Linda Tigani Won't Let NYC Abandon Racial Equity

Six years after the murder of George Floyd sparked mass protests around the world and led to increased conversations about anti-Blackness and racial equity, the opposition towards civil rights, equity and justice has reached a fever pitch. As quickly as organizations, institutions, cities and states implemented committees, teams and agencies to support and promote racial equity, these very same groups have diminished at an even quicker rate. There are few people unapologetically pushing racial equity work forward in the current climate—one of those people is Linda Tigani. Tigani has been leading New York City’s Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), serving as the chair and executive director, since 2023.

“My job is to manage all of the commissioners and staff to execute the five original charter mandates, which includes essentially creating community equity priorities, which is the people’s voice, the people’s agenda for racial equity and social justice change in city government,” Tigani shared. She went on to explain her job also includes working with the mayor, the speaker, the city council and elected officials to hold them accountable for racial equity in government operations and to “increase community voice in government decision-making.”

“In our first year,” Tigani explained, “two local laws were passed. Local Law 91 and 92, which charged the Commission on Racial Equity to advance a New York City study on reparations and to create and implement a citywide truth, healing and reconciliation process.” Tyrik Washington is a political strategist who partnered with CORE to provide guidance around an NYC study on reparations. Washington, who is also a community organizer and advocate shared, “CORE has deep alignment of a tradition that comes out of those wanting to have transparency and accountability for government itself. We know that racism is not just a white person calling a Black person the n-word…racism is about power. Who has it and who doesn’t have it? I’m helping to co-lead the reparations and truth, healing and reconciliation initiatives but also the racial equity work that shall guide the preliminary and executive budget.”

Recently, the New York City Mayor’s office of Equity and Racial Justice published their preliminary racial equity plan for 2026. Consequently, NYC CORE released their response to the plan in detail. Tigani explained, “The city’s preliminary racial equity plan, unfortunately, did not actually meet the legal requirement for being a full plan. There were several concerns. Not only was there no citywide plan…so every single city agency is supposed to have a racial equity plan. Only 45 city agencies were included. There was also no data disaggregation standards. That’s a huge problem when you are not collecting data that reflects the identity of the people that you’re serving. There’s supposed to be neighborhood-level outcome indicators. Those were not there.”

Tigani went on to explain, “We should be able to look at the plan and look at the city’s budget and say, this is what Black and brown neighborhoods are getting from our city’s budget, whether it be in education, in housing, or in healthcare. There were no budget numbers in the plan at all. There was no response from the mayor to our community racial equity priorities. Those were the three main issues. What we heard from the community members [is], ‘we do not see ourselves in this plan. We do not see our main issues in this plan.’”

Many have pointed out the need for restitution to address the historic harms that resulted from chattel slavery. Outside of the social good that comes from a country acknowledging its past transgressions, reparations can have a number of positive impacts and could increase the life expectancy of Black Americans, according to research. “I just came back from Geneva, Switzerland, discussing our [reparations] model…what we are doing is essentially putting community at the center. Reparations is a specified claim due to a specified harm inflicted on a specified group of people. How was slavery and the impact of Jim Crow and segregation and the harm and the benefits of that exploitative labor seen through the lens of New York City? We have incentivized organizations to convene community-led meetings so those closest to the actual harm are now closest to providing the solutions.”

The work that Tigani and Washington are doing is more challenging in an anti-DEI climate that has grown hostile to any efforts towards equity and justice. Tigani explained that despite increasing resistance to this work, she’s able to stay grounded. “All the civil rights and human rights work that’s happened in this country has only happened because of African Americans…there would be no civil rights infrastructure, no human rights infrastructure, if it were not for African Americans. As a country, as a city, government has managed to create equity programs that will exclude African Americans but include all other communities of color. There is no liberation, no justice, no freedom, if we do not specifically address and repair all the harms from chattel slavery and Jim Crow, and understand why solidarity and freedom with the African American community is essential for every single other group. Not just in this city or in this nation, but literally in this world.”

In the face of rising antagonism, Tigani has stayed focused. She shared what keeps her motivated to do this work in the face of great opposition and provided advice for others navigating pushback both in and out of their workplaces. “There’s always a lawsuit concern with racial equity from anyone and anywhere. My mom was a single mom, raised two kids, we were on welfare for the first 16 years and I, as an adult, look back at it and just can’t imagine how she did this alone. She just very simply says there’s no other choice. You’re not turning back…you’re not giving up. You have to move forward. There’s no other option. I took that very seriously. This is the moment there is no other choice.”