Kenneth Lovett, New York Daily News, May 7, 2018

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Nixon on Saturday told Forbes magazine “now that cannabis is exploding as an industry, we have to make sure that those communities that have been harmed and devastated by marijuana arrests get the first shot at this industry.”

“We (must) prioritize them in terms of licenses. It’s a form of reparations.”

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“I’m for legalizing marijuana and I like Cynthia Nixon but putting pot shops in our communities is not reparations,” the Rev. Al Sharpton tweeted. “Health care, education !!”

Manhattan Democratic Party Chairman Keith Wright, a former long-time state assemblyman from Harlem, said Nixon’s comment “is ill-informed, lacks understanding of the greatest crime in history, and should cease and desist.”

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“Ms. Nixon should relegate her comments to legalization, pro or con,” he said. “I believe social equity should be a part of licenses to sell marijuana, if and when legalization does occur. However, it is insulting to my soul, that the free labor that my ancestors gave to this country would be equated with the selling of marijuana.”

Black Lives Matter of Greater NY blasted Nixon’s comments as “offensive and ignorant.”

“It does a disservice to our community for her to play into harmful stereotypes of African-Americans as drug users and dealers,” the group said in a statement. {snip}

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Nixon on Saturday attended a rally for the legalization of pot in New York. She has focused heavily on the issue and the fact that the disproportionate number of pot arrests impact people of color.

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