Conservatives. Real Black Power.
Posted on 09/09/2001 2:49:43 PM PDT by Jean S
In January of 1989, I first introduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.
I have re-introduced H.R. 40 every Congress since 1989, and will continue to do so until it's passed into law.
One of the biggest challenges in discussing the issue of reparations in a political context is deciding how to have a national discussion without allowing the issue to polarize our party or our nation.
The approach that I have advocated for more than a decade has been for the federal government to undertake an official study of the impact of slavery on the social, political and economic life of our nation.
More than 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and its colonies from 1619 to 1865, and as a result, the United States was able to begin its grand place as the most prosperous country in the free world.
It is uncontroverted that African slaves were not compensated for their labor. More unclear however, is what the effects and remnants of this relationship have had on African-Americans and our nation from the time of emancipation through today.
I chose the number of the bill, 40, as a symbol of the forty acres and a mule that the United States initially promised freed slaves. This unfulfilled promise and the serious devastation that slavery had on African-American lives has never been officially recognized by the United States government.
My bill does four things:
Many of the most pressing issues, which have heretofore not been broached on any broad scale, would be addressed. Issues such as the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery, whether an apology is owed, whether compensation is warranted and, if so, in what form and who should be eligible would also be delved into.
H.R. 40 has strong grass-roots support within the African-American community, including major civil rights organizations, religious organizations, academic and civic groups from across the country.
This support is very similar to the strong grass-roots support that proceeded another legislative initiative: the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday bill. It took a full 15 years from the time I first introduced it on April 5, 1968, to its passage in the fall of 1983. Through most of those 15 years, the idea of a federal holiday honoring an African-American civil rights leader was considered a radical idea.
Like the King holiday bill, we have seen the support for this bill increase each year. Today, we have more than 40 co-sponsors, more than at any time in the past.
What is also encouraging is the dramatic increase in the number of supporters for the bill among members of Congress who are not members of the Congressional Black Caucus. My colleague Tony Hall, from Ohio, has introduced a bill calling for an apology, as well as the creation of a reparations commission. So now we now have two bills in Congress that call for the creation of a commission.
We are also encouraged by the support of city councils and other local jurisdictions that have supported our bill. Already, the city councils in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and Atlanta have passed bills supporting H.R. 40.
(The City of Milwaukee Common Council has supported creation of a federal commission to study slavery and possible reparations for the descendants of slaves. A joint resolution endorsing the enactment of H.R. 40 has been introduced in the State Assembly; it has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.)
It is a fact that slavery flourished in the United States and constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of African slaves' lives, liberty and cultural heritage. As a result, millions of African-Americans today continue to suffer great injustices.
But reparation is a national and a global issue, which should be addressed in America and in the world. It is not limited to black Americans in the United States but is an issue for the many countries and villages in Africa that were pilfered and the many countries that participated in the institution of slavery.
Another reason that this bill has garnered so much resistance is because many people want to leave slavery in the past. They contend that slavery happened so long ago that it is hurtful and divisive to bring it up now. It's too painful.
But the concept of reparations is not a foreign idea to either the U.S. government or governments throughout the world.
Though there is historical cognition for reparations and it is a term that is fairly well-known in the international body politic, the question of reparations for African-Americans remains unresolved. And so, just as we've discussed the Holocaust, and Japanese internment camps, and to some extent the devastation that the colonists inflicted upon the Indians, we must talk about slavery and its continued effects.
Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. represents Michigan's 14th Congressional District.
He's advocating a 'STUDY!' This subject has been studied to death. It's time to vote!
If slavery makes a country prosperous, I wonder why Sudan isn't an economic world leader. It was innovation and capitalism that made our nation prosperous. Slavery was a costly institution for those who could afford it.
So what? You're only 12% of the population, and the number three race in the USA. The Hispanics have surpassed you. not only are most whites, Hispanics, Asians-all nonblacks,basically-united against this monstrous theft from working people already over burdened with taxes, but-blacks are irrelevant to BOTH parties! You can't get much higher than 92% of the vote, meaning that the Demonrats know they own you regardless, and the Republicans know it's a waste of time trying to win your votes. Blacks can be ignored by both parties, as they go after the 'up for grabs' white subgroups, Hispanics, and Asians. And (once more, for the intellectually impaired) these people don't think all blacks are entitled to be made instant millionaires on their wages!
the Holocaust, and Japanese internment camps, and to some extent the devastation that the colonists inflicted upon the Indians-
-are irelevant to this discussion, as the people compensated were those who actually suffered. IOW, Germany didn't just hand out checks to all Jews, and the US government did not just give away money to anyone of Japanese descent. Money was given to those who were actually interned, or their children-grandchildren, except for a very few cases, were specifically prohibited from collecting. To suggest that,"Well, Jews got money, and so did Japanese people, so that means anyone with a black skin should be made an instant millionaire" shows just how pathetically ignorant are the proreparations crowd.
As for the Indians, they are a special case, as the payouts in their cases are from a sovereign nation to a (semi)sovereign, (semi)selfgoverning group within the USA. ie, I believe all payments made to them aren't to just anyone of, say, Cherokee descent, but rather to members of the Cherokee nation. The tribal governments are being dealt with as if they are a foreign nation, which in terms of running the reservations is about the case. As blacks are not a separate nation within the USA, the case really does not apply. But someone with a lot more knowledge than me on native American affairs could elucidate the differences better.
You just hit "the facts nobody wants to mention"-- blacks have become a minority within minorities, and that's why their "leaders" ( yeah, sure, I'll believe that when I see one of these guys in a $3,000 suit help my neighbor load construction supplies in his truck every morning! ) are so desparate to have another "issue" to beat on.
If Conyer's study is made, they should also look at the extremely high rate at which Blacks suck up the category of federal spending called "Cash and Noncash Benefits to Individuals with Limited Means". It's an eye-opener.
Uh-huh. And Mexicans who crossed into the US illegally a generation ago have found success, while their children have found - in many cases - great success. Likewise Asians, such as the Vietnamese. And many others besides. Ah, well. We'll just enslave all of the above to pay higher discriminatory taxes. That's fair, isn't it? (Smirk)
I didn't own any of them! Mr. Conyers, my family is of the Cherokee Indian descent...
Many people are unaware that Cherokee migration west actually started at the close of the Revolutionary War, when a group of Cherokees aligned with the British during the war petitioned the Spanish Governor in New Orleans for permission to settle on Spanish lands west of the Mississippi River. The request was granted, and in 1794 this group (actually a group of Cherokee may have emigrated to the base of the Rockie Mountains as early as 1721
The great earthquake of 1811 convinced this Cherokee group that they should not live in this region, so during the winter of 1811 and 1812 they moved to territory between the Arkansas and White Rivers in today's Arkansas. No official rolls were kept on these emigrating Cherokees, but a later roll as a result of the 1828 treaty (see below) states that in 1800 the Cherokee population west of the Mississippi was likely 1000, with about 1000 more emigrating between 1808-1817.
In 1838 and 1839 the U.S. government forcibly removed the remaining members over the Trail of Tears, except for a few thousand full-blooded Cherokee who either hid out in the hills of Tennessee and North Carolina, or were allowed to remain
YOU OWE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That makes as much sense as me owing 'reparations'.
Let's NOT forget the benefits of WELFARE!!! IDIOT!!!
This is NOT going to happen. If they continue to push this issue they are going to be very surprised at the anger and division this causes. If they think I'm giving up anything else in the name of 'diversity' they are sadly mistaken. My family worked in the same corn fields and cotton fields the rest of the country did right alongside African Americans. We didn't have a problem with it then and we still don't have a problem with it now. The only people who have a problem with it are the so-called 'leaders' of the African American citizens who NEVER asked for a 'leader'. It's my opinion that they are quite capable of speaking for themselves.
The first thing Conyers needs to do is get his facts straight! Pop quiz question: "What year did the United States of America come into being?"
But that is neither here nor there. Reparations is a trojan horse for more big government programs, backed by the Marxists in this country. Don't think so? Wait until demands for reparations coalesce into a demand for more government control over the economy. And, yes, the white liberals will be behind it 100%!
I suppose the government could part with some of "our" land, and maybe it could find (or breed) 4 million mules.
Of course, hardly anyone wants to farm it now, and it wouldn't all be great land, but then, it probably wouldn't have been all great land back in 1865 either.
the South lost and the North won.
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