Democrat Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. defended the “first step” toward reparations for black Memphians Friday in a KWAM exclusive.
Ford, who is behind the legislation, said the only issue conservatives have is reparations, which he referred to as the “r” word.“Wake Up Memphis” host Ben Deeter questioned Ford, who is black, if his tax dollars will be used for the plan.
“Is it just going to be funded by white tax dollars or will black taxpayers be funding their own reparations?” Deeter asked.
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“I can’t really answer that question until we actually do the work and we come up with the end result,” Ford said, but he added, “taxpayers as a whole group will be putting in their fair share.”Deeter also asked Ford to respond to county commissioner Britney Thornton’s racist comment that she was “triggered” by a white Republican commissioner’s “whiteness.”
Without mentioning Thornton by name, Ford replied, “what my main focus is, is to find solutions to problems that I, as a black individual, represent 91% of district black population. I acknowledge those challenges and issues and I’m ready to do the work. I just don’t want people to prevent us from actually doing the work, and anybody that is in the way, black or white or whatever the case may be, who may want to obstruct what we’re trying to do, that would be disallowed.”
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