Members of Philadelphia’s new slavery reparations commission spoke about their mission at a launch this week, pledging to “get to work” on improving schools and housing for Black residents.
But an investigation by DailyMail.com has exposed major flaws in the new nine-member panel.
The group’s co-chairman, Rashaun Williams, is already using his new role to promote his Afro-House club nights, where he acts as DJ Reeze.
And the panel’s legal chief, Jackie Newsome, has strong feelings against white people, her tweets suggest.
She criticizes their ‘white fragility’ and compares them to it ‘high school students.’ In other posts, she controversially calls for “dismantling the police.”
Philadelphia’s recovery panel got off to a bad start at City Hall this week, as controversial social media posts from the new members were unearthed
The panel’s co-chair, Rashaun Williams, has used his new role to promote his Afro-House club nights, when he performs as DJ Reezey
In a video post, Williams talks to the task force and calls on supporters to come and celebrate his club night
The involvement of Williams and Newsome casts doubt on the panel’s credibility and raises questions about whether it can help the city’s 1.6 million residents navigate their complicated history.
The task force and the city council have not responded to the messages.
The revelations are just the latest example of problems in implementing reparations, which gained momentum after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd but are now faltering.
Campaigners say it is time to repair the damage done to black people by slavery and Jim Crow – but critics say the planned payouts are unfair and would only worsen race relations.
That was the Philadelphia Reparations Task Force formally launched Tuesday at City Hall.
It is charged with reporting on “how reparations can atone for the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism,” according to a statement from the city.
New York, San Francisco and other US cities have already launched similar plans.
But Philadelphia’s is seen as particularly important, as four in 10 residents are black – slightly more than whites.
African Americans are having a hard time in the City of Brotherly Love, official figures show.
They are much more likely to live in poverty than others, and own only 6 percent of businesses.
Reparations cover everything from erecting statues to business loans, but discussions often center on whether taxpayers should compensate blacks with eye-watering cash payouts.
The panel can only make recommendations. Any financial disbursements would have to be approved by council members and the mayor through a budget process.
Williams was instrumental in setting up the task force and was named co-chair last year.
Rashaun Williams, seen here wearing a hoodie decorated with images of Malcolm X and other campaigners for racial justice
Williams has controversially used the committee to promote his Afro-House club nights, called ‘Movement and Melanin’
DailyMail.com can reveal that within weeks he was using the office to promote his dance parties.
One of his social media posts features the logos of the task force, the Philadelphia City Council and Council Member Jamie Gauthier – a prominent local politician who supported the reparations project.
The post includes a video of Williams addressing the task force before one of his dances, a Dec. 2 event called “Movement and Melanin.”
“I have events,” Williams says.
“We need to celebrate blackness. We need to celebrate ourselves in this world.”
He urges viewers to join his email list and stay up to date on his upcoming $15 late-night parties.
On the face of it, this is contradictory Philadelphia’s ethics manual for boards and committees, which sets rules for conflicts of interest.
Members “cannot take any official action that would harm your personal financial interests,” the document said.
Newsome, who will coordinate legal policy for the reparations task force, is even more controversial.
In social media posts, she speaks disparagingly of white Americans.
“Looking at white people on social media makes me feel like the parent of a high school student,” she wrote in one such post.
They should “get off the internet and stay out of black people’s business,” she added.
In another article, she refers to “white fragility,” a term used to describe white people who react defensively when their prejudices are challenged.
It is the title of a 2018 book by Robin DiAngelo, a key text in the academic approach known as Critical Race Theory.
In a post shortly after the police killing of Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, in May 2020, Newsome joined the chorus of calls to “defund the police.”
The post was addressed to Gauthier and other city politicians. It urged them to secure funding for the Philadelphia Police Department.
The panel’s legal chief, Jackie Newsome, has spoken derogatorily of white people, comparing them to “high school students”
To some, Newsome’s posts about white people being “high schoolers” should disqualify her from public office
Breanna Moore (right), co-chairs of the Reparations Task Force, and Rashaun Williams, launch the effort at City Hall in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Councilman Jamie Gauthier was a driving force behind the reparations project
It was a popular slogan during the Black Lives Matter protests after Floyd’s death, but the policy fell out of favor as police morale dropped and crime rates rose.
The city’s code of conduct discourages committee members from posting political messages on social media.
Newsome’s controversial posts were posted before she joined the body.
Still, her reference to white people as “high schoolers” casts doubt on whether she is fit for public office.
Williams, the City Council, the task force and the mayor’s office did not return our requests for comment.
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants, and sold into slavery.
Those who survived the brutal journey ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, including Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States, while others profited from their labor.
Campaigners say it is time for America to pay back its black residents for the injustices of the historic transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation and the inequalities that persist to this day.
The amounts are eye-watering: Black lawmakers in Washington are asking for at least $14 trillion for a federal plan to “eliminate the racial wealth gap” between black and white Americans.
Critics say payouts to select black people will inevitably divide winners and losers and raise questions about why American Indians and others aren’t getting their own benefits.
Reparations are popular among the black people who will benefit from them, but unpopular among the whites, Asians and others who would have to pay the tax bill without benefiting from it themselves.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last year, more than 74 percent of blacks support the U.S. government’s reparations for slavery and its legacy, compared to just 26 percent of whites.
Reparations are much more popular among Democratic voters than among Republicans.