Millions of Blacks Coming to DC for Reparations Rally

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)

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?"

Nothing is "owed," although the reper-rebels want us to believe that something is. We know better.

It's easy to protest when you don't have a job and just cash a check from the government. This is why leftists have such an advantage when it comes to protesting and being heard. The leftists have no job or obligations or responsibilities, the conservatives unfortunately are so busy working hard and supporting everyone else in this nation that they have no time to protest by the millions. It's easy to protest when you're a parasite.

The money would be going to organizations headed by the likes of Jesse Jackson.

This is just another way to grease Jesse's &the Sharpster's greedy palms.Nothing else.Jesse reminds me of that preacher Richard Pryor played[one of his multiple charactors in one of his movies]where he was banging all the parishner's wifes and they all thought he could do no wrong.

(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!)

You're talking to a "Creationist." But this is not the thread for that.

Setting aside the impossible question of who is actually owed and who would have to pay...

Reparations imply closure and a release of all claims. If reparations were actually paid...then wouldn't the reparations crowd have to shut up for once and for all?

But that won't happen. This isn't reparations, it's extortion.

Just as a thought, if these people don't want to return to Africa, maybe we should go. Africa is a vast country, with lots of resources that could readily be tapped for even more wealth to people who are willing to work.

This is so chock-full of flaws...

Nevermind. I'll just spare you.

The liberals will then embrace the more productive Mexicans as the new sacred cow. Blacks will attempt an extortion of more money through violence and the KKK type ranks will swell.

Which is why I'm now armed to the teeth...

7. Colonizing of Our African Culture-

You know what? This has never existed. There is no such thing as "African culture." Africa is a huge continent. To begin to think that it contained a single culture is erroneous.

Guess they never thought about that.

Reparation target is not the Fed Gov. It is the corporations that were around in the 1700s and 1800s and can be shown to have profited either directly or indirectly through slavery. Examples...Insurance companies that earned premiums insuring slaves, newspapers that earned ad revenues, etc.. This is a serious attempt to find some liberal judge at the right level who will rule that these corporate entities do owe reparations. Even the whisper of this will drive the stock price for any of these companies through the floor effectively wiping out the retirement savings of thousands and bancrupting the companies

Don't think it can't happen.

Seeing that Western culture began with the Greeks, and was subsequently built upon by various European nations, then further changed with its migration to America from the colonists, I don't know how to define it to a distinct definition.

But one thing is for certain: It is not geographically defined. "African culture" presupposes that there were shared cultural traits from Egypt down to the Cape.

That dog don't, and won't, hunt.

Missed the point entirely didn't you? The phrase Western culture suggests a cross-nationality commonality just as the phrase African culture does. Neither exists in a clearly definable form but both do exist. In any event looking at a piece of nonsense like the one that was posted and picking out that particular phrase to derogate indicates a certain worldview on your part. Racism, even when it's not so subtle in its presentation is still racism and not conservative or american.

Reparation target is not the Fed Gov. It is the corporations that were around in the 1700s and 1800s and can be shown to have profited either directly or indirectly through slavery.

Yeh, but they would be better off to go after the tobacco money being collected by the southern states. That way they would not be taking tax money and by targeting only the southern states, they will have the support of most folks north of the Ohio.

That does make sense, if those companies have corporate lineage to pre-1865. Maybe they do, I don't know. The first case to be filed though is directed at a New England Insurance Company. There is a very dedicated, very bright group of young Black lawyers who have made this their life's mission. It is they who are filing these suits. I heard one on talk radio ( a Black NYC station) who slammed Jackson and his ilk for what they are, band-wagon jumping opportunists. Bottom Line....these lawyers are serious and they have a strategy.

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