New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani floated cutting checks to black New Yorkers to atone for the city’s involvement in slavery. But transforming the descendants of immigrants into historical perpetrators, and millions of black New Yorkers into victims, would be historically incoherent and legally perilous.

When asked whether he would support cash reparations for those affected by slavery if recommended by the New York City Commission on Racial Equity, Mamdani said New York was “very complicit” and that he looked forward to the commission’s “critically important” findings.