Farmer-Paellmann not afraid of huge corporations
By James Cox, USA TODAY
Deadria Farmer-Paellmann has spent five years digging for evidence that ties Corporate America to pre-Civil War slavery. She confronted Aetna in 2000.
NEW YORK Her husband, who's German and white, didn't believe her. So they played a game.
They'd go to a store and each make a purchase with a credit card. Inevitably, she had to produce a picture ID and give her address; he was rung up, no questions asked.
"Sometimes I tell (sales clerks), 'Hey, slavery's over. Black people have money now,' " says Deadria Farmer-Paellmann.
Slavery is anything but over for Farmer-Paellmann, 36, a researcher and mother of one. For five years, she has spent hours online and in archives hunting evidence that ties Corporate America to pre-Civil War slavery.
Farmer-Paellmann says she has identified about 60 companies that profited from slavery. She says she has taken her findings to nine banks, insurers and a textile maker and one estate. So far, none has made a public apology or agreed to her suggestion to put together a reparations plan.
If corporations with slaves in their past ever do pay reparations, Farmer-Paellmann can take much credit, says Charles Ogletree, the Harvard law professor heading a group looking to file reparations lawsuits.
Farmer-Paellmann says slavery lives on, its legacy seen in everything from housing discrimination to racial profiling to police brutality. The quest for compensation and an apology "torments a lot of African-Americans. And it's not because of the money. Our ancestors were kidnapped, whipped, tortured, forced to breed."
Farmer-Paellmann is negotiating with law firms and may file lawsuits separate from those brought by Ogletree's team. She hopes to pick a firm that could represent her as a plaintiff, bring her on to help with research or both.
I'm white. Whoppee! You think my life has been a cakewalk? Please go read the Bible and cure the whining complex immediately. God doesn't owe you (or me) the next breath, and present society doesn't owe you (or me) for the sufferings of the PAST.
Thanks, avenir