Chicago Mayor Announces Millions in Race-based Grants as Reparations

Just a month after touting a policy of only hiring black people, earning himself a DOJ probe over his hiring practices, Mayor Brandon Johnson is back in the headlines, this time for doleing out reparations.

Ahead of Juneteenth, Mayor Johnson attended a flag-raising ceremony where he announced a $4.1 million grant program to combat “historic slavery.” He also launched a Reparations Task Force while comparing Trump’s administration to the Confederacy (gee, I wonder who the Confederates voted for….).

“Other cultures are taught to never forget. We need to be reminded as blacks here in Chicago and America, remembering our past and working towards a more just future, investing in black is not a criminal act.”

Johnson signed Executive Order 2024-1 to establish a “Reparations Task Force.” California established their own task force in 2020 that cost upwards of $5 million a year to run, which spent three years on a “fact finding” mission that included having public hearings and making suggestions about what should be given as reparations. 

It was estimated that reparations would cost the state $800 billion, nearly triple the annual state budget. In the end, “only” $12 million ended up being budgeted for reparations last year. 

Matt Palumbo is the author of The Heir, Inside the (Not So) Secret Network of Alex Soros