Posted on 06/19/2002 3:26:43 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Promising that it will be one of the "most historic gatherings of African people in America," organizers of the Millions for Reparations Rally are demanding monetary compensation from the United States government and its citizens. The theme of the rally is: "They owe us!"
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), and a critic of the rally, said, "If that many people have enough money to go to D.C. to march, then they don't need reparations."
The Aug. 17 event will take place in Washington, D.C. on the 115th birthday of the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey. But Peterson said Garvey was an outspoken advocate of post-slavery self-repair for black people in America and would not support the idea of modern day reparations.
The Durban 400 and National Black United Front (NBUF), the lead organizers of the rally, claim their event is "simply an attempt to repair, to make whole, the descendants of the victims of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade."
At the urging of the Durban 400 and other groups, the United Nations' 2001 World Conference Against Racism declared the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and the pre-Civil War slavery in the United States crimes against humanity.
NBUF National Chairman Dr. Conrad W. Worrill recently urged concerned "African people in America" to review and add to a list of nearly twenty atrocities that, according to Worrill, "they owe us for."
Among the atrocities on the list are the "Raping of African Women," "KKK Night Riders and Lynchings," "Mental Atrocities," the "Crack Epidemic," and "the 13th and 14th Constitutional Amendments."
According to Worrill, "The abolishment of slavery was really a constitutional scam and the 14th Amendment that allegedly made African people citizens of America was imposed on us. We were never asked if we wanted to be citizens."
But David Almasi, spokesman for the black conservative group Project 21, said those seeking reparations forget the benefits of living in America.
"What about the fact that now you're in America, the land of opportunity as opposed to being in Africa with malaria, dictators and things like that," Almasi said.
According to Peterson, "These organizations that are supporting this so-called Millions for Reparations are anti-American organizations anyway. They're communist/socialist organizations."
Peterson added that "so-called civil rights leaders" like Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan have encouraged a culture of dependency among African Americans instead of self-reliance.
Peterson said he especially wants to encourage white Americans to protest those calling for reparations and "not have the fear of being called a racist" for doing so. However, he said, "As long as you give into these people, there is no stopping them. There is no end to their destruction if we don't stand up to them with truth."
The "truth," Peterson said, is that reparations are "a bad idea in that it is divisive, it is racist, and it's another form of using black Americans to gain power and wealth."
E-mail a news tip to Michael L. Betsch.
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This is a joke, right?
Walt
I already know that Rev. Al will be there.
If no former slaves can be located, then the whole issue should be dropped.
Sometimes things need to be brought front and center.
I don't know, this isn't Loonie Louie asking for a million to show up for black fatherhood. This will be preached out at every black church, group rally and by Jackson-Sharpton, et al. They'll get a million if the possibility of more free money is dangled as bait.
And the really sad thing will be that our stellar legislators will look out over the multitude, stick their fingers in the local breeze and trample each other to get to the podium. What's a few billion bucks when there's a million potential voters in one spot. Mark my words. The spineless in Comgress will only see votes and will give them what they want.
Still, you can't move "back" to where you've never lived and/or been. One may simply move there, but this logic of "going back" (which I've seen over and over and over again on these boards) is fundamentally flawed.
I wish I could agree and that your predictioion would turn out to be accurate. But, alas I fear that you will be shocked by the turn out and by the media's analysis of it. This is timed to occur before the fall elections. The Democrats may well try to make this an election issue for this fall's congressional elections. If the Republicans oppose it, the Democrats will use it to turn out the black vote in spades. And if the Republicans support it, as I unfortunately think Bush and the Congressional Republicans will, it will turn off conservatives who will stay home or vote other conservative third parties.
The Democrats have been fishing for the killer issue for the fall elections. Unfortunately, I think this may be it. I see the Republicans taking the wrong turn and supporting reparations rather than opposing them with clearly stated reasons why. I think it will start with vulnerable R's in Congress and spread from there all the way to the "compassionate conservative". If they do, it is an election loser.
Bump to that! I love the good Reverend! (and he makes an excellent point! LOL!)
This, of course, is the heart of the matter.
They should have played this scam earlier, while they had at least one (symbolic) ex-slave to trot in front of the court.
Clearly a case of 'snoozing-induced losing' here.
Think of it more as entertainment.
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