Posted on 06/10/2002 6:58:31 AM PDT by H8DEMS
The Millions For Reparations Rally that will be held on August 17, 2002, the 115th birthday of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, in Washington, D.C. promises to be one of the most historic gatherings of African people in America.
Day-by-day, African people in America are becoming more familiar with the concept of reparations and what it means to our continued struggle in America for self-determination, liberation, independence, and freedom. Therefore, we must be clear that reparations means repair for the damages inflicted on a people or a nation.
In pursuit of this repair, we are conscious of the fact we must engage in the process of assuming responsibility for repairing ourselves that includes: changing the way we think, supporting our own institutions, particularly financially, supporting our families, supporting our own Black business enterprises, cleaning up our own communities, and changing the way we relate to, and think of, each other as a people. These are just a few of the internal repairs we must constantly work on.
In this connection, part of our internal repair is to struggle, fight, mobilize, and organize to demand external reparations from those governments, corporations, and institutions that are responsible for our historical and continuing state of oppression. Just as Jewish people proclaim “Never Forget,” African people should do no less.
We should “Never Forget” that “They Owe Us!” Part of our internal repair is to consciously understand that, “We Are Owed” and have a historic responsibility to demand reparations from those forces of white supremacy that continue to benefit from what they did to us that lingers on as part of the vestiges of our enslavement.
As we prepare for our participation in the Millions For Reparations Rally on August 17, 2002, we should be clear that They Owe Us For:
1. The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery - The United Nations World Conference Against Racism declared that the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery were Crimes Against Humanity. Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.
2. Expropriation of Our Labor- For more than 250 years, we were forced to work for free. Our free labor was a major ingredient in the building of America and its wealth as a nation. Also, the thousands of white individuals and their families’ accumulated wealth that continues to benefit them as a result of our free labor.
3. Slave Code Laws- The slave owners developed their own codes of what they could do to enslaved African people in America that permeated throughout the emergence of this country. In many ways, informal slave codes exist today (racial profiling).
4. Destruction of the African Family- The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery had a devastating impact on destroying and dismantling African families.
5. Raping of African Women- Our capture and enslavement provided white men with the power to rape African women and girls by the thousands without reprisal.
6. Fugitive Slave Laws- When our enslaved ancestors resisted their enslavement and fled plantations, the government of this country sanctioned laws and policies that supported the capture and return of so-called runaway enslaved Africans. The Dred Scott Decision should be consulted to fully understand the implications of the Fugitive Slave Laws.
7. Colonizing of Our African Culture- Created systems by law and societal practices that forbade African people, in our captured state, to engage in our traditional spiritual cultural practices.
8. KKK Night Riders and Lynchings- The Ku Klux Klan was established in the late 1860s as a secret society whose mission was to exterminate, by any means necessary, African people in America. They were known to have been responsible for the lynching and murdering of thousands of African men, women, and children.
9. The 13th and 14th Constitutional Amendments- 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.
10. Denied Our 40 Acres and a Mule- We didn’t get it! It was sold down the river and the land was given to white confederate soldiers.
11. Jim Crow Laws- The Jim Crow Policies of America became the fabric and foundation of American society after the period of Reconstruction. Jim Crow Laws and Policies reinforced the foundation of white supremacy and Black inferiority in every aspect of American society.
12. Fighting and Dying In Imperialist and White Supremacist Wars- We fought and died for the freedoms of others and were denied our own freedoms and civil rights.
13. Assassination of Black Leaders- Malcolm X, Dr. King, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark to name a few.
14. COINTELPRO- This was a government program, established by the FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, designed to destroy the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 70s.
15. Crack Epidemic- Research reveals the United States Government, through the CIA, targeted Black communities for the dispensing of Crack Cocaine.
16. Criminalizing Our Youth- It should be obvious that the aim of the Prison Industrial Complex is to Criminalize Our Youth to insure a young and viable work force for this multibillion-dollar industry.
17. Jailing of Freedom Fighters- The incarcerating of our Freedom Fighter thus, making them Political Prisoners.
18. & 19. Centuries of Mis-Education and Mental Atrocities- This has caused serious damage to our people, which continues to cause much mental confusion about our true reality as an African people in America and around the world.
I am sure, as we approach August 17, 2002, you can add to this humble list of why “They Owe Us!”
(Dr. Worrill is the National Chairman of the National Black United Front / NBUF located at 12817 S. Ashland Ave., Fl. 1, Calumet Park, IL, 60827, 708-389-9929, Fax 708-389-9819, E-Mail: nbufchi@allways.net, Website: nbufront.org)
We already paid for the Kennedys, and Teddie is still in the Senate! Isn't that enough?
There is none, because we are being duped. These people that we import, are the SAME people who commited the crimes against us on 9-11. They are the same people who continue to vote for more and more intrusive government. They are the ones importing crime into our nation. They are the ones who bring new diseases to our nation. They are the same people who are able to get whatever they want and need at the expense of citizens who pay taxes here in America.
These people are not immigrants, they are imported. They are transplanted. They come here from other countries to take money from this country, and send it back to others. They are literally redistributing the wealth of America to the coffers of foreign governments, and or terrorist organizations. Look at the Mexican population. Over 90% send money back to Mexico. 80% of Mexico's revenues come from illegal immigrants sending money home. It's pathetic. Our government is ripe with corruption, and have no business importing immigrants. Our tax dollars pay for them to come here. Our tax dollars pay for them to stay here. The people of America are being lied to.
The INS is doing nothing. They are paid not to. They are paid to do nothing, because all they are doing is helping import crime, disease, and possible terrorism. With Anti-American sentiment being imported into our nation, it's no wonder that our government is forever expanding, and forever becoming more and more oppressive. The people who are imported to our nation are NOT the cream of the crop. They are the dregs. They are the lowest of the low, and although some do get to work, and start building lives, and become Americans, the great majority do not, and continue to undermine the American way of life.
The only way to stop the flow of imported immigrants, and illegal immigration, is to vote out those who allow it. It is to speak loudly and honestly about the problem with open borders. Of course this will never happen so long as there are groups whose sole aim is to destroy this country and what it stands for.
Interesting because only one company that was on the Dow Jones from 1900 is in it today, and that company is General Electric. If there all these companies that benefited so greatly from slave labor how come they are gone today, or are small in size compared to today's corporate heavy weights?
Am I of African descent? Of course.
Am I in America? Yeah! Don't wanna be anywhere else, either.
Am I an "African in America?" Nope! Just a plain ol' American in America. Guess I need to tell 'em to put that in their pipe and puff away, right?
Diversity. You've gotta love it. Wonder when we'll get our first female circumcision.
We're all of African descent. It's just a question of how long ago our ancestors left Africa.
(Actually, I'm not sure the Creationists would claim to be of African descent. It depends on where you locate the Garden of Eden, I guess. Maybe we can get Creationists to pay reparations to the Darwinians. Yeah!)
And there's more: The Green Party is in favor of reparations (see their platform, Section I,G,1,c.)
So for any race in which there's a Democrat and Green candidate both running, this could (if done right) potentially be a good way to help split the vote.
I wish they would dump them in D.C. Flyover country catches a lot of flak from the politicians. These people will not improve the culture here.
Question: How do you go "back" where you've never been?
Good question. Just as is the question, in regard to reparations, "Why do individuals (or companies) who were never slaveowners owe anything to individuals who were never slaves?"
Absolutely--Registered is positively brilliant, and a FreeRepublic treasure. Liberals provide the fodder, and Registered does his magic.
btw--a belated welcome to FR!
Hold those tickets.. save them for the border jumpers. A group that truly deserves to be deported.
This reperations issue is incredibly divisive, it's also a well that the dems can return to again and again without ever worrying about it coming up dry. This thing is good for as long as they want to pump it.
Personally, the only problem I have with giving the blacks, all blacks.. any blacks who ask "reperations" is that it would set a precedent whereby EVERYONE would try to find some tenuous means by which they were wronged and entitled to monetary compensation.
Aside from the issue of precedent, wouldn't it be fun to punch a BIG hole in the reperations/racial hatred well and drain it once and for all? I know it's probably not right, but if we wanted to, and we were going to I think it should go something like:
1) Admit it's high time for the "debt" to be settled.. Make it a matter of law that it's only going to be settled one time and one time only.. This is it.
2) Provide the "reperations" in the form of tax breaks or credits from the Federal Government.. No Cash payouts..
Maybe give every, single living American Black a permenant 15% tax bracket. (or similar, you get the idea..) LOL! Imagine the roar the dem's would put up over that one.
I guess then other people might be jealous and want their taxes lowered also.. Wouldn't that be fun?
I mean, think about what our signs would potentially say. I dont like it and I ain't goin there.
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