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)
I'm accused of racism?
I'm not familiar with your handle. So I guess that you're not familiar with me.
No matter.
If we are going to talk about racism, then I'm sure you have tons to say about what other posters on this thread have said.
Greetings, Mark17, and yes, we will take it in the shorts. Everyone knows the scam for reparations will not fly. In my opinion the professional blacks such as Jesse and Al are simply over and over getting that word, that concept, that entitlement in the public mind. Few Americans would be willing to pay lump sums to individuals who were never slaves by people who were never slaveholders.
But when the Reparations to Blacks Freedom Act (read tax hike) is implemented in Congress, we'll all be so used to the idea nobody will really have a cow and it will slip through like other freedom acts of late. And it won't go to individuals either....it will go to black organizations, black coalitions, black "education" outreaches.
You know.....Jesse and Al's pockets.
The law, if enough lawmakers feel compelled to do so, can be flouted.
This is now a nation of feelings and pollsters, unfortunately.
I'll bet each and every one of the targeted companies makes campaign contributions to lots of legislators, and has lobbyists in Washington.....
.....lobbyists that can get favors from same bought-off legislators, like tax breaks...
....and perhaps even tax breaks in the amount of whatever they had to pay in reparations.
Just a thought.
To be totally honest, I stated this about African culture in a "matter-of-fact" fashion.
There are true racists on this forum. I could name a half-dozen without having to think about it. I take them to task at every opportunity. I found it also unfortunate that you, of all posters would make a statement that makes their life any easier.
Indeed there are bunches of them here. I'm not talking about simple bigotry, but outright racism. But it was not my intent to do anything that "makes their life any easier." The author of the piece listed one of his grievances about the stripping of our "African culture." In my mind, arguing "African culture" is nothing more than an agenda with a ligitimate sounding name.
My objection really comes from the force-fed Afrocentric point of view that I've withstood and resisted. Their insistence on "African culture" is really too simple. They need some serious samples to investigate before I just accept this term without question.
You are confronted with a form of "Racism" as toxic as that promulgated by the "NAZIS" prior to WWII!!
The NAZI Racial Arguments promulgated prior to WWII are nearly IDENTICAL to those arguments now fostered by the "Reparations Fanatics" currently poisoning our Culture.
Compare the "Arguments;" the Similarities are SOBERING!
There are NO current "Slaves!!"
MOST AMERICANS would GLADLY PAY for the "Re-Patriation" of ANY "African'Americans" who wish--(Even Several Generations Later)--to return to their African "Roots!!"
SAD TO SAY, MOST "RACISM" in AMERICA is a "Disease" of the "Black" Culture.......!!
Doc
Here's the definition of racism from the oldest dictionary I could find in the house without having to think or look hard: THE WINSTON DICTIONARY, COLLEGE EDITION, THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY, Copyright 1945
racism n. the doctrine that race affects intelligence and moral qualities; hence fear or dislike of a given racial group regarded as inferior.
Yes "the doctrine". Please go ahead and name the promoters of a racism doctrine. Yes, true, the meaning of words changes with time, but here we are dealing not with organic change but with purposeful propagandistic change intended to link anyone expressing ethnocentric sentiments to the esteemed Doctor Mengele. There is no such thing as racism in this country, or if there is, it is marginal and unworthy attention. There is plenty of ethnocentrism, that is cultural resentments and dislikes, which is present in all human societies and it ain't going away. If a white person is resentful of loud, obnoxious black or brown or purple teenagers on a city bus, he's not necessarily a lab assistant of Dr Mengele who's just got off the boat from Paraguay. Or, heck, maybe, as you imply, knowingly or not, he is, huh?
Whenever I find something that the opposite sides of political spectrum completely agree on, something other than some truism like the sun raises in the East, I run for the hills! As someone said long time ago, thinking for oneself has a tremendous future.
I am not convinced that you spend time here and don't see the racism that crops up, and usually from the same sources. If, in fact that's your story then there is nothing to be learned from you.
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