Chicago Mayor Jumps on Reparations Bandwagon With New $500,000 Task Force

Chicago is going to spend a half a million dollars to develop a “Black Reparations Agenda” to find ways to benefit Black city-dwellers who the mayor claims have been harmed from the slavery era to present day.Mayor Brandon Johnson is establishing a reparations task force to conduct a comprehensive study and examination of all “harmful” policies and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies. One of the main goals will be to define and create a framework for reparations.“It is a pledge to shape the future of our city by confronting the legacy of inequity that has plagued Chicago for far too long,” Mr. Johnson said in a press release. “We are continuing to build on the bedrock of my administration to move forward in reconciliation through targeted investments aimed at rectifying decades of deliberate disinvestment in black neighborhoods and communities.”Mr. Johnson timed the announcement to coincide with the Juneteenth emancipation holiday and also issued an apology on behalf of the city for the “historical wrongs committed against black Chicagoans and their ancestors who have and continue to bear injustices.”On Monday, Mr. Johnson announced a $4.11 million capital grant program to help people who live in Black neighborhoods create commercial shared ownership projects with the goal to create generational wealth that can be passed down. The program will offer grants of up to $500,000 to cover the costs for neighborhood-owned real estate projects.A number of American cities have toyed with reparations programs. The first was set up in Evanston, Illinois, six years ago and has distributed more than $5 million to more than 200 Black people. It ran into a cash crunch this year, however, because a key funding source — a 3 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales — has fallen short of expectations.California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have set up state-level reparations commissions.New York’s commission that is studying possible reparations has missed a deadline to complete its report and is asking for about $5 million more in funding to continue its work.In June 2023, a reparations task force in California released a report with 115 recommendations as to how the state — which never legally allowed slavery — could compensate descendants of slaves. Governor Newsom has signed a formal apology for California’s historical role in the “perpetuation of slavery” but he has balked at direct cash payments due to budgetary shortfalls.Last month, Governor Moore vetoed a bill that would have created a commission to study slavery reparations in Maryland, angering liberals. Mr. Moore says he has invested more than a billion dollars in the state’s historically Black colleges and directed more than $800 million in state contracts to Black-owned businesses. He says those types of programs are far more effective than handing out checks to individuals.

Chicago Mayor Jumps on Reparations Bandwagon With New $500,000 Task Force

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