I have never been a strong supporter for the call for reparations. I find that I expend enough energy just trying to get what I am currently entitled to, while I am struggling to hold on to what little I already have. Therefore I have not been really interested in fighting to get an apology and/or monetary compensation from “white” people for the past and current atrocities, injustices and other consequences that stem from slavery.
However, I recently received an interesting email which got me thinking more about this issue. It was from Brother Pruitt, who is the Reparations Leader and Chairman for the Committee for African American Reparations (CAAR) and the Reparations Union Lobbying Association. On his website he states:
“African-Americans should form a Reparations Union creating a power base in the tradition of lobbying and special interest groups that will consist of rich, middle class and poor blacks in addition to community conscious whites, jews and others who would like to see blacks win reparations and attain equality. This would enable African-Americans to announce the need for a congressional hearing to address the ills in society that exist because of slavery, segregation, institutional racism and discrimination. African-Americans owe it to themselves and their ancestors to expose politics and people responsible for maintaining corruption perpetuating unethical activity.”
From what I understood from his email and website, reparations is just one component, but a significant part of the overall healing and empowering process we need to go through as a community.
What are your views on the issue of reparations? Is it a worthy cause or just a waste of time and energy? Will monetary compensation address the injustices and atrocities of the past in any significant way…. or will it lead to what Biggie Smalls once warned: “Mo’ money, Mo’ problems”? Is reparations only an issue for those in the Diaspora or should those on the African continent demand reparations also from Europeans and Arabs for the theft of human and natural resources and the continuing effects of colonialism?
Please have the link to your post submitted by Sunday 04 November at Afrospear@hotmail.com, and the carnival date will be Monday 05 November.
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There is not enough money in the U.S. Treasury to pay the damages black folk have endured over all these many centuries. In 1988, President Reagan signed an act apologizing for Japanese American internment and providing reparations of $20,000 to each victim. The interment of Japanese-Americans, lasted only a few years, from 1942 through 1945. So that would be about $5000.00 per year. How much would that be per each desendant of slaves in America? How would it be determined who would get paid? It would be interesting for the government to pay reparations just to see how many white people would admit to being black in order to stake a claIm for the sake of the money. I’d pay to see that.
Although I have my doubts about how effective any campaign for Reparations could be, given the state of mind of white folks in this country(after all, they fought tooth and nail against affirmative action. bringing all of the House Negroes out to counter every favorable argument), I think that we owe it to ourselves and our forebearers to develope an all-out civil movement to address the issues of Apology and Reparation. My hope is that we might inflame the issue through use of the internet, because the matter will get no attention in the mainstream media. My fear is that we will not be able to avoid the tremendous sense of victimization that is sure to result from such an effort.
While I would surely appreciate any monetary reparations (although I doubt if I would see that in my lifetime), an actual apology from the government, including the congress and the president would be a step in the right direction.
Let’s go for it.
The pursuit of reparations is nothing more than a distraction and diversion from black people tackling the problems which confront us. Education, employment, family crisis, crime in our neighborhoods and a host of other issues are destroying us. Reparations is not a strategy for solving these problems. As a practical matter, winning reparations is an unwinnable political contest. Short of the political and economic foundation of the United States shifting in some cosmic way, actually winning and receiving reparations is simply not going to happen. Pursuing it in my view is a nearly criminal waste of time that could be infinitely better spent doing a host of far more useful things….mentoring our kids, more brothers actually raising the children they father, taking collective action to rebuild our communities and so much more.
To focus on reparations is to focus on the past in a manner that is not useful or effective in solving the problems of today. Its time wasted when we could be doing so many things right now that would be successful in creating better lives and opportunities for us. Its not a winning political issue, its not a relevant strategy for addressing any of the social or economic ills we suffer and it keeps us focused as a people on the injustice of the past and our exploitation. Enough! As a people, we are abdicating our responsibility for ourselves and our own destiny to focus on a victim status that it is time to shed. Racism and injustice are real and should be fought, but the bitter truth is that a lot of whats going wrong with us is fixable based purely on what WE are prepared to do for ourselves. It is time to throw away the pipe dream of reparations and focus like a laser beam on tried and true strategies like marrying our women, raising our kids, creating our own businesses, educating ourselves and more. Congressional hearings on reparations and the damage of slavery to guilt the country into paying us money is not the strategy I want to bank the future of my family, neighborhood and community on, not when there are so many things we COULD be doing right now that we are not. Reparations. Hah! C’mon people, its time to get our heads out of our ass.