[Caipirabob]

If this is going to work, they're going to need better marketing. Something like a cute comic book character to soften up the next generation for the kill. I'd like to contribute my suggestion towards this end.

Introducing....

Reparations Rat

[InvisibleChurch]

i want some money

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

I have been watching this rally and it's nothing more than black racist hate speech.The simple fact is the blacks owe reparations to the people of the south because they never worked off their debt.The people of the south bought their freedom from the true slave owners(african tribal leaders).All costs were underwritten for transportation,food,clothing and housing,the south never reclaimed these costs.The south is due it's reparations+140 years of interest.

[Stultis]

ATTENTION PARROT OWNERS IN D.C.:

Looks like they're gonna have about 2 million of those "marching order" pamphlets left over!

[Vidalia]

Oh darn, have I missed something? Been out buying slaves for my Puna cane fields...

[GVnana]

Sorry I'm not watching. I like my Saturday afternoons. Anyone get a headcount?

Sorry to throw a blanket over the party but I think this issue is going to get bigger before it gets lost.

[brat]

"We are a nation within a nation," Louid Farrakhan

[Lockbox]

My wife raised the following point, which I cannot address, regarding the ‘R’ word – Reparations.

She states from reading the local copy of the New York Times, other wise know as the Houston Chronicle, that the local Reparations article states But those in favor envision reparations money being used to fund education, improve health care, create cultural facilities and buy and expand businesses.

Her point, the ‘money’ will go to the Black Leaders to spend and not a check to each Black in America. I said if this happened the Blacks in America are going to be very mad, everyone I have heard today said they want a check.

So if she is right and the Black leaders get the funding, the average Black will get nothing, and thus nothing will be solved. Whites will say we paid, Blacks will say they never got the money and the Black leaders will be rich.

Does anyone else have this outlook on the potential Reparations funding?

[pupdog]

(This is a repeat of what's posted on another thread so maybe the moderators can/should remove the other one.)

I just came back from this march. I'll be posting a long article about it once I get myself gathered, but some quick notes for everyone's digestion.

1. Crowd size: The media estimates that I saw were much lower than we me and Nixi (wife) got. We're admittedly not good a crowd estimations, but all together, 5 to 10 thousand is what we came up with. We even got a chance to get demographics, as they had various regions respond to attendance calls: NY, NJ, PA and Houston had the biggest turnouts if the crowd responses were indicative.
2. Hate fest: This wasn't a universal attitude: there were a few people there who were actually very nice. Nevertheless, there was a lot of venom floating about, and one person had a "Kill Whitey" T-shirt that she tried to keep Nixi from photographing (and failed :-) ).
3. Counter-Protestors: Almost none. There was only one open set of protestors (guys from Inn Glory). How effective they were was hard to say. one person was loud and belligerent enough that he arguably made himself look worse; but that's a subjective analysis that I'll save for later. But if there was anyone else there also opposed to it, they were as incognito as we were.
4. Biggest speakers: Louis Farrakhan (sp?) and John Conyers were the biggest names to show up for this. Farrak did a good job (to be fair) of riling the crowd up, and was probably the most effective speaker of the event. He was also the one who provided the most specifics of what they were asking for, specifying the "deamnd" for "millions of acres". Conyers was more down to earth, but at the same time that he was trying to make his case that he just wanted Congress to consider it, he also couldn't help but spend about two minutes insluting Bush's intelligence (saying, for example, that they'd have to rewrite HR40 in smaller words for him). He did say, however, that one Republican house member was interested in discussing the issue with him. None of the rest of the speakers were that noteworthy, or said anything that really stands out.

All in all, there wasn't that much unexpected. I also wouldn't assume that the lower-than-a-million turnout means that this was a bust. I really think the 10,000 figure is more accurate (I'll post very large pictures so you can judge for yourself), and that's really not a small deal. I think it's a more important sign that this march even happened.

Oh, and there was one last consequence of the march: the We Won't Pay web site got a rush of new people pledging it. Thanks for the free advertising, guys. :-)

Will post more details soon.

[CounterCounterCulture]

I had to work, so I'm sorry I missed this. I'll be interested in reading the thread to see how this compares with one of the more recent "million" marches...

Farrakhan's "Million Family March" Monday 10/16/00 in DC on C-SPAN

[Freedom4US]

Interestingly, BBC is leading their stories on Short Wave tonight with "Several thousand" as attending today's festivities. Didn't look to be more than several hundred from what few crowd shots I saw.

[Cindy]

I watched about 15 minutes of this rally on C-SPAN. After listening to 2 speakers I formed the following impressions:

1. This was not a pro-America rally.
2. None of the speakers nor the people assembled at the rally looked old enough to have been slaves in America.
3. While watching this rally, I felt a very strong urge to shout to the TV: IF YOU DON'T LIKE AMERICA --- LEAVE. IF YOU WANT TO STAY IN AMERICA --GET A JOB AND BE A PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN!"

[weegee]

I saw that several entertainers were involved in the proceedings. Somehow, I think that the Godfather of Soul doesn't see this as an empowering event.

People still hold up "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" by James Brown, but less often heard today is "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I'll Get It Myself)".

When I saw James Brown this year, he was still singing new songs about staying in school and getting off drugs.

A look at this playlist/webcast will reveal a lot of James Brown PSAs and message songs.

[videojimmy]

There have been reparations, it's called Affirmative Action. I'm a white male who's family has been brutally victimized 3 times by black men, where's our reparations?

My sister was raped in 89, my father mugged and beaten in 91 and I was jumped and had most of my teeth broken out in 93, just because some black thugs thought I was Jewish. The police caught one of my attackers and he wasn't even charged with a bias attack. You could fill all the sport stadiums in the country with white victims of black crime. Should I hold YOU responsible for them? No? Then why should I or any other white person be held responsible for sins that we're only connected to by skin color?

My family came here in the 20's, we never oppressed anyone. Less than 5% of the whites in the US have slave owner heritage. If whites owned slaves, it's because African's rounded them up and sold them. Did you know that less then 10% of the slaves gathered in Africa came to the US, most wound up in South and Latin America.

Can you name ONE demographic in the history of the world that has done more to promote more freedoms and opportunities for more various races and religions than white American men? The fact is, there isn't one.

As for slavery, no one's hands are clean. Blacks STILL deal in the slave trade. Christ, Egyptians had Jewish slaves for about 8,000 yrs. Maybe the Jews should sue blacks today, huh?

The more blacks push this stuff, the more resentment you can expect from whites. The past is the past. In America only two things matter... how smart you are and how much money you have. The first one leads to the second.

With a 70% unwed mother rate in your community, maybe it's time to stop blaming whites for your failures and look to the real reasons. Birth control and education are free, try embracing them and in a generation or two, things will change. Just look at how well Hispanics are doing now. Try to learn from their example. Blacks have money, instead of buying your kid a playstation, try buying them "hooked on Phonics" Even COZ can tell you that. Instead of worshipping illiterate rappers, why not embrace Bryant Gumball? I guess he's " not black enough", huh? The way you people hold yourselves down is frustrating to white men who will inevitably be blamed for your continued failures.