Members of New York's newly-formed slavery reparations panel blamed 'white folk' for climate change, likened Senator Tim Scott to 'Uncle Tim' and called to defund the police in unearthed tweets

The panel in charge of drawing up New York's plans for slavery reparations is under fire after it emerged that members attacked black senator Tim Scott, blamed white people for climate change and slammed Israel within days of October 7.

Governor Kathy Hochul urged New Yorkers 'not to excuse' the state's role in slavery as she set up the task force at the end of last year.

But she is facing calls to fire panelist Ron Daniels after he labelled Scott 'Uncle Tim' and branded him a front man for white supremacy.

'Uncle Tim' Scott, Who Picked Cotton On the Plantation, Is 'Still On the Plantation,' Daniels described the black Republican in a 2021 tweet.

'Picked to Be the 'Black Face' To Suppress/Black Power/Black Freedom On Behalf of White Supremacy/White Power and That's 'The Cotton Picking Truth' #BewareofUncleTim.'

Panel member Ron Daniels, the founder and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, has drawn fury for his comments on Israel, climate change, and Black Republicans

Fellow panelist Lurie Daniel Favors is a vigorous supporter of efforts to defund the police

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill in December making the state only the third in the country to institute an official reparations commission

Daniels, the founder and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, was one of three panel members nominated by state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

'White Folks Messed Up the Weather = Black Folks Save the Planet,' Daniels tweeted three years ago.

'With silence, comes complacency. No Homeland. No Peace. No Justice, No Peace in Israel,' he tweeted in October last year above a picture of a large Palestinian flag.

'There will never be peace in Israel until the Palestinians have a home. Military force will quench the thirst of the Palestinian people for justice. No Homeland, No Peace!'

Lurie Daniel Favors, another of Heastie's appointments, has been virulent in her calls to defund the police, tweeting in 2019: 'Police all across the country are literally proving *daily* why #DefundThePolice is necessary.

'I'm old enough to remember summa y'all claiming activists were going too far,' the executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at City University New York added.

'The commission on reparations was ridiculous from the start. This proves it,' State Conservative Party chairman Gerard Kassar told the New York Post.

'These sound like people who have preconceived notions of what they view as white privilege. Unbelievable. There's no way these appointees should serve on the commission given their comments.' 

New York became just the third state of set up a panel to consider the payment of reparations to the descendants of African Americans who were held in slavery when the appointments were made in December.

Daniels tweeted his support for Palestine within days of the October 7 attack on Israel

A 2021 tweet blamed 'white folks' for global warming 

A 2021 tweet on Senator Tim Scott accused the South Carolina Republican of being 'Uncle Tim' a front man for white supremacy 

Lawyer Lurie Daniel Favors hosts her own radio show and runs the Center for Law and Social Justice at the City University of New York 

Daniels and Daniel Favors were both appointed to the nine-man panel by New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie 

The vexed question was forced to the forefront in the aftermath of George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer in 2020, but has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months.

Black lawmakers in Washington seek at least $14 trillion for a federal scheme to 'eliminate the racial wealth gap' between black and white Americans.

But California's black lawmakers last month unveiled a package of bills on reparations for black residents that makes no mention of the $1.2 million payouts they were promised earlier.

A survey last year of 6,000 registered California voters found that only 23 percent supported cash reparations, while 59 percent were opposed.

And while black Californians would like to receive payouts, very few of them believe they ever will.

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll last year found that three-quarters of black people said the descendants of slaves should get government compensation.

But only 14 percent expected to see any in their lifetimes.

Campaigners in Chicago are now concentrating their efforts towards black-only carve-outs on the $6,000-a-year property taxes that are typical in the Illinois city.

Billboards have gone up over Chicago in a push to waive property taxes for hard-up black households 

Six in ten respondents opposed payouts to the descendants of slaves, while four in ten said the federal government should 'definitely should not pursue' such a policy

'We have a problem, where our black citizens in Chicago are being kicked or forced out of Chicago, and they are going to the southern states to live comfortably,' said Howard Ray Jr of the city's Reconstruction Era Reparations Act Now group.

The cost of just setting up New York's panel is expected to be between $5 million and $10 million before any figure for reparations is proposed.

'The reparations of slavery were paid with the blood and lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans who fought to end slavery during the Civil War,' said state Senate Republican Minority Leader Robert Ortt.

'This commission will stoke further division in New York and waste millions of taxpayer dollars that could be spent educating the public about our history and improving communities.'