Posted on 05/29/2012 12:30:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Reparations.
That single word has the power to bring forth memories of slave screams, blood-shed, lynching, raping and the unrepentant theft of generations of successful Black families by the United States of America.
It also has the power to breed resentment, as the 40 acres and a mule that Black Americans were promised by General William Sherman at the close of the American Civil War were snatched away by President Andrew Johnson and returned to their White owners.
Watch the 2008 presidential hopefuls debate whether African Americans should receive reparations here:
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Primarily left landless, fragmented, disconnected from our culture, and uneducated with little-to-no chance of gainful employment, the dregs of slavery and Jim and Jane Crow continue to poison our communities in both tangible and intangible ways.
During her investigation into the wealth — or lack thereof — in the African-American community, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien spoke with Rev. DeForest B. Soaries of First Baptist Church in Lincoln, New Jersey, who made the sharp correlation that “debt is slavery”:
“When I’m paying last month’s bills with next month’s check, that’s slavery. When I ‘m writing a check hoping that it doesn’t bounce, or when I pull out my credit card praying that it’s not rejected, then I’m living in financial bondage.”
Watch Minister Louis Farrakhan discuss what America and Europe owe to Blacks here:
(VIDEO AT LINK)
What becomes clear when the imbalanced economic scales in this country are tilted further by institutionalized racism, is that we are still very much living within a system that profited immensely from the blood, sweat, and tears of slave labor, while refusing to make good on the loan of our livelihoods and collective economic value. According to Harper’s magazine (November, 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion dollars for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865 with a compounded interest of 6 percent.
In lieu of these tragic numbers, Dr. John Hope Franklin, renowned historian and author of “From Slavery to Freedom,” voices his contempt for the pseudo-apologies that the U.S. government has given for an institution that has left Black America in a perpetual race, with many having no idea why we seem to never make significant and collective economic strides:
People are running around apologizing for slavery, he said. What about that awful period since slavery — Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and all the rest? And what about the enormous wealth that was built up by Black labor? I think that’s little to pay for the gazillions that Black people built up — the wealth of this country — with their labor, and now you’re going to say, ‘I’m sorry I beat the hell out of you for all these years’? That’s not enough.
It’s definitely not enough.
In a system that relies heavily on what many consider to be Dixiecratic handouts, vilifying those who are forced to accept them, while simultaneously and condescendingly stating that, “Rising tides lift all boats,” this country has to reach a point where reparations is not viewed as a joke or some unimaginable occurrence. If the boats have historical, psychological, and economic holes blown through them by Jim Crow and Uncle Sam, rising tides without life rafts do nothing but drown us deeper into debt.
In his 1970 book, “By Any Means Necessary,” Malcolm X (aka El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) spoke of reparations not as a choice, or a last resort, but as the only way to rectify the inhumane atrocities committed against Black Americans:
If you are the son of a man who had a wealthy estate and you inherit your father’s estate, you have to pay off the debts that your father incurred before he died. The only reason that the present generation of White Americans are in a position of economic strength…is because their fathers worked our fathers for over 400 years with no pay…. We were sold from plantation to plantation like you sell a horse, or a cow, or a chicken, or a bushel of wheat…. All that money…is what gives the present generation of American Whites the ability to walk around the earth with their chest out…like they have some kind of economic ingenuity. Your father isn’t here to pay. My father isn’t here to collect. But I’m here to collect and you’re here to pay.
In the next weeks, NewsOne will speak with Black leaders on the topic of reparations and how exactly the concept can be contextualized in a contemporary narrative. More importantly, we will ask for feedback from our readers on the possibility of reparations and what we are willing to do – if anything — to ensure that it comes to fruition.
What do you think?
Should Black America receive reparations from the U.S. government for slavery?
Yes, absolutely.
No, that time has passed.
Let’s do DNA testing, if they have a single drop of White blood, they get nothing. In fact, they would owe based on their Whiteness. How do you think that the argument would change then?
If during our own age white-skinned Americans must atone for the 150 year-old sins of their white-skinned fathers who enslaved people of color, then it makes sense that those who began the institution of slavery sometime after the deluge be held culpable as well.
After the deluge, during the day’s of Noah, it was people of color who began this institution. It is known that slavery flourished in Babylonia under Nimrod and in the land of Ham, making people of color the first to enslave other people.
If contemporary people of color want to cast stones at white-skinned people for the sins committed by their white-skinned fathers, then people of color ought to begin by casting stones at their own distant fathers lest they be hypocrites.
Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.
If during our own age white-skinned Americans must atone for the 150 year-old sins of their white-skinned fathers who enslaved people of color, then it makes sense that those who began the institution of slavery sometime after the deluge be held culpable as well.
After the deluge, during the day’s of Noah, it was people of color who began this institution. It is known that slavery flourished in Babylonia under Nimrod and in the land of Ham, making people of color the first to enslave other people.
If contemporary people of color want to cast stones at white-skinned people for the sins committed by their white-skinned fathers, then people of color ought to begin by casting stones at their own distant fathers lest they be hypocrites.
Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.
Slavery in modern Africa
Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves.
Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries’ law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organised criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.
Slavery by African country
Chad
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."[2]
Mali
The Malian government denies that slavery exists, however, the slavery in Timbuktu is obvious. Slavery still continues with some Tuaregs holding Bella people.[3]
Mauritania
A system exists now by which Arab Muslims -- the bidanes -- own black slaves, the haratines.[4] An estimated 90,000 black Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved to Arab/Berber owners.[5] The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages.[6] According to some estimates, up to 600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[7] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[8] Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:
"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea.[9]"
In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.[10] Moreover, according to Amnesty International:
"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".[11]
Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:
"[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave."[12]
Niger
In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[13] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalised in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerian human-rights group, Timidria.[14] More than 870,000 people still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.[15][16]
Descent-based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes — the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[17] It is especially rife among the warlike Tuareg, in the wild deserts of north and west Niger, who roam near the borders with Mali and Algeria.[18] In the region of Say on the right bank of the river Niger, it is estimated that three-quarters of the population around 1904-1905 was composed of slaves.[19]
Historically, the Tuareg swelled the ranks of their slaves during war raids into other peoples’ lands. War was then the main source of supply of slaves, although many were bought at slave markets, run mostly by indigenous peoples.[20][21]
Sudan
Francis Bok, former Sudanese slave. At the age of seven, he was captured during a raid in Southern Sudan, and enslaved for ten years.(Courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association/Jeanette Leardi)
There has been a recrudescence of jihad slavery since 1983 in the Sudan.[23][24]
Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers and has never completely died out in Sudan. In the Sudan, Christian and animist captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission.[25] According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [1] In 2001 CNN reported the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.[26] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." [2]
Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.[27]
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[28][29]
Child slave trade
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[30] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[31] [32]
Ghana, Togo, Benin
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[33] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[34]
Ethiopia
Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some isolated studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as the Worst Form of Child Labor.[35]
In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa, and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.[35]
So, colored people began the institution of slavery? How ironic.
I want a Tax refund for the TRILLIONS in transfer payments for the past 52 years of Giveaways to Minorities
Well, the slavers who sold them to the white traders were often muslims, no? Building slavebases in new lands.
They probably should get some repairs from there.
...by people who owned no one.
In Fairfax VA many drive expensive German or Japanese cares. I think they already got it.
Reparations were paid during the Civil War and later, in the equally tragic War on Poverty. Any future payments must be sought from the slave dealers.
Just as the DEA pursues the drug dealers with more enthusiasm than drug users, folks seeking further reparations should seek them from the Arab/African slave dealers, not the slave customers.
Sure.
One million dollars each, plus a free one-way ticket to the African paradise of their choice.
However, they must renounce their US citizenship and leave their American passport when they turn in their boarding pass.
I'd go even a little farther; give anyone who can prove his parents were slaves in the United States before 1864 $50 000 in tax-free cash as a one time deal.
Otherwise, no.
They already have...it was called The Great Society.
Someone who looked something like me once did something to someone who looked something like you, so now I owe you money?
Yes, Barry, please make this an election issue, along with Amnesty, and giving the country’s land back to the Indian’s, and giving women free morning after pills.
Someone who looked something like me once did something to someone who looked something like you, so now I owe you money?
Yes, Barry, please make this an election issue, along with Amnesty, and giving the country’s land back to the Indians, and giving women free morning after pills.
Not from my family. My Father's ancestors came to America after slavery had already been abolished, and my Mother's ancestors all fought and died to free the slaves.
On behalf of my Father's Mennonite ancestors I'd like to make my request for reparations form the Catholic Church. And on behalf of my Mother's Separatist ancestors I'd like to request reparations from the Church of England, and the British royal family. I could go on, but if we all sued each other for every bad day we and our ancestors had to live through to get ourselves to this point, all the nation's money would eventually be in the hands of the nation's abundance of lawyers.
Personally I'd like to class action sue Black Americans in general for sub-par performance in many respects that end up affecting all of us, but I'll settle for giving up the delusion of a fair world if those who are expecting reparations from me will also.
Right after I get my reparations for the 1066 invasion. Damn Normans!!!!!
That's how I feel about the federal government. But, he's not talking about that. He's saying that they should be getting everything free. It doesn't matter that there are no living ex-slaves. They want it all free.
Well we already give Columbia millions...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/obama-shakira-join-forces-at-colombian-cultural-event/
The United States has allocated $61 million to improve the quality of life in predominantly indigenous communities and provide support to Colombia’s land restitution efforts.
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