Posted on 07/14/2007 12:12:45 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
In speeches demanding government reparations for 400 years of American slavery to ruminations on the revolutionary nature of a rose in a woman's hand, black activists Friday took up the the thorny topic of how best to "resurrect" the African-American family.
Chicago activist Conrad Worrill urged those gathered at the Shape Community Center for the 28th convention of the National Black United Front to continue to push for government compensation for centuries of slavery.
"It's clear they owe us for 400 years of free labor," he said. "They owe us."
Worrill, United Front national chairman, was the opening speaker for the organization's three-day conference. Founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., the group was active in opposing the white-led government of South Africa, supporting Harold Washington's election as Chicago's first black mayor and participating in the Nation of Islam's 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, the group lodged allegations of U.S. genocide with the United Nations.
Houston Nation of Islam Minister Robert Muhammad, also on Friday's program, called the United Front the "hardest of hard-core" activists. "We say, 'No justice, no peace,' and mean it," he said.
Today, delegates will tour the Fourth Ward — Houston's "Freedman's Town" — then discuss strategies and experiments in African-centered education.
In an earlier interview, Worrill attributed many of the problems facing contemporary black families to the legacy of slavery, which he said "disrupted, decimated and shut down" black family life for centuries.
Blacks bear the responsibility of "repairing the family internally," he said, but must not stop demanding that government address social ills.
'Apologies aren't enough' Citing ex-slave Callie House's decades-long, early 20th-century crusade to glean government pensions for former bondsmen as a model, Worrill said blacks must push for reparations with the tenacity they exhibited in seeking the end of legally sanctioned segregation. "What we're seeing unfold is that many states have now offered apologies," he said. "Apologies aren't enough.
"Why are blacks any different than the Japanese?" he said, alluding to reparations paid Japanese-Americans held in World War II internment camps.
Ajamu Webster, of the United Front's Kansas City chapter, told delegates about the Fathers for Life program, which provided peer counseling sessions for adult men. The program also endeavored to "lift up brothers," publicizing examples of highly successful fathers.
An effort to "take back Father's Day" resulted in large numbers of men spending the day in the park with their children. In a related campaign, children were encouraged to write essays about their fathers, which they then read over the radio.
Muhammad told delegates that activists in their zeal sometimes "have not taken care of business at home." Citing the teachings of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad said family is "second only to God."
The power of love He admonished the men in the audience to "feel your woman's pain," and to exhibit patience and loyalty. "What's wrong with flowers?" Muhammad said. "Nothing is as revolutionary as a rose in a woman's hand. Nothing is as revolutionary as taking her out to dinner and a movie. Nothing is more revolutionary than going to the park. ... Nothing more revolutionary than a rowboat ride.
"Black power is love power. Black power is family power."
I suggest Zimbabwe.
L
P.S. 'african centered education'...yea...like that'll help get you a job that pays 150K a year.
And YOU OWE US several trillions dollars worth of welfare and entitlement payments. I think you'll be on the short end of this...
“how best to “resurrect” the African-American family.”
God, family, hard work, education. Seems to work everywhere it’s tried.
They’d be better off is they focused on getting jobs.
Amazing. The logic is unbelievably childish.
I can see the fear that the black community is finally starting to move into the 21st century and become more responsible has resulted in a renewed effort to place blame on “the white man” and convince the black community once again that they need only be paid off and supported by the American government for things that happened before ANY OF US WERE EVEN CLOSE TO BEING BORN.
DAMNIT!
“Black power is love power..except for your (their) hate of ‘whitey’.
This is very sad. And it is sadder if anyone pays any attention.
Acceptance of this offer would result in the automatic and immediate revocation of the individual's US citizenship and that of all of his/her minor children.
Does that include finding out who the fathers are?
Paid for by whitey?
Molon labe.
If you stop demanding that the government "address social ills" and just do it yourself, you'll make a lot more progress.
“God, family, hard work, education. Seems to work everywhere it’s tried.”
You got it. That’s it, plain and simple. And while you’re at it, stop calling yourselves African-Americans, and start calling yourselves simply Americans.
These victicrats need a great big heaping helping of Larry Elder-style wisdom.
Are you over 400 years old?
We owe you nothing.
Well if Duke U professor can make that much on womens and gender studies, why not on African studies?
It sure would be nice to see academia return to readin', writin, and 'rithmetic..
Simple:
1. Don't make babies
2. Man + Woman = Marriage
3. Man works at job, woman working optional
3. Now have babies
For every ten black families I deal with, perhaps one has a father in the house.
I would make this proposal, they can get a one time reparations payment, provided the recipient renounce their US citizenship and leave the country immediately.
Let’s see how many of the would take the deal.
“And YOU OWE US several trillions dollars worth of welfare and entitlement payments. I think you’ll be on the short end of this...”
Also for incarceration, riots, looting, etc.
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