Despair Is the Tool of Injustice

New York City, before sunrise (photo by Anthony Quintano) It’s hard not to despair. The headlines shout at us about ICE, Gaza, Iran and other literal and metaphorical wars against dignity and community. We stand in opposition. We raise our voices and our placards. We provide what comfort and resources we can to the groups being directly attacked. And still the bleak headlines keep shouting back. But, as Bryan Stevenson tells us (and I’ve told you before), “hopelessness is the enemy of justice.” 1 We can’t let the darkness blind our vision. We must find hope, learn from it, join its work, and move toward justice and healing. I see part of my role as helping you identify and oppose how our government turns racial grievance into policy, and illuminating the historical roots of such grievances, which my own ancestors can often illustrate. But I also want to highlight reasons for hope, and show paths toward healing and repair. And we should find hope not only from individuals and small communities working on racial healing and reparations, but also bigger government institutions, which we need to enlist if we’re going to heal and repair all of us, along with our broken systems. This week we can find hope in New York City’s Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), working toward a city-wide Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation process to study the impact of slavery and its legacies in New York City, and recommend reparative policies to redress those harms. While several states and municipalities are working on either reparations or Truth and Reconciliation, New York City claims to be the first U.S. government institution to do both at the same time. 2 I should stop here to note that the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework, developed by Dr. Gail Christopher, the former Senior Adviser and Vice President of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, like CORE in New York, aims to accomplish both the aims of narrative change and racial healing, together with transforming structures and institutions in ways that mirror racial reparations. And, as my long-time readers may recall, this Healing White History project is grounded in that TRHT framework – in the specific, individualized context of family history. 3 We need to do the individual work of narrative change, healing racial trauma in our own bodies, building relationships, and undertaking repairs individually or as families, in small groups and communities. Work like the work of this project. At the same time, we also need to advocate for institutional work that has the power to repaint our social canvas with much broader strokes. Truth, racial healing, and repair should be a “both/and” proposition across individuals and institutions. 4 With that in mind, let’s get back to celebrating what’s happening in New York. New York City created CORE in 2022, granting the group independent responsibility to hold government accountable for advancing racial equity in government operations and increasing community voices in government decision making. 5 In 2024, the City passed Local City Laws 91 and 92, which “offer New Yorkers ways to address the history of enslaved African labor in NYC and the killing of indigenous people, with the testimony of current and past harms suffered by communities due to racism. Implementing these bills will create a pathway to fix the system and promote racial healing.” 6 As CORE Executive Director Linda Tigani put it, “ We are the only racial equity commission in the nation that is supposed to bring government to the table to be held accountable for what they are doing now, for what they have done in the past, and for anything that they may do in the future.” 7 And CORE is not working alone to help heal racism in New York City. In April 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office released the 2026 Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan, a 375-page document. 8 The Mayor’s Plan addresses the historical underpinnings of racism and how the city’s systems of housing, health, education, and public safety, among others, have operated inequitably for decades. This includes a seven-page historical timeline, running from pre-1624 to 2026, outlining more than 100 historical events in the City and across the nation that illustrate the effects of race in City institutions and infrastructure. That timeline represents the type of narrative change the TRHT framework requires, by owning at least some of the truths about how governments helped create racial harm, such as NYPD killings of several Black men: Amadou Diallo (1999), Sean Bell (2006), and Eric Garner (2014). And the Mayor’s Plan works toward the “Transformation” piece of the TRHT framework as well. The Plan sets out short-term (1-3 years), medium-term (4-5 years), and long-term (6-10 years) equity goals and strategies for each of NYC’s 45 City agencies. These Plan strategies aim to implement structural changes across all areas of city government to correct racial disparities and inequities. For example: The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) aims to reduce pregnancy-associated mortality among Black non-Hispanic women and birthing people by 10 percent by 2030. DOHMH explicitly recognizes that Black women and birthing people are at the highest risk of preventable mortality because they are “unfairly ignored and dismissed by clinicians and systems because of structural racism, disinvestment in their communities, and other outcomes.” 9 Department of Social Services (DSS) is expanding permanent housing placements for people in shelter, including growing Affordable Housing Services contracts by 1,000 units. The Police Department (NYPD) will quantify, track, and analyze racial disparities in stops, frisks, and searches in an effort to reduce those disparities. Now, to clarify, fixing racial inequities in existing government systems – the work of the Mayor’s Plan – is not, of itself, reparations for past racial harm. As established by the United Nations, reparations requires restitution and compensation, together with cessation of ongoing violations (such as inequitable government systems). 10 CORE continues to work on reparations while the Mayor’s Office is working on fixing racial inequities. And collectively, these efforts by CORE, the mayor’s office, and others in NYC show how government can advance racial healing and also help build new systems of social and economic infrastructure that provide more equitable opportunities and support for all people. And that government work is by no means limited to municipalities like New York City. CORE announced an event last week that shows that nations across the world stand together with New York City in support of truth, reconciliation, and racial reparations. Next month, on Sept. 4, CORE will host the inaugural United Nations Racial Equity Summit 2026 at the UN Headquarters in NYC. The event will be one of the “first major summits centered specifically on connecting the work of U.S. racial equity commissions with the international movement to confront racism and materially advance reparations.” 11 The Summit is expected to convene a cross-section of major global leaders, U.S. racial equity commissions, government officials, faith leaders, advocates, youth and community voices. 12 This is incredible work. Holy work. And don’t think that it can only happen in New York. Indeed, the Mayor’s Racial Equity Plan explicitly acknowledged that the framework the City was using was based in part on racial equity work that had already been done in Dallas, Chicago, and Philadelphia. 13 A few weeks ago I told you about Land Back initiatives happening in different places across the country. 14 And I’ve also mentioned that work on reparations for Black folks is going on at governments around the country – and has been in full flow in the city of Evanston, Illinois since 2021. 15 Here in Dallas, staunchly conservative state lawmakers, the Governor, and the Trump Administration have rolled back much of the racial equity progress that the city of Dallas (and the rest of north Texas) made over the last 10 years. But here’s the point: we should still remember that work happened. And it can happen again – in even bigger, better ways. So celebrate with joy the good work that is happening, even inside of government institutions. We’ve all got to remember that joy is our strength in resistance, and despair is the tool of injustice. Please subscribe to follow the arc: truth → healing → transformation & repair. 1 “Why Hope Is Necessary, with Bryan Stevenson” On Being (June 21, 2023) https://onbeing.org/programs/hope-is-a-muscle-i-why-hope-is-necessary/ (accessed Aug. 16, 2026). 2 New York City Commission on Racial Equity, “Soliciation of Interest: New York City Commission on Racial Equity Reparations Community Partnership Application,” at 1 (2026) https://www.nyc.gov/assets/core/downloads/pdf/FY2026Feb_%20NYC%20CORE%20Reparations%20Solicitation_Final.pdf (accessed Aug. 16, 2026). 3 4 5 “NYC CORE Launches Reparations Study To Address Slavery’s Lasting Legacy,” Harlem World (July 30, 2026) https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/nyc-core-launches-reparations-study-to-address-slaverys-lasting-legacy/ (accessed Aug. 16, 2026). 6 New York City Commission on Racial Equity, “Request for Information: Co-Designing a Reparations Study and a Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Process,” (Dec. 17, 2024) https://www.nyc.gov/assets/core/downloads/pdf/Final_CORE_Co_Design_Local_Law_91_and%2092.pdf (accessed Aug. 16, 2026) 7 NYC CORE Gathering on Reparations - June 10, 2025, YouTube at 5:39 (accessed Aug. 16, 2026). 8 New York City Mayor’s Office, “Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan” (April 2026) https://www.nyc.gov/assets/equity/downloads/pdf/FINAL_PUBLISH_Preliminary%20REP_4%206%2026.pdf (accessed Aug. 17, 2026). 9 This DOHMH goal is set out separately from the Citywide Racial Equity Plan, in the 2025 Mayor’s Management Report: Dr. Michelle Morse, Acting Commissioner, “Department of Mental Health and Hygiene,” from Mayor’s Management Report (2025) at 203 https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/mmr2025/2025_mmr.pdf (accessed Aug. 17, 2026). 10 https://www.ohchr.org/en/transitional-justice/reparations (accessed Aug. 17, 2026) 11 “Historic UN Summit Advances Racial Equity And Reparations Agenda,” Harlem World (Aug. 14, 2026) https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/historic-un-summit-advances-racial-equity-and-reparations-agenda/ (accessed Aug. 17, 2026). 12 Id. 13 Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan at 26. 14 15