Reparations arrived in the Windy City Monday as the mayor launched initiatives for the present and future while advancing rhetoric against President Donald Trump.
“… investing in black is not a criminal act.”
Kicking off celebrations for Juneteenth early, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson attended a flag-raising ceremony Monday in Daley Plaza. Already subject to a Justice Department investigation for alleged race-based hiring, the mayor announced a more than $4 million grant program to combat “historic slavery” and the launch of a Reparations Task Force while comparing Trump’s administration to the Confederacy.
“Other cultures are taught to never forget,” said Johnson as he touted the Wealth Our Way capital grant program. “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.”
Journalist Nick Sortor shared a snippet of the mayor’s announcement on distributing $4.11 million to the black community and said, “This is straight up RACISM! Trump’s DOJ should shut this down NOW!”
JUST IN: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just announced he will be handing race-based grants ONLY to blacks for “slavery reparations”
This is straight up RACISM!
Trump’s DOJ should shut this down NOW! pic.twitter.com/qhGgy7lPpL
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 16, 2025
In addition to the grants, Johnson signed Executive Order 2024-1 to establish a Reparations Task Force that was intended to devise the city’s own “definition and framework for reparations” and conduct a study that would examine “all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from slavery era to present day.”
Reflecting on how he “made a promise to drive reparations,” the mayor told the crowd that included the members of the task force, “Reparations is not just an acknowledgment of our past. Reparations is an acknowledgment of the past sins and how it’s more important now than ever that we continue to fight for complete liberation. But we see the sins of the past and the vestiges of slavery still seep its way through our economy and through government.”
“The Confederacy is certainly alive. And we can feel and see the pulse of the Confederacy manifest in the Donald Trump administration,” said the elected official.
In peddling the W.O.W. grants that would include awards up to $500,000 to be expended before the end of 2026, Johnson said, “As we celebrate Juneteenth, we are recommitting ourselves to the critical work of repairing past harms through investment and opportunity. The work of repair and restoration is central to our mission. This is a collective work that impacts our entire communities, so we are putting these funds to help build up collective ownership models in neighborhoods that have been shut out for far too long.”
Reacting to the latest city to endeavor to redistribute wealth on the basis of race, conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck tagged U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon and wrote, “Yes @ChicagosMayor it is in fact a crime to give grants out on the basis of race because it means you’re discriminating on the basis of race. I’m willing to bet @HarmeetKDhillon has thoughts…”
For the time being, the assistant attorney general’s thoughts were, “Someone must have told him this kind of vague nonsense boosts his popularity…” while social media users were less reserved in expressing outrage.
Someone must have told him this kind of vague nonsense boosts his popularity… https://t.co/L5KYVzENvq
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) June 16, 2025
Everyone can call out racism when we see it.
This is racist.
Period, end of story.
Every rational human being can call this out.
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) June 16, 2025
“Investing in blacks is not a crime” but “buying votes and election interference” certainly is I believe…..
— Steven Kerwin (@StevenKerwin) June 17, 2025
No one is more racist than Democrats
— TVD (@tvd33c) June 16, 2025
The mayor of Chicago is racist.
You can’t give preferential treatment to people based on race.
Enjoy the lawsuits.
— Molly Pitcher (@AmericanMama86) June 16, 2025
— Texas Patriot (@DLFlower2024) June 16, 2025
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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