACKS' MEDIAN WEALTH 'NEARLY 15 TIMES LESS' THAN WHITESNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking in Brooklyn.
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)"First, I want to say that I stand by what I submitted.It’s the truth.
It’s not a personal assessment.And we often think about slavery and the complicity in slavery as being exclusively to certain geographic areas of the country.
Here in New York City, we were very complicit.So I look forward to whatever those findings are.
I can’t give you an answer in advance of them, but I can tell you that this is critically important because this is also what it looks like to acknowledge what history truly was," Mamdani responded.The New York City Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) was established in 2024 under Local Law 92 "to study how NYC government contributed to slavery and the harms caused by its legacies," according to the commission's website.A separate process for "Truth, Healing and Reconciliation" was established under Local Law 91 and allows "New Yorkers a way to publicly acknowledge the history and harm of slavery and its legacies in New York City, and the harms caused by it," the website reads.According to ...