Posted on 11/13/2005 9:20:52 PM PST by Coleus
LEONIA - Calling slavery "a moral wrong that must be righted ... to cleanse the soul of America," a group of North Jersey residents set out Saturday to look for ways to make reparations to African-Americans.
At the All Saints' Episcopal Church, more than 30 people sought ways to compensate black Americans for the unpaid labor, pain and humiliation endured by their ancestors - and for the economic, social and psychological problems caused by slavery that still affect blacks today.
"This is about repairing the enduring harm that slavery caused to people of African ancestry in so many ways, including financially," said Donna Lamb, communications director for Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation. "It's a simple fact that for 250 years whites robbed millions of enslaved Africans of the wealth their labor created. They were forced to work for free, while white individuals, companies and the U.S. government made huge profits off their labor."
On its Web site, CURE expresses "remorse for all the crimes committed in the name of white supremacy" and notes that "true emancipation of the enslaved Africans will not be achieved until their descendants enjoy the freedoms that reparations will provide."
The community forum was the first of many planned by the Newark Episcopal Diocese's Reparations Task Force, created in July 2004 as part of the church's "mission to dismantle racism."
The discussion was led by Lamb and Barbara Wheeler, chairwoman of African Studies at Kean University, who recounted the history of efforts to seek reparations for black Americans.
"This is not a new struggle," Wheeler said. "This has been a struggle since black people have been here."
At the forum, some whites expressed their shame over slavery and some blacks spoke of their anger over the "white privilege" they said is still prevalent in this country.
"My emotional reaction had a lot of shame in it, a lot of sadness," said Annie Byerly, a white woman from Leonia, after watching a movie on the need for slave reparations. "And my intellectual reaction was, 'I've got to fix this.'"
The movie caused a different reaction among African-Americans. "I'm speaking softly," said Lorna Cunningham of Teaneck. "But I'm very angry."
Lamb warned the forum participants to "be leery of what you hear or read in the mainstream media about this subject because the powers that be want white people to fear and hate the idea of reparations."
One by one, Lamb sought to answer the lingering questions posed by white Americans who say their ancestors didn't own slaves, or who immigrated to this country after slavery.
"Reparations is not about money being taken out of every white person's personal bank account and handed over to blacks, as the spreaders of misinformation can make it seem," Lamb said. "Individuals do not pay reparations. Reparations are what a government pays a people it has wronged ... with tax dollars."
She said white Americans didn't have to own a slave to benefit from slavery "because the whole infrastructure of this nation was built on money made from it."
As for those who came after slavery was abolished, Lamb said it doesn't matter. She said they also benefited from a society created by slavery.
"The whole reason people come to this country in the first place is to get in on the wealth that had its origin in slavery," Lamb said. "They don't know it, but these 'streets paved in gold' they came here to find could more aptly be called 'streets bathed in the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans."
Lamb said she is often told she is being divisive for making an issue over something that happened so long ago.
"My response is that the ravages of slavery, both economic and spiritual, are very much alive and immediate today," she said. "You can't brutalize a people massively and then just tell them to get over it."
Agreeing with Lamb, several participants said it should not be up to white people to determine how blacks should spend reparation money. They noted that African-Americans who seek reparations have many good ideas, including funding for education, job training, housing, small businesses, and child and mental health care - to bring blacks up to par with white Americans.
Participants were asked if their churches should be involved in the reparations debate.
"If we are all equal and made in God's image," said Ruth Dougherty of Leonia, "it's a no-brainer."
My position on reparations is, that since one of the Wrongs done to African-Americans was removing them from Africa, anyone who takes reparations should renounce their American Citizenship and leave.
Otherwise it's just another Jacksonian Shakedown.
I said in an earlier post that any calculation of damages has to factor in benefits received to be fair.
Many blacks paid taxes that was at least part of that $40 billion. So yes, factor some of that into the benefits derived, I suppose.
This is just sick!
These reparationbs advocates always proclaim that the USA was built "on the blood, sweat, and tears" of the slaves. Besides toiling on on the farms, what did the slaves build that wasn't built by the later wave of immigrants?
We've had African American reparations in effect for many years under the guise of WELFARE and AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.
The longer I study this issue and the more I hear from proponents of slavery reparations while reviewing the deteriorating conditions in Africa, the more I believe that proper reparations to a descendent of slaves would be a first class air ticket back to the dark continent.
My more recent ancestors spent their lives working in a hole in the side of a mountain digging coal, paid with company script only redeemable at the company store. Kept perpetually in debt, they couldn't quit. If that isn't slavery, what is? You don't hear me banging on the doors of the Carnegie Foundation with a guilt trip.
Get over it. Take some responsibility for yourself.
I just wish things like Calculus could be drilled into people as easily as an unearned sense of "entitlement".
How do they determine who is entitled to reparations? Not every Black person in America is a descendant of a slave and what about the Black Slave owners from back then?
It is a ruse to say they merely bought their relatives thee get them free. One prominent Black woman of the time, Mistress L. Horry and Justus Angel each owned 84 slave apeice in 1830. A Black widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards owned 152 slaves in 1960.
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm
You also have General Robert E. Lee writing to his wife in 1856, calling slavery, "a moral and political evil."
Add to this desendants of slaves that were fathered by White slave owners who are considered Whites today.
Now ask, how do they determine who is entitled to reparations? Who would pay those reparations? If they be paid, shouldn't it be from those who captured the Africans and sold them into slavery? That would be mostly other Africans who did that.
Slavery is indeed a dark spot on our history, one that was brought from Europe, it did not originate here. Still, there are no former slaves alive today and it would be an impossible task to try to determine which Blacks and Whites are really descendants of slaves and pay them for something they never went through.
Is this a can of worms they really wish to open?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Apparently, it's not a "moral wrong" to steal money.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
"They don't know it, but these 'streets paved in gold' they came here to find could more aptly be called 'streets bathed in the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans."
This is simply incorrect. The image of the United States as the land of opportunity did not come about until after the Civil War. The infrastructure that attracted mass immigration came about with the industrial revolution that occurred after the Civil War. That infrastructure was not built with slave labor. The infrastructure that was built with slave labor was the agrarian system of the southern states that was destroyed by the Civil War.
WTF is up with the term "Caucasian?" Why can't we use just plain old "white."
Your reparations have been waiting for you in the "old country" since the Monroe administration...
The Embassy of Liberia in Washington D.C.
5201 16th. Street, NW Washington DC, 20011
Tel: (202) 723-0437 Fax: (202) 723-0436
Good riddance, victims.
That would have to be subtracted from the overall amount. But if what the Black leadership contends is true (and I believe that it is, statistics seem to bear it out) their per capita income and thus taxes would be well below the national average on the whole and thus may not affect the total as much as one might think.
"Don't plan on reparations proponents excecizing any judgement. This isn't about right and wrong. This is about blame and victimhood."
No, it's about the money.
"This has nothing to do with slavery. This is about dividing and weakening America in order to advance socialistic world government."
No, it's about the money.
I think it is funny that a program to end racism would start with the assumption that all white people are the same because of their skin color alone and therefore equally responsible.
I do not think that this statement plausibly explains the motivations of the members of the mentioned group, CURE. After all, they do not stand to receive any money.
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