URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
(DC Pundit) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a long and growing list of radical policy positions, and he just added another one to the pile. The socialist mayor is refusing to rule out issuing cash reparations to descendants of slaves living in New York City, and he’s leaning on a city commission to give him political cover before he commits either way.
In a podcast episode released this week by The Root’s Charles M. Blow, a written statement Mamdani had submitted as a mayoral candidate was read aloud, in which he declared: “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.”
When Blow asked the mayor directly, “If a commission studying reparations in this city recommended cash reparations for people impacted by slavery in New York City, would you support that recommendation?” — Mamdani did not say no.
Instead, he reaffirmed his written statement: “It’s the truth; it’s not a personal assessment.” He then elaborated: “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, and so I look forward to whatever those findings are.”
He continued: “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.”
Translation: he’s for it, but he wants the commission to take the first arrow before he formally commits. Classic political maneuvering dressed up as thoughtful deliberation.
One of the commission’s findings is due out next summer, at which point Mamdani will presumably find himself in full support of whatever it recommends, assuming it recommends cash payments, which appears to be the direction this is heading.
If Mamdani would like me, a white New Yorker who never owned slaves, to pay a black New Yorker who never was a slave, then I propose:
Every Muslim in NYC starting with Mamdani, should pay us for 9/11.
Please explain why the latter makes no sense but the former does. pic.twitter.com/wvPF9CFvEC
— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) July 29, 2026
There is, however, a significant constitutional obstacle standing between Mamdani and his reparations ambitions. The 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, ratified in 1868 immediately following the Civil War, provides that no state or local government shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Any attempt by New York City to issue race-based cash payments would almost certainly trigger an immediate constitutional challenge that would likely land before the U.S. Supreme Court. If the justices rule in fidelity with the Constitution, reparations will be struck down.
New York City is already facing serious fiscal challenges, rampant crime, and a homelessness crisis that shows no signs of improvement under Mamdani’s leadership. The idea that his administration’s priority is figuring out how to write checks based on ancestry rather than fixing the city people actually live in today tells you everything you need to know about where his head is at.
URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
Copyright 2026. DCPundit.com | Featured image credit: Fotografía oficial de la Presidencia de Colombia
