A man in Tampa, Florida, wants the city to hand out $3 million in reparations for each Black resident.
"No Black person cares about them speed bumps or parks and recreation," the man, who is Black but was otherwise unidentified, said during Thursday's City Council meeting. "What Black people care about is our reparations. This city owes us, each and every Black person in the city of Tampa, at least $3 million in reparations."
He continued: "That's what's important. All this nonsense y'all talk about—all this nonsense, homelessness and all this other garbage y'all talk about, police violence and all this stuff—don't nobody care about that. We care about our reparations and we have to put white people on notice that we want our reparations."
His remarks were met with a brief "thank-you" from the council. Newsweek reached out to the council via email for comment.
The issue of reparations—financial compensation for slavery and other historical injustices—has become prominent in recent years, especially in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020 after he was killed while in Minneapolis police custody. California is expected to be the first state to approve a reparations program for Black residents to compensate for the state's history of slavery and racial discrimination.
Earlier this month, the California Reparations Task Force voted to approve the recommendations, sending the proposal to the state Legislature. Economists on the task force estimate that the plan could cost the state more than $800 billion, with the restitution amounts varying based on racial harms and length of California residency.
On the federal level, Democratic Representative Cori Bush of Missouri introduced legislation on Wednesday calling for $14 trillion in reparations for Black Americans. She said the U.S. has a "moral and legal obligation" to make payouts.
"America must provide reparations if we desire a prosperous future for all," Bush said during a press conference.
In Florida, reparations have been discussed. Former gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried, a Democrat, expressed support for reparations legislation during her 2022 campaign.
Asked by Stephen Hunter Johnson, a member of Miami-Dade County's Black Affairs Advisory Board, if she would sign a reparations bill into law if she was elected, Fried replied, "Yes, of course it would be. I think these are hard conversations to have, but we have to have them."
Fried was defeated in the Democratic primary by former Governor Charlie Crist, who went on to lose to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in the general election.
On Thursday, the Tampa man compared racism to child molestation, saying that white Americans treat Black Americans like children and "molest us and get away with it." He also called for the city to remove every coded enforcement violation against any property used by a Black resident in Tampa, arguing that "we don't have attorneys, we don't have money."
"Our fore-parents and us, we didn't work for free and underpaid and all this nonsense, and the white folks get away with it [while] they talk about the great city that they're building," he said.
Polling shows the idea of reparations is broadly unpopular among Americans. Last November, a Pew Research Center survey found that while 77 percent of Black Americans support reparations for descendants of enslaved people, only 18 percent of white Americans agreed. The majority of Latinos and Asian Americans also oppose reparations, according to the poll.
In terms of party affiliation, 90 percent of Republicans said they oppose reparations, compared with half of Democrats.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
