During a campaign interview with hip-hop legend Luther Luke Campbell and others, Florida gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried said she would support reparations legislation like the bill recently adopted in California if she is elected governor.
Stephen Johnson, 100 Black Men of South Florida Past Chair and member of the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board, told Fried that he could not find her position on reparations in any of her campaign materials. Johnson then asked if signing a reparations task force legislation would be something she would do if she became governor of Florida.
Fried responded, “Yes, of course it would be. I think these are hard conversations to have but we have to have them.”
Fried then went on to discuss the Groveland Four, who were four young African-American men falsely accused of raping a 17-year-old girl and assaulting her husband on July 16, 1949, in Lake County, Florida. Fried was a member of the Florida Cabinet who joined in issuing posthumous pardons of the four men on Jan. 11, 2019.
The California reparations bill came about after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide protests.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in 2020 which established a task force to study and develop a plan for reparations in the state. The law gave “special consideration” to black Americans who are direct descendants to enslaved people.
Earlier this year, the California’s reparations task force released its first of two reports detailing the state’s history of slavery and racism, and recommending ways the legislature might begin a process of redress for black Californians.
At nearly 500 pages, the report lays out the history of how black Americans were disadvantaged by the government – from slavery to segregation to discrimination in housing and employment to inequities in the justice system.
The task force report proposes dozens of recommendations, including that the legislature “implement a comprehensive reparations scheme.” The final details – including the exact monetary amount of compensation and the number of black Californians eligible – will be in a second report due to the legislature by July 2023.
The report proposes the creation of the Office of Freedmen Education and Social Services, which would offer free tuition for black students in private K-12 education and those pursuing higher education in the state. It would also ensure that school curricula reflect a more “expansive discussion of the experiences of Black Americans in a way that is accurate and honest,” the report said.
The task force also proposed raising the minimum wage, requiring health benefits and paid time off, and other workplace protections for workers in agriculture, hospitality, food, and domestic industries where there were large numbers of black workers but fewer worker protections, the report said.
Black Californians seeking reparations would be able to file a claim through the Reparations Tribunal/Redress Administration, the proposed arm of the reparations process that would accept or deny a request.
“What we’re asking for is fair, it’s just and it is right, and a nation that does not know how to admit this wrong and act in ways that are practical to show fruits of repentance is on the way to losing its soul,” said task force Vice Chair Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco NAACP, in an interview with NPR.
Recent polls indicate that Fried trails opponent U.S Rep. Charlie Crist in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. The primary election is August 23rd.
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Steve Stewart is a senior contributor at The Florida Capital Star.
Nikki Fried Announces Support of a Reparations Bill in Florida If Elected Governor added by Staff on
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Greetings we have not Got a FairSHARE like others who came to this Country Indians We have not Obtained our Fair Share Simplly DO WHAT IS RIGHT” JUSTICE NOW””…..
Reparations to who. The civil war settled that generations ago.
This lady is just plain pathetic.
The Democratic party is nothing but a cult.
@Grumpy Old Woman,
Completely unequivocally agree with you.
No apologies
No reparations
One nation; one people under God
Blacks have been getting these so called reparations since LBJ created welfare in the 60s. Since then there has been the “equal opportunity” legislation which gave blacks preference in hiring and they also get preference on college admissions without regard to their ability to perform successfully in the institution. Unqualified blacks have been given hiring preferences over other, more qualified individuals in every career field there is especially government and higher education. When will it be enough? When will blacks look to themselves and decide that they are responsible for themselves and the consequences of the choices they make. I say we are past the point that reparations should be paid. Nobody alive was ever a slave or slave holder, enough.
NE Moderate…
DAILEY isn’t running for mayor he is running for governor in 2026. He cares nothing about the citizens he took an oath to serve; he is running across their backs trying to climb the political ladder by courting FSU, FPL, wokers, special interests and any and all sources of gaining political contributions to fund political aspirations. .He is ruthless and cunning and watching him attempt this nonsense where he is also at the pinnacle of the beginning of his downward spiraling.
His campaign has become a joke ditto for Bellamy.
Nikki backed by Reggie Cardozo, working for Maddox Dem David Bellamy and John Dailey (D-FPL).
Do you NEED another reason not to vote for her?
@ Dennis Barton = ALSO, the second one Dollar is handed out, “Affirmative Action” ENDS as well as all the Government Freebies. $1 Billion is set aside for Payment to all those 50 Years of age and older then it gets divided equally between them using the latest Numbers and only paid out to those who can Prove they came from a Slave and they have one YEAR to make the Claim. After that, all of the remaining Money goes back.
We are already paying reparations. The reparations come in the form of contract set asides for minorities, multiple holidays just for minorities such as Juneteenth and Emancipation Day and the drain of our collective patients as minorities claim an institution that ended seven generations ago is the cause of our social inequities today. I, for one, would be happy to pay a one-time fee if minorities would shut the hell up about being a minority and start being just Americans.
Yep, Buying VOTES with Lies.
The one thing history will remember Ms. Fried for is being a consistant however innefective ankle biter of Ron DeSantis. Unless of course there is an investigation into her campaign finances then history will likely remember her for a few more things.
She is a poison serpent
I got sensored.
Every black person should be highly disgusted by this act of desperation on the part of Little Miss Lily-white Fried.
More clueless pandering talking points blather from a desperate Nikki Weed campaign. Check-in with reality Weed… making people who never owned slaves, pay reparations to people who never were slaves, is a losing concept. Like climate change… slavery (and/or indentured servitude) has been around since the beginning of time, and will continue until the end of time… particularly on the African continent… where it remains a flourishing business today.
Let me know Nikki, after your next bong toke that is… what you intend to do about that.
In a last ditch hail Mary play Fried reaches deep up her stinky place and pulls out the “reperations” card.
HA HA
Buying votes. Typical politician.
Hope, agree with you 100%.
She’s a walking joke.
“Recent polls indicate that Fried trails opponent U.S Rep. Charlie Crist in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. The primary election is August 23rd.”
On August 23rd Fried will officially be irrelevant regarding any future she has in holding a Florida political office as an elected official. And it can’t come soon enough.