A New York City panel established to examine racial inequities has issued a request for an outside contractor to conduct research on slavery reparations, raising questions about costs and scope, as reported [1]by The New York Post.
The New York City Commission on Racial Equity, a 15-member group supported by multiple paid staffers, released a solicitation last week seeking a vendor to prepare a report examining the historical and economic impact of slavery in New York City. The commission is funded by taxpayers and operates with an annual budget of approximately $5 million.
According to the solicitation, the report is expected to detail “how wealth for the White population, key businesses, and NYC government grew as a result of enslaved African labor.”
Exclusive: Woke NYC commission outsources its own job to study slavery reparations | Craig McCarthy, New York Post
They’re outsourcing wokeness.
A city commission that costs taxpayers $5 million a year solely to study racial inequity has contracted out one of its main jobs —… pic.twitter.com/9fUFYvE2OA [2]
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) April 28, 2026 [3]
It also calls for analysis of “the harms perpetrated and perpetuated by NYC government related to chattel slavery and its legacies,” including the city’s financial connections to slavery, Jim Crow, and related historical systems.
The requested study is also expected to identify neighborhoods that “suffered from grave injustice related to slavery and its legacies” and include recommendations for “reparative policies.”
The vendor is tasked with providing proposed “legislative language and funding mechanisms” related to addressing slavery and its long-term effects, more than 160 years after the end of the Civil War.
It remains unclear how much the contracted work will cost or whether it will be covered within the commission’s current budget. The commission did not respond to requests for clarification. A prior estimate for similar research placed the cost at approximately $1.5 million.
The move drew criticism from David Carr, who questioned the decision to outsource work assigned to the commission.
“Let me get this straight: The commission that has already spent millions of dollars to dredge up racial grievances and do nothing at all to help make any New Yorker’s life better now wants to spend millions more to pay other people to do their useless work for them?” Carr said.
“Unreal,” he added.
“Every time I think, that’s it, we have found the absolutely most absurd way to set fire to taxpayer money, this city says, ‘Hold my beer.’”
The commission was directed to carry out the reparations study under legislation passed in 2024.
The law states: “CORE in consultation with the office of racial equity, shall conduct a study of the role of the governing bodies and agencies of the city of New York in perpetrating or perpetuating historical and ongoing impacts of slavery and its legacies and recommend reparative measures for affected individuals or communities in New York city.”
The commission itself was created in 2021 during the administration of Bill de Blasio, with a stated goal of addressing what officials described as “past and continuing harms” experienced by Black residents.
Earlier this year, the commission spent approximately $200,000 to collect “truth testimony from New Yorkers” as part of its broader work. At the time the 2024 legislation was passed, the reparations study was expected to be conducted internally by the commission, with an estimated cost of $1.5 million.
Separately, the state of New York allocated $5 million last year to support a similar commission studying reparations at the state level.
The timeline for selecting a vendor and completing the report has not been publicly detailed.