Posted on 08/17/2002 2:36:52 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A few thousand black demonstrators rallied on the Mall in Washington on Saturday to demand that the U.S. government pay blacks reparations for slavery and decades of discrimination.
"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing,' and then slap him, just for my mental health," Charles Barron, a member of the New York City Council, told the crowd.
The demonstrators, numbering about 2,000 to 3,000, came from all parts of the United States, many traveling by bus from as far away as Texas. With the U.S. Capitol in the background, they chanted "Black power! Reparations!" and "Start the Revolution!"
"Apologize White America," said a sign carried by one demonstrator.
Barron, a self-proclaimed "elected revolutionary," said if the government did not act swiftly he personally would storm the Treasury Department ( news - web sites) and take the money for reparations.
Black activist Louis Farrakhan told the crowd, "America owes the black people a lot for what they've endured."
"We need land for political independence, we need millions of acres," Farrakhan added. "We need payment for 310 years of slavery, of destruction of our minds and the robbery of our culture."
The United States, torn apart by the Civil War, abolished slavery in 1865. Some people argue that even 137 years after abolition, blacks still suffer from the vestiges of slavery.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, urged blacks to press their elected representatives in Congress to deal with the issue of slavery reparations.
"We want reparations -- not next century, not 10 years from now, but now," Conyers said. "These wrongs can only be corrected in the House of Representatives, only Congress can do what we want now. All congressmen ought to be here today."
Conyers has backed legislation that would require the House of Representatives to study slavery's effects on blacks.
Demonstrators said blacks deserved "long overdue" reparations, noting compensation won by Jews in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust and Japanese-Americans for their internment by the United States in camps during World War II.
The turnout was smaller than the tens of thousands of demonstrators forecast by organizers of the "Millions for Reparations" movement. But those who traveled to Washington said they believed the rally would make a difference.
"You have to really make some noise just to be heard," Edna Russell, who traveled from Denver, told Reuters.
Kobina Abew, an American citizen from Ghana dressed in a colorful African gown, said, "It's going to be very effective. It's going to bring a solution to this problem, I believe."
I doubt it.
You underestimate the power of the media to make white people ashamed of their inner feelings. And their power to make those whom they have made ashamed hate those who they have not.
Good. That To Do is checked off.
The United States of America DID NOT EXIST until 1776. If you want to complain about who did what to whom before that - - - talk to the British, The French and the Spanish. But do not attempt to blame my native country or me
I know that, I was just being generous. Slavery did, after all, exist in what is now this country for 246 years. Either way, Farrakhan's 310 is way off the mark, by whatever standard you use. And hell, my ancestors didn't even arrive in this country until 1890. Forget about me; my own ancestors are as much liable for what the U.S. government did in the 1850s as Abraham Lincoln is for what the English Crown did 100 years before he was born. This whole business is just insane, it's like a real bad late-night comedy.
Yeah, and people in Hell want ice water, too...
Louis, you already have it. It's called Zimbabwe. Please go there.
The Jews and the Japanese-Americans of which they speak were the actual benefactors of "mistreatment", not their ancestors.
Dream on Charles, and went I smash yo face like a pumpkin that'll be for your physical health, it's a white thang. We've paid $6 Trillion in welfare reparations and now every major city is a predatory crack jungle. Time for a reparations refund.
One can only hope. Too bad it is just empty macho rhetoric.
Don't be so sure. There are at least two lawsuits against private companies already working their way through the courts. If one of these cases winds up with 12 stupid jurors (what are the odds?), and awards a trillion dollars to the plaintiff.....
When those who did not earn compensation take it from those who did not cause the problem to be compensated, there is neither respect earned, nor given. In fact, contempt will be the result if they do receive their ill-gotten gain. I for one will not have any respect and a lot of contempt for any black that gets any "reparations" money forceably taken from me by the government. My ancestors did not ever own slaves. My father's family didn't come here until 1867, and my mother's family was Amish and Mennonite. No slaves held in either case.
I don't owe any person of color one red cent for reparations or any such thing. I have not harmed them in any way, and making me pay reparations will be doing me harm. My skin color is not sufficient cause to rob me, and that's what they'd be doing, pure and simple. This is Racism at its most blatant.
Yes, and think of the ramifications......
Blacks will demand "Reparations II" to compensate for a century of post-slavery SEGREGATION (1865-1965)
Indians will demand reparations for losing their land.
Chinese will demand reparations for being underpaid (virtual slaves) in the 19th Century.
Irish will demand reparations for exploitation during the Potato Famine.
Women will demand reparations for being denied the vote before 1920. (Anyone who had a grandmother, great grandmother, etc. in this country before 1920 will qualify.)
And on and on and on..........
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