Mamdani won't rule out cash reparations, says he'll await NYC commission findings

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."

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"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 the schedule on CORE's website, the commission are expected to release their final report for the "Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Planning Process" in June of 2027. The final report on the reparations study is expected in July of 2027 and the implementation for the "Truth, Healing and Reconciliation" plan is expected by June 18, 2028.

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"We would like to thank the Mayor for using his platform to acknowledge New York City's complicit history in chattel slavery. New York was home to the second-largest slaveholding population in America, after Charleston, South Carolina. The first commodities traded on Wall Street included the buying and selling of enslaved Black people, and their brutal forced unpaid labor built one of the most powerful economic engines in the world. Recognizing this history is an important step toward understanding the enduring legacy of slavery and its impact on our city and nation," Linda Tigani, chair and executive director of NYC CORE, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The statement continued, "We must repay the longstanding debt owed and truly tackle the racial wealth gap in New York City which is directly correlated to the stain of slavery in New York City. Since the passing of Local Law 91 and 92, the NYC Commission on Racial Equity has reached thousands of New Yorkers to formulate recommendations to pay the debt and advance permanent structural change to end racist practice in our city."

The commission rebuked Mamdani after the mayor released his Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan in April, and said in a press release that it failed to meet the requirements of the NYC charter.

"At a moment when communities across the country are deeply concerned about the direction of racial justice and equity under Donald Trump’s national political climate, New Yorkers made clear through our five-borough town halls that city government has a responsibility to lead with accountability and investments in communities most impacted by inequity," Tigani said at the time.

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CORE's findings say community members feel that Mamdani's plan fails to include a meaningful citywide racial equity strategy, required race-disaggregated data standards, neighborhood-level accountability metrics, a clear response to community racial equity priorities, and transparent funding tied directly to racial equity outcomes.

The commission has hosted rallies and gatherings in the city, including one for Juneteenth this year, which Forbes reported was the city's largest reparations gathering yet.

"The goal of the event for NYC CORE was to create a space where joy, community, and civic engagement were at the center of both commemorating Juneteenth and advancing the conversation around reparations and racial equity," political strategist Tyrik Washington, who partnered with CORE to aid a study on reparations in New York City, told the outlet in June.

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Washington added, "If reparations policies were implemented in New York City today, I believe that within five to ten years we would see measurable reductions in occupational segregation and meaningful progress toward pay equity for Black New Yorkers."

A progress update report was released by CORE in January, touting $500,000 "committed to community groups in 2026 to participate in a Reparations, Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Network."

The report detailed how more than two dozen groups would be given tens of thousands of dollars each to participate in "conversations to discuss the development of a Reparations study" and to gather "input on the early development of the citywide Truth, Healing and Reconciliation plan."

Funding, according to the document, "allows for each community member to receive an incentive for their time" and covers the costs of providing participants with "refreshments."

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