A Republican state senator from Florida introduced a constitutional amendment on Monday, Nov. 27, aimed at prohibiting the state and all local level governments from paying reparations to Black residents for slavery.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill, who is the former chairman of the state Republican Party, proposed the amendment, which will come up for consideration during the next legislative session in January, with the goal of putting the issue on the ballot in November.
The amendment would “prohibit the state, a county, a municipality, and any other political subdivision from paying compensation in the form of reparations to an individual who is a descendant of an enslaved individual who lived in the United States before December 6, 1865.”
However, both the Florida Senate and House would have to approve the measure by a 60 percent majority vote before state residents would get their say at the ballot box.
A similar resolution was expected to be filed in the House.
Reparations have remained a controversial subject among lawmakers who have struggled for decades to find a comprehensive resolution following the end of slavery after the Civil War.
The issue has reignited debate in Washington as progressive Democrats recently criticized President Joe Biden for not taking any meaningful actions on reparations since he took office nearly three years ago.
“People of color have been turned off for a while because of … no conversation at all about reparations if you’re talking about the Black community,” Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner during an interview. “But we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on weapons in war, but we can’t even have a conversation about reparations? Those are the things that are happening right now.”
In response, White House spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued a statement Monday, Nov. 27, saying: “President Biden believes that the…
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