Obama and the Drive for Slavery Reparations
AIM Report | By Cliff Kincaid | April 21, 2008
One group, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, is demanding an astronomical $777 trillion.
Barack Obama is the most radical candidate ever to stand at the precipice of acquiring his party’s presidential nomination and the American presidency. It is apparent that he is a member of an international socialist movement which hopes to use the United Nations as a vehicle to shake down U.S. taxpayers for trillions of dollars in slavery reparations. One group, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, is demanding an astronomical $777 trillion.
In 2001, Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ passed a resolution declaring that:
“WHEREAS: The institution of Slavery is internationally recognized as crime for which there is no statute of limitations, AND
WHEREAS: Uncompensated labor was demanded from enslaved Africans and their descendants for more than two centuries on U.S. soil; AND
WHEREAS: The principle that reparations is the appropriate remedy whenever government unjustly abrogates the rights of a domestic group or foreign people whose rights such government is obligated to protect or uphold has been internationally recognized…”
In that same year, Martha Biondi, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History at Northwestern University, notes that the United Nations World Conference Against Racism was held. It was the result of “a decade of advocacy and organizing at the U.N. Human Rights Commission” and work by the so-called December 12th Movement. The conference issued a “Declaration and Program of Action,” which held that “slavery and the slave trade” constituted a “crime against humanity” and that “Africans and people of African descent, Asians and people of Asian descent and indigenous peoples were victims of these acts and continue to be victims of their consequences.”
“The United Nations has emerged as an extraordinary stage for the reparations movement,” she says.
As President, Obama could take that stage.
Biondi adds that the reparations movement “offers an innovative and compelling way to move beyond inadequate and besieged civil rights discourses, to revive black-led global anticapitalist and anti-imperialist projects, and to radically intervene in the discourse of globalization.”
The conference, held in Durban, South Africa, was described by supporters as “a landmark in the struggle to eradicate all forms of racism….The World Conference is a unique opportunity to create a new world vision for the fight against racism in the twenty-first century.”
But the event was considered so extreme that the U.S. delegation, led by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, walked out. A follow-up, known as Durban II, is planned for 2009. This “Durban Review Conference” would be funded through the U.N. regular budget, of which the U.S. is expected to pay 22 percent.
“Birth Defect”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose name has been floated as a vice-presidential possibility for Senator John McCain, told a U.S. Senate committee in February that the State Department had not decided whether to attend the event. Later, however, Rice told the Washington Times that the U.S. still has trouble dealing with race because of a national “birth defect” that denied blacks the opportunities given to whites at the country’s founding. “That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today,” she said.
In this extraordinary interview, Rice, who had always been assumed to be a conservative in her view of racial issues, was quoted as saying, “Black Americans were a founding population. Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together—Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That’s not a very pretty reality of our founding.” The paper said that Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times that “descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that.”
Her comments could be used as justification for slavery reparations.
Meanwhile, on March 26, Florida became the sixth state in the nation to apologize for its role in slavery. The Tallahassee Herald-Tribune reported that Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist commended lawmakers “for doing the right thing” and did not rule out considering reparations for Floridians whose ancestors were slaves.
Attacking The U.S.
Dr. Conrad W. Worrill, past national co-chair for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N‘COBRA) and “Minister of the Interior” of the Provisional Government / Republic of New Afrika (RNA), was a delegate to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism. The RNA seeks the creation of a black nation in the U.S. in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
“Our strong African in America delegation, the Durban 400, lobbied for a major resolution on reparations in concert with the African Heads of State,” he says. “Under the leadership of the December 12th Movement and the National Black United Front, the Durban 400 successfully influenced the final conference resolution…”
He added, “We were successful in gathering 157,000 signatures from African people in America who agreed that the United States Government committed acts of genocide against us. We traveled to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in May of 1997 and officially filed our genocide petitions, clearly pointing out that the vestiges of slavery, as it relates to the Prison Industrial Complex, validates the contemporary demands for reparations.” The petition was a “Declaration of Genocide by the United States Government Against the Black Population in the United States.”
The “Durban 400” was the name for the so-called African American NGO contingent to the World Conference Against Racism and was organized by the December 12th Movement and National Black United Front.
U.N. Testimony
In 1999, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights took testimony from N’COBRA and others on the subject. The account said that “The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America said that people of African ancestry residing in the United States were experiencing harm as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The observer for the International Association against Torture stated that the trans-Atlantic slave trade had caused the displacement and deculturalization of millions of people. The observer for the African Americans in the United States of America specified that the lingering effects of plantation slavery had resulted in the disappearance of the original language, religion and culture, and that African Americans were still dying from the torment of the past owing to genetic alteration. The observer for Espacio Afroamericano highlighted the marginalization of and racial discrimination against the black communities in Latin America as a result of the slave trade.”
The account went on to say that, “The above organizations recommended that a forum for African Americans be established at United Nations Headquarters and a new working group established in Geneva to study conditions throughout the Diaspora. They also recommended that a special rapporteur be appointed to investigate the continuing racial discrimination and a team of experts be constituted to prepare a report of present conditions.
“In addition, the observer for the Black Reparations Com-mission recommended the holding of an international conference on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath and the victims’ right to remedy and to seek United Nations intervention in the creation of national, regional and local political bodies to educate African American people on the principle of informed consent as it related to the political choices and options of a freed people.
“Additional recommendations included United Nations intervention to assist in the establishment of a national consultative assembly for African Americans in the United States of America and the establishment of a permanent committee on the inalienable rights of African American peoples which would report directly to the General Assembly, similar to the Committee on Palestinian rights.”
The campaign is a new version of an old communist tactic. Indeed, Worrill was photographed in the Final Call, the Nation of Islam newspaper of Louis Farrakhan, holding a copy of the document, “We charge Genocide,” which was presented to the U.N. in 1951 by the Civil Rights Congress, a communist-created and -controlled organization. The document alleged that the U.S. Government was systematically discriminating against and killing black people.
One of Barack Obama’s mentors, Frank Marshall Davis, was a member of the Communist Party USA and filled a young Obama, before he went off to college, with anti-American thoughts and ideas.
In her paper, “Formulating Reparations Litigation Through the Eyes of The Movement,” Professor Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, a legal consultant to the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations, offered a detailed argument in favor of using the courts to obtain the financial reparations. She represented the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at the World Conference Against Racism and served as a leader of the African and African Descendant Caucus at the event.
Aiyetoro was involved in a filing before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that affirmative action for blacks was a legitimate form of reparations.
The American Bar Association published an article, “The Legal Basis of the Claim for Slavery Reparations,” which maintained that the demand for reparations “is well founded in international law.” As a precedent, the author, a British lawyer named Anthony Gifford, cited the U.N. Security Council for passing a resolution “binding in international law” and “requiring Iraq to pay reparations for its invasion of Kuwait.”
Obama’s Other Mentor
Barack Obama’s pastor and mentor, the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright, was the keynote speaker at the 2007 annual conference of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. Wright’s talk, “A Call for Justice and Repair,” followed a statement in which he declared that “The Biblical principle of true repentance is that the offended party is given compensation to take up for that which has been stolen from them, the losses that have been inflicted upon them and their families.”
But Wright isn’t the only controversial member of Obama’s church. Dr. Iva Carruthers, who describes herself as an active member of the church, is an outspoken advocate of reparations for blacks and was a participant in N’COBRA’s 2004 conference.
Carruthers was identified, along with Wright, as a member of Obama’s African American Religious Leadership Committee. Wright has since been dropped from the group. But Carruthers is sometimes referred to as a spokesman for Wright and works with him closely.
Indeed, Carruthers may be even more controversial, especially on the issue of reparations. She wrote “The Church and Reparations- An African American Perspective,” which was reportedly “distributed by her denomination” at the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism.
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Not only are members of his church involved in the reparations movement, Obama is said to have been politically close to former Chicago Alderman Dorothy Jean Wright Tillman, who led an effort by the Chicago City Council to demand reparations for slavery. “Chicago has become the de facto center of the slavery reparations movement,” noted a journalist for the far-left paper In These Times.
The Obamas’ 2006 income tax return shows that they gave $22,500 to Trinity United Church of Christ, which they attended with such figures as Wright and Carruthers.
Despite going to the same church, however, Carruthers said that she has no idea as to where Obama stands on the controversy. “I don’t have any insight at all,” she said, before saying that she had to leave for another engagement.
Carruthers is the General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, which includes Wright on its board and describes itself as a social justice organization. The website of the group includes a statement that “Dr. Wright represents the best among us, one of the best in this tribe of prophetic preachers. He has made his church a place where one could express the centuries-old pain of being Black in America, while finding strength for a brighter day. An attack on this man of the God is an attack on all those of the cloth who believe in the social Gospel of liberation.”
Illinois Slavery Commission
Both Wright and Carruthers were involved in the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission, established by the Illinois state legislature in 2005. Its purpose was to examine the “past and present effects on African-Americans” of the slave trade and it issued a report in 2007. Wright was an “associate” of the commission while Carruthers was the “senior research consultant.”
Its findings included that Christopher Columbus was part of the Catholic Church’s “century of blood” in the establishment of the slave trade system, and that civil war U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, acknowledged to be “the most famous son of Illinois,” didn’t morally object to slavery but only wanted to “restore the Union to white consensus.”
In 2003, Carruthers spoke on behalf of Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ at a “summit on reparations” opened by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Another group represented at the Farakhan summit was the Republic of New Afrika. Farrakhan followed with an “international address” entitled, “Reparations: What does America and Europe Owe? What does Allah (God) promise?” Farrakhan spoke at an N’COBRA event.
In 2007, Carruthers endorsed a document urging that “Financial and human resources be identified and made available, in trust and otherwise, with appropriate church, community, and academic entities to effect institutional development and remedies from the Transatlantic slave trade system and colonialism at the local, national and global levels.” The document said that reparations should be “offered for the healing of peoples who were once enslaved.”
The “Motherland”
Like Obama, Carruthers and Wright have been deeply involved in African affairs. They traveled to the “motherland,” as they call it, where Wright was photographed in Ghana in “full ceremonial regalia” as a “development chief” and Carruthers was elevated to the position of “queen mother.” Obama’s wearing of African garb became a national controversy.
But the more important issue, from a public policy perspective, is how he would handle taxpayer dollars.
While Carruthers said she did not know where Obama stood on the issue of reparations, the Chicago Tribune reported that he was asked in 2004 about the matter and “spoke about how slavery had left a stain on the country that has yet to be eradicated.” Nevertheless, he said that he opposed “just signing checks over to African-Americans.”
During the presidential campaign, the issue came up during a Democratic presidential debate and only Dennis Kucinich said he favored reparations. Obama changed the subject, saying he favored more spending on schools.
Carruthers said that reparations have to include much more than financial payments. She may have in mind not only an apology from the federal government but some form of spiritual or psychological help for black victims of the slave trade.
In this regard, the N’COBRA conference that featured Wright also included a panel discussion of “Post-Traumatic Slavery Syndrome.” In a variation of this theme, the Philadelphia branch of N’COBRA had advertised a sold-out lecture on the subject of “Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder (PTSD),” described as one of the Psycho-Racial Spiritual Diseases of Americanized Africans (PRSDAA). The speaker, a psychologist, said that black-on-black violence could be attributed to undiagnosed PRSDAAs.
The Clinton Role
While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are now engaged in a fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, it was the Clinton Administration that helped to make reparations into a national issue. President Clinton had proposed a $10 million federal research program to study the problem of racism in America. It was described by the Associated Press as “a way to measure the impact of racial bias in everyday life” and was seen as potential backing for legislation proposed by Rep. John Conyers to establish a national commission to study the matter.
Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has endorsed Obama for president.
Conyers’ bill to create a “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans” was first introduced in 1989. He praised N’COBRA in a statement he issued in 1999 and sponsored a subsequent event, “Capitalizing on Our Strength Empowering the Reparations Movement,” featuring a representative of N’COBRA.
The issue became so big that the CBS Evening News, then hosted by Dan Rather, did a story about the controversy, highlighting the fact that the Chicago City Council had become the fourth major city to pass a resolution calling for reparations.
Randall Robinson, the director of the group known as Trans Africa, wrote a book, The Debt, on the subject, and hosted a conference on reparations featuring such luminaries as actor Danny Glover.
One thing is certain: Carruthers is hoping for an Obama win. Federal Election Commission records show that she gave his Illinois Senate campaign $500 and his presidential campaign $2,300.
Another thing is certain: The Hill newspaper reports that Conyers hopes to move his reparations commission bill when Obama is in the White House. The paper said, however, that Conyers “has not called on the senator to endorse his measure because ‘I don’t want to put him on the spot.’” The Hill said that Obama’s campaign “did not respond to requests for information about the senator’s position on the bill.”
DEAR FELLOW MEDIA WATCHDOG April-B, 2008
LET’S START WITH THE GOOD NEWS. AL-JAZEERA’S TOP U.S. JOURNAL-ist, Dave Marash, is leaving the channel, saying that anti-American bias at the network was a factor in his decision. This confirms our warnings and fears. As you recall, Accuracy in Media campaigned to keep Al-Jazeera English off American airwaves in 2006. We have been vindicated. Marash’s departure will make it even more difficult for the channel to get U.S. media access. In a Fox News debate with me prior to the channel’s launch, Marash had claimed Al-Jazeera English would be editorially autonomous and independent from the original and pro-terrorist Arabic Al-Jazeera, based in Doha, Qatar. But AIM produced a report citing evidence that key Al-Jazeera English personnel had come from Al-Jazeera Arabic. AIM also produced a DVD, “Terror Television,” documenting the channel’s pro-terrorist and anti-American bias, and commissioned a public opinion poll which found that most Americans didn’t want the channel to have access to the U.S. media market. In interviews after his departure, Marash confirmed that the English channel is under the firm control of the same people who control Al-Jazeera Arabic. Marash has seen the light, but we had warned all along that this would be the case. Thanks to you, AIM’s campaign had prevented Al-Jazeera from finding a major U.S. cable or satellite company willing to carry it. We tried from the beginning to expose Al-Jazeera English for what it is—an anti-American, Arab government-financed propaganda operation. Please send the enclosed postcard to Allan J. Block of Block Communications, one of the few U.S. outlets for Al-Jazeera English.
THE BAD NEWS IS OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN. MUSLIM MILITIA FORCES FOUGHT THE Iraqi security forces to a virtual standstill during conflict in Basra. There are also reports that about 1,000 Iraqi soldiers or police deserted. In Afghanistan, it’s become a no-win war, largely because our NATO “allies” have refused to fight.
THE BIG NEWS OUT OF THE RECENT NATO SUMMIT WAS THAT SOME EUROPEAN NATIONS
balked at accepting new members that would offend Russia. But the bigger story is that NATO’s war against the terrorists in Afghanistan is failing and it has no plan to win. Afghanistan could once again come under the control of those who sponsored 9/11. Afghanistan, of course, is where the 9/11 terrorists had their base of operations. The U.S. attacked Osama bin Laden and his Taliban backers, eliminating or driving them into hiding, but depended on NATO to finish the job. NATO has failed. France says it will send an additional 700-1,000 troops to Afghanistan, and that other nations may provide “smaller numbers.” Whatever that means, it’s not much. It’s certainly not enough to win.
AN INQUISITIVE JOURNALIST NAMED ANDREW GRAY OF REUTERS REPORTS THAT IT’S NOT exactly clear how many NATO troops are actually in Afghanistan, and that the organization sometimes “revises” the numbers dramatically. The NATO website doesn’t say exactly how many are supposed to be there, and which nations are contributing what numbers. In any case, Gray notes that U.S. Army Gen. McNeill, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, has suggested that “a force of well over 400,000 Afghan and foreign troops” is needed to fight the terrorists there. McNeil reports that “The Afghans say that they have 22,000 on the rolls of their army and 42,000 police. NATO has about 39,000 troops here, so that totals a good 100,000.” During a February 6 briefing at the Pentagon, the NATO force was put at “over 40,000.” It has been as high as 47,000. About 17,000 of those are American troops. Another 14,000 U.S. forces operate in Afghanistan independently of NATO.
AT THAT BRIEFING, McNEIL REPEATED THE THEORETICAL NEED FOR 400,000 TROOPS, BUT added, “Now, having said that, the members of the alliance are going to produce only so much. I accept that.” But should we accept it? This debacle appears to validate a Democratic point that the U.S. lost sight of the original terrorist problem in Afghanistan when it went to war in Iraq. But the Democratic presidential candidates, as well as Republican John McCain, make the situation worse by saying that they will somehow get NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan. They are claiming that they will succeed where President Bush has failed. One problem is that there are 15,000 NATO troops making sure that the new Muslim state of Kosovo has international protection when they should be fighting Muslim extremists in Afghanistan. Recognition of Kosovo is a policy embraced by Bush, Hillary, Obama and McCain.
NATO LEADERS DECLARED AT THE SUMMIT THAT “WE REITERATE THAT KFOR [THE NATO Kosovo Force] will remain in Kosovo on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1244 to ensure a safe and secure environment, including freedom of movement, for all people in Kosovo unless the Security Council decides otherwise.” But UNSCR 1244 recognized Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo. So when various NATO nations, including the U.S., recognized Kosovo statehood, that move was a violation of UNSCR 1244. The NATO debacles in Afghanistan and Kosovo demonstrate the great danger of relying on global alliances to accomplish U.S. military objectives. To make matters worse, at the Bucharest summit NATO invited Albania to join the organization, even though Albania is the source of the Kosovo problem. Albanian Muslims took over Kosovo through infiltration and immigration.
AS IF THE DEBACLES IN KOSOVO AND AFGHANISTAN AREN’T ENOUGH, NATO IS ALSO threatening to get more involved militarily in Darfur. NATO can’t win in Afghanistan but wants to get more involved in other areas of the world. It’s almost as if the organization is committed to so overextending itself that it will inevitably fail.
AT THIS CRITICAL POINT, WE NEED STRONG U.S. LEADERSHIP. INSTEAD, AS THIS AIM REPORT documents, Barack Obama is emerging as a potential mouthpiece for the slavery reparations movement at the U.N. Please send Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod the enclosed postcard about this. On the Republican side, Senator McCain never mentioned the need to preserve American sovereignty in his Los Angeles World Affairs Council speech. He could have reassured conservatives by stating his forthright opposition to Senate ratification of the U.N.’s Law of the Sea Treaty, which provides for international control over billions of dollars worth of oil, gas and minerals and undermines American claims to North Pole riches. But he chose not to. Instead, as the Washington Post put it, McCain promised “a collaborative foreign policy,” conducted in coordination with other nations. It looks like McCain is going for the liberal vote. Please send McCain campaign senior adviser Charles Black the enclosed postcard about this. The tragedy of McCain’s approach is that it comes from a man who served his country in uniform and risked his life on behalf of the U.S. McCain would have been a natural choice to lead a campaign for restoration of American sovereignty in foreign affairs. He could have been “The American President Americans have been waiting for,” as his TV ad claims. For reasons that remain largely a mystery, he has chosen to take the U.S. down the road of “global governance,” in which international agencies, institutions and alliances determine our fate as a nation. It is the same road the Democrats are on. With your help, we will provide a pro-American voice as the campaign moves forward.
23 Comments | Post a Comment
During the presidential campaign, the issue came up during a Democratic presidential debate and only Dennis Kucinich said he favored reparations. Obama changed the subject, saying he favored more spending on schools.
your entire article is little more than disingenious McCarthyism--blabbing on and on about people and organizations that support reparations, but only noting in the BOTTOM of the article that OBAMA HIMSELF is AGAINST THEM. And in your belated notation of THAT, a VERY IMPORTANT FACT DONT YOU THINK--you attempt to water down his response to the subject at a Presidential debate, after obliquely noting only Kucinich supported reparations, without specifically acknowledging Obama opposed them, you try to muddy the waters by say that Obama “changed the subject” implying something that just was not there. this is pathetically poor journalism. Obama has always opposed Reparations, your whole article is basically guily by association. shame on you. you give REAL conservatives with INTELLECTUAL integrity a bad name
#1 You cannot legislate morality!
#2 Start with the people who sold slaves as a trade.
#3 Seek reparations from the Black Arabs who
brokered the selling of slaves at the slave trade
belt. That’s the Carribean!
#4 The South was mainly by and large the place where
slavery was legal. The President was then
Jefferson Davis. Confederate dollars was
the currency not the greenback! Pre civil
war payment was in a commodity form. Where
do you think those bandits of the African
desert acquired guns???
#5 Who reparated the south when confederate
money became defunct?
#6 Who abolished slavery and died for the cause?
#7 During the annuals of civilization, except
for royalty who wasn’t a slave!
#8 What country on the earth has done more
to fix relation between Government and
black America?
#9 Reparations have already been paid with
affirmative action, welfare, African American
month, black segragation, and other privledges.
REPARATIONS BURN MY BUTT. I GUESS IT’S TIME TO APPLY REPARATION H AS IN HILLARY. THE UNITED STATES IS MORE DIVIDED TODAY THAN IN THE CIVIL WAR. DEMONCRATS GET ELECTED BY PICKING SORES. I LOVE IT WHEN THEY USE THE BUZZWORD DIOLOGUE. AFTER THEY STAB THE VICTIM THEY SOOTHE HIM AS HE CLUTCHES THEIR FEET. THE UN AND THE GREEN MARIJUANA MOVEMENT WILL SPLIT THE 50 DIS UNITED STATES AMONGST THE DUMA. THE COUNTRY IS FALLING APART.
CEOS ARE MOVING TO DUBAI. A REPRESENTIVE IN COLORADO COMPLAINING ABOUT ILLEGAL INFILTRATION WAS SILENCED YESTERDAY BY THE NEW WORLD ORDER SHUSSTAFEL. THEN OUT COMES THE LABEL MACHINE.
POPE BENEDICT COME BACK THE FLOCK IS SCATTERED.
http://WWW.BLOGTALKRADIO.COM
SOAP
The ‘no staute of limitations’ on the crime of slavery has many issues rendering it a non issue.
To arrive at legitimate accounting of monetary damages you would have to first go to the point when slavery, by law, became illegal. Then locate, by name, those individuals who were still enslaved. Once this class is determined we must then trace family records to make sure all descendants are included in the class. At that point we must determine who stil practiced slavery, (once it was officially illegal), and figure out who they injured.
I realize the ‘class action’ mentality rules on this subject, but to address it fairly, those who were not any way involved in slavery should not be held accountable. I am second generation, (caucasian), in this country. Not only were my people not slave owners, they were not even in the country at the time! Now why should I pay for anything related to slavery?! Factor in the millions of immigrants who flooded into America just prior to and after the turn of the century and you have multitudes of generations of white americans who are far removed from slavery. So the ‘class action’ demand for slavery reparations now becomes actionable by those who have no connection to slavery. Given this scenario, I support class action legal relief against those who, (based soley on my skin color), would seek to accuse me of something I had no part in.
One last thought, do we also identify the black slave traders and their descendants to seek damages from them also?
Obama changed the subject when reparations came up in a debate? Okay, so he’s not entirely stupid as this would have ended his shot at being the “uniter” he “says” he wishes to be. While he isn’t fit for command of the US military, he has experience as an activist and knows to go for incremental change (ask for too much; settle for a step forward) as opposed to revolutionary change (asking for too much and expecting to get it all). Read any thorough book about the Clintons and you pick stuff like this up from Hillary’s past. Bubba is too stupid (despite a photographic memory which hides this) to pursue revolution when he could be hitting on some babe. Bubba was the “actor” president (he is second to none at lip-biting or switching from laughter to tears when spotting a photographer as he left a funeral); Reagan was a president who had been an actor. He was a better president than actor.
Repatriation? Does this mean blacks in the US would go from the greatest nation on earth to one of the world’s biggest hell holes? Uh, “a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there”? It is racist to suggest that blacks are that stupid. No longer a minority, they wouldn’t get social spending programs enabling them to live off the “fat” of the land, ie, the rich who actually pay most of the taxes in the US. (I’m assuming that productive black members of society would have nothing to do with this. And Oprah simply doesn’t need the money.)
Will Hispanics living in the US have to ante up and pay reparations to blacks? Hispanics are increasingly a larger percentage of the population than blacks...and the two groups are not known for warm relations. (In prisons, they are segregated to prevent violent clashes.) Some blacks are beginning to realize that once Hispanics outnumber blacks in large numbers, the democrat pols will drop blacks like a hot rock and “Hispander,” as both Bush and McCain (and Hillary, too, BTW) have attempted to do with differing measures of success.
The UN? I wish that McCain, after winning the election, would make a statement to the effect that the US will make ZERO payments for UN upkeep (an utter waste of money that basically finances a posh enviroment/social club for representatives of brutal dictatorships, said representatives then placed on/in “Human Rights” commissions and other oxymoronic sinecures, while providing nothing of any value) until serious and acceptable reform (not UN “reform,” but the genuine article) is in place. Failing that, US out of the UN, UN out of the US. Ideally, to a brutal dictatorship where rational ambassadors would refuse to serve, while rational leaders would refuse to send them. They could then throw a “tempest in a teapot” at will, while totally ignored by rational people the world over.
Representatives of brutal dictatorships should be given ZERO positions of any meaningful authority as part of real reform. This is equivalent to hiring a known pedophile as a babysitter.
But as long as whites remain a majority, should a black president miraculously enact “reparations,” a certain percentage of whites would probably view this as “open season,” if you get my drift. (I do not propose or endorse this, but do speculate that this is a serious possibility.)
Should the UN ever attempt to gain control over the United States of America: Declaration of Independence II.
While my ancestors came across the pond on the same ship as Andrew Carnegia, I suppose I will have to sue the government because I wasn’t afforded the same luxury as the Carnegie family.
I am so ashmed of how this movement is turning out. We have had Racism pushed down our throats for years and we weren’t the ones that had anything to do with it. We have been pushed and pushed until it is downright ridiculous to even imagine this movement is going on. Such bitterness will get nowhere fast. You can bus the kids in schools, which served no purpose whatsoever, and try to make people like it but, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
We can’t go FORWARD until we let go of the PAST.
It just isn’t going to happen. We can’t keep fireing people to make it right. Such a vendetta we have here and it will never be resolved with these types of attitudes. Thank you.
Let’s get past the argument that the whites that are in the US wanted to come here and the blacks that are here were brought in chains (innuendo - they don’t want to be here). Offer each black person one way ticket back to their motherland conditioned on forfeiture of US citizenship. They can accept and leave or acknowledge they freely chose to stay and we can all move on.
The African Slave Trade was a flourishing African enterprise for two hundred years before the Eupropeans discovered it. The explorers/traders from Europe did not find such slave markets in any other region: not when they “discovered” India, China, South America, etc. That is, there was on one capturing and enslaving the natives of the various countries and proposing to sell them to strangers to be taken overseas, away from their native lands. Conditions were cruel all over the world at that time. India had its class system with its untouchables, Spains had peonage, Russian had serfs, Europe had peasants, the American Indians enslaved the women and children captured from its intertribal warfare, the Aztecs had internal slavery (but not for export). Chinese indentured themselves to work in the US and other parts of the world. Many Europeans came to the US as bond servants.
In other words, African slavery was a product of the Africans, with their willingness to profit by capturing other Africans and shipping them off to the New World as slaves.
One further point: the US had only six percent of the New World slaves. In the US from the beginning there was much objection to slavery, which grew into a viable Abolitionist movement. We also fought a great civil war, first to preserve the Union, secondarily to abolish slavery.
If there were to be reparations, 94 percent would have to come from Latin America: the Caribbean, Central and South America. Brazil would have to foot about 35% of the bill. How’s the reparations movement doing there?
360,000 Union soldiers died to free the slaves. 99.999999% were white. There are your reperations SO SHUT UP ALREADY!
I don’t have any slaves, my parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents etc never had slaves, but the Muslims STILL have slaves Who does Obama think “rounded them up and corralled them” way back when????The Muslims. Have him ask THEM for reparations. If Obama is elected this country is going to go down the toilet and this Muslim born (Muslim father, Muslim name, Muslims consider him to be Muslim even tho he says he is Christian) candidate will be the one flushing.
Let me start by pointing out that I’m an African American. First and foremost, Obama is a charismatic individual, but I think his politics are broken. Secondly, I must repudiate the poor journalism on the part of the author here. You’ve touted and sputtered an entire article and yet your point was moot from the get go. It’s already been established that Obama is against reparations. Your just fanning the flames. Nextly, reparations are a mistake. Period. Who is to pay? Tax payers? White people? The government? Everyone wants money, but nobody wants to pay it. To instate any form of reparation what so ever would create an environment of racial tension and resentment in this country. (not to say that in some places there isn’t already). And finally, nobody better dare lump black people together when they make statements about Obama. We didn’t all disown Obama as “not really being black”. Don’t allow the drive by media to convince you that ‘the black people’ consist of 20 thugs in a gym somewhere in compton.
A couple of pieces of information that are usually ignored:
1) Slaves were expensive, so only the rich could afford them; where people might think that your average white Southern family had slaves, actually the number of Southerners with slaves were less than 5% (I’ve read 3 or 4%);
2) The South usually catches the blame for making slaves 3/5 of a person. The truth: the North did this to keep the population of the South down so they didn’t have so much political pull in national politics;
3) Race relations in the South are the best in the nation as we share a common heritage;
4) I’ve read that more blacks are moving TO the South as opposed to moving OUT of the South, but I’ve only read this one place, so while I believe it to be true, I wouldn’t swear to it;
5) As has been mentioned, the US is the only nation to have had a Civil War to free the slaves (with the largest casualties since both sides were Americans), while slavery still exists in other countries. Given the choice, would blacks prefer to live in the US...or somewhere in Africa, which is beset by a number of problems, eg, famine, AIDS?;
6) In any large group of people with a common trait, whether race, gender, national origin, religion, whatever, you will find the good, the bad, and the ugly: there is NO “typical” white person or “typical” black person, and the concept is inherently racist; Obama mentioned his grandmother was a “typical white person,” while defending racist statements made by his Reverent Wright, who is a blatant racist;
7) Politicians lie to us. (Yes, I know that others are just as shocked to learn this as I was!) Because Obama or Hillary (or McCain, for that matter) says they will do or not do something is hot air: they will do what is politically expedient, or “go along to get along,” which amounts to “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”...or they won’t get any legislation passed in the House and Senate (you may recall that among the very first things Bill Clinton did after being elected President in ‘92 was to basically disavow all of his campaign promises and pursue the gays in the military issue, presumably not at the top of the list of reasons people voted for him);
8) I’m sick to death of some idiot saying that we “hate” some group, eg, immigrants. I have ZERO problems with LEGAL immigrants who come to America to lead better lives and provide for their families. Illegal immigrants are criminals: that’s what “illegal” means! Send THEM home and allow those who have followed the rules to move to the front of the line, instead of being denied what is basically a right, ie, to legally immigrate to the US;
9) The Constitution (Article 4, Section 4) states that the Federal Government will, among other things, protect the individual states against INVASION...but we read about Mexican Army Vehicles escorting drug “mules” and illegal immigrants across our Southern borders. The vast majority of our elected officials violate their Oaths of Office to defend the Constitution as long as the status quo obtains. (See item 7 above: Politicians LIE to us!)
Times are tough, and I really don’t have the time nor inclination to hate a bunch of people unless they are attacking me (or my family) personally. I’d rather watch TV. Seems to me that a lot of shows aren’t quite as good as they were before the writers’ strike. And anybody who doesn’t enjoy cold watermelon on a hot day probably has emotional or medical problems, so could we drop this particular racial stereotype? Watermelon, like the tomato, gets its red color from lycopene, and it’s very healthy, too!
This is all guilt by association—no direct evidence is offered that Obama supports reparations. Indeed, there’s no evidence that anyone at AIM even tried to contact Obama’s campaign to find out his position.
This is an evolution, though—Cliff Kincaid is no longer citing fictional characters as part of his guilt-by-association evidence, as he did last month (here).
I’ve never seen such ignorance spewed on a website before since I’ve read the garbage on stormfront.com. Nobody wants to pay for the sins of their fathers but wants to live off the privileges their fathers set up at the expense of others. First of all, it’s obvious whoever wrote the story knows very little about Obama. In addition, which one of you have suffered from the lingering effects of slavery on this country? When you get pulled over for DWB, then your arguments will have validity. Until then, you all sound like schoolchildren who have a dangerous denial of white privilege in this country. Go read Tim Wise and get back to me.
As part Irish & Catholic I am a victim of English Crimes against Humanity. But I am also the descendent of Union soldiers, Abolitionist, members of the Freedmans bureau, Conductors on the underground railroad, and promenient members of the Anti-lynching League. Since none of the people living today, were either a slave, or a slave owner, And I have never benified in any way from slave ownership, I do not feel I should contribitute any of my tax dollars for any reperations! without getting into exact numbers, of the white people in the USA today, only a tiny percentage can trace their familys back to slave owners. More whites lived in the north. many more did not come to the USA until well after the Civil War. Of the white population in the south the war killed over half the men.
Jewett publishing of Boston was the first to publish ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ in book form. This book which swept the north galvanised the abalitionist movement.
R Jewett, USA retired.
Simple solution. They want “reparations$?”, well, I propose that the U.S. government pays for a one way ticket back to Africa! If the decendants of slaves don’t think that they are better off than if they had stayed in Africa, Then the choice is clear. “If the truth hurts, then, let there be pain!” In closing; Shut up and get over it! Be part of the melting pot that the world calls The United States Of America. There really is no better choice…
NO! Slavery was not a Southern thing, though that is how we are taught.(North good,South bad)Slaves were brought here byway of New England and then sold ‘down river’.At the time of the War Between the States, there were 4 Union slave states.In 1863, West Va made it 5.Slaves were frequently rented out to people in Ohio and Ill.There are even cases of slave labor in Maine for road work.
Sorry, but that blaming the South ain’t gonna fly!
Here is information that is userly left out of this debate:
Prior to the great Revolution, the great majority . . . of our people had been so long accustomed to the practice and convenience of having slaves that very few among them even doubted the propriety and rectitude of it. 2
The Revolution was the turning point in the national attitude–and it was the Founding Fathers who contributed greatly to that change. In fact, many of the Founders vigorously complained against the fact that Great Britain had forcefully imposed upon the Colonies the evil of slavery. For example, Thomas Jefferson heavily criticized that British policy:
He [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. . . . Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce [that is, he has opposed efforts to prohibit the slave trade]. 3
Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean Woodward, confirmed that whenever the Americans had attempted to end slavery, the British government had indeed thwarted those attempts. Franklin explained that . . .
. . . a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed. 4
Further confirmation that even the Virginia Founders were not responsible for slavery, but actually tried to dismantle the institution, was provided by John Quincy Adams (known as the “hell-hound of abolition” for his extensive efforts against that evil). Adams explained:
The inconsistency of the institution of domestic slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented by all the southern patriots of the Revolution; by no one with deeper and more unalterable conviction than by the author of the Declaration himself [Jefferson]. No charge of insincerity or hypocrisy can be fairly laid to their charge. Never from their lips was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the institution of slavery. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country [Great Britain] and they saw that before the principles of the Declaration of Independence, slavery, in common with every other mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth. Such was the undoubting conviction of Jefferson to his dying day. In the Memoir of His Life, written at the age of seventy-seven, he gave to his countrymen the solemn and emphatic warning that the day was not distant when they must hear and adopt the general emancipation of their slaves.
Black Republicans Lead Historic “Reparations March” on Congress
Washington, DC, March 1, 2007 – The National Black Republican Association (NBRA) based in Washington, DC orchestrated a “Reparations March on Congress for a Formal Apology to African Americans” from the Democrat-controlled Congress. The group is demanding that the Democrats apologize for the Democratic Party’s 200-year history of racism and failed socialism that has trapped urban blacks in poverty. A “Reparations Petition” that is posted on the group’s website was delivered to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“The petition is based on inner-city Minister Rev. Wayne Perryman’s lawsuit against the Democratic Party that is being appealed to the US Supreme Court,” said NBRA Chairman Frances Rice who is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and a lawyer. She stated that under oath in the United States District Court in Seattle, Washington, the Democrats admitted their racist past, but arrogantly refused to apologize, knowing they can take the black vote for granted. “All black Americans should be outraged,” Colonel Rice said, “and the Democratic Party leaders in Congress should emulate the North Carolina Democrats” According to officials in North Carolina, on January 20, 2007, the Democratic Party in North Carolina issued a unanimous apology as a result of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission Report of May 31, 2006 that found that the Democratic Party was solely responsible for that 1898 murderous rampage against blacks
“The list of horrific acts of terror and horrendous racism against blacks by the Democratic Party is long and shameful,” Colonel Rice said, “and the Democrats should apologize.” Colonel Rice pointed out that the Democrats in control of Congress have refused to pass the H.R. 40 bill, Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, that was first introduced in 1989 and was re-introduced in every Congress since then by black Democrat Congressman John Conyers of Michigan. “The Democrat leaders in Congress have snubbed Congressman Conyers,” Colonel Rice said, “and the time has come for black Americans to get off of the Democratic Party’s plantation, exercise their Constitutional right to petition Congress and engage in the type of non-violent protest against Democrats that was used so effectively by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican.”
Referenced in the NBRA’s “Reparations Petition,” Colonel Rice said, are several books. One book is Unfounded Loyalty by Rev. Wayne Perryman who was a Democrat, but became an Independent after conducting five years of research. Another book is A Short History of Reconstruction by the well-respected liberal historian, Dr. Eric Foner who provides chilling details about the fact that the Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan that became the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party to lynch Republicans, black and white. Included in the petition is the book Back to Basics for the Republican Party by Michael Zak who provides a compelling, fact-based account of how it was Republicans, not Democrats, who championed civil rights for blacks from the 1860‘s to the 1960‘s. An additional reference is the book Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America by black Democrat Juan William who exposes, in detail, the Democratic Party’s failed socialist policies.
Colonel Rice noted that author Michael Scheurer stated succinctly that history shows that the Democratic Party is and always has been the party of “four S‘s“: Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism.
“We must not only demand that the Democrats apologize for the atrocities they committed against blacks”, said NBRA Vice Chairman Richard St. Paul who is also a lawyer, “but we must also hold the Democrats accountable for the deplorable conditions in black communities that have been run by Democrats for the past 40 years.“
I have always said that if I were a black person, I would get down on my knees every night and thank God for the sacrifice made by my forefathers who were brought here against their will during the time when slavery was a accepted evil. Otherwise, I would be in Africa, probably starving to death, a victim of tribal brutality.
Why blacks are so drawn to Islam is beyond me. Slavery is still practiced in many Islam-dominated countries, including Saudi Arabia where indentured servitude is still practiced.
I am a first-generation American and my parents suffered when they first came to America but they instilled in us the requirements necessary to reach the American dream ...get an education and learn the language.
Their racist leaders such as Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, want to keep the masses uneducated, and as long as they want to speak their own so-called language (ebonics), form a culture based on rap, depend on Uncle Sam in order to make up for their lack of initiative, keep having children out of wedlock, dropping out of school, etc., they will keep on wishing for reparations.
Considering recent legislation in favor of reparations to blacks from corporations that have profited from financing slavery like JP Morgan Chase, Aetna and others, do you agree or disagree that modern African Americans deserve an apology for the wrongs committed against their ancestors during the slave trade in America? Would you consider what happened to the slaves and those 6 million or more that were lost in the Atlantic during the Diaspora a genocide? Reparations are taking place currently on the corporate level with companies like JP Morgan Chase, for example:
J.P. Morgan Chase & Company’s recent apology for ties to slavery and a corresponding $5 million scholarship program it set up for black students was a “step in the right direction for a tainted corporation,” but the nation’s no. 2 bank has a long way to go before it has fully paid its debt to African Americans, said one of the slave-reparations movement’s central figures, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann.
J.P. Morgan Chase filed a disclosure statement with the city of Chicago on January 20 acknowledging that between 1831 and 1865, two of J.P. Morgan Chase’s predecessor banks - Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana - accepted approximately 13,000 slaves as collateral for loans and ended up owning approximately 1,250 of them as a result of defaults.
The company apologized on its Web site and to employees and said it will provide $5 million over five years for full tuition for African American undergraduates from Louisiana to attend college in their home state.
The scholarship is believed to be the first time an American company has paid reparations for slavery.
It is more that their profits and stable financial climate today are a direct correlation to the financing of the slave trade and their profitting from the slave trade. The legal result of that being that they now have to pay seems to be a just result, as they are not paying individuals...but they are paying for the institution that caused the resulting levels of poverty and degradation that blacks have continued to suffer since the slave trade was ended. Did you know that there are whole towns that were raided by white citizen councils and taken from blacks after the emancipation in the south due to the advent of Jim Crow? Did you know that a large portion of the black population live 200% below the poverty level and that this is a generational occurence as a direct result of slavery? There may be opportunities now, but what needs to be considered is that equality only happened as recently as 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Bill because whites and white insititutions were so resistant to blacks prospering after the slave trade. Does anyone have any comment on that? What is your perspective? Do you think reparations to blacks for slavery by corporate infrastructure should be paid to black organizations? Why or why not?
Reperations is just ANOTHER scam to get money from the White Guilt Society. It is pathetic to suggest that the problems in Detroit, or New Orleans, caused by this generation of Blacks, is because of slavery.The problems are self induced. But it is so much easier to blame Whitey and take no responsibilities. Your view, if true, would mean that all Blacks are crippled by slavery,yet there are many,many Blacks that are doing quite well. Unwed mothers are at 75%. Slavery? Black unwed mothers were at 35-40% in the 1920’s.But we can’t blame the Blacks. School drop out rate is through the roof. Slavery? How much money will it take to erase the slavery memory? Do all these ‘special programs’ that cost billions of dollars count? And what about present day Whites that lost promotions or job hirings because they were White? Myself included. In 1971 and 1976.Told point blank that the Feds demanded a Black take my promotion.Not my gr-gr-gr-grandfather. Me.Got an apology and money for me? Didn’t think so.
Reparations are not ever going to happen.
Stop worrying about it you pathetic cowards.
April 22 at 9:21 am | #1 | Link
It is ironic that blacks at first “demoted” Obama as to not really being black…
I’m Irish/Native American… can i recieve double the reperation because both of my ancestors were victimized...?
The only way for people to get ahead is to quit acting like your the vicitm, this has been researched and written about extensivley… that approach that many criminals take to justify their crimes against others is to say “ I am a victim myself.” This line of thinking will only produce more dependents...who will then say that it is because their ancestors were discriminated against they have been wronged…
Everyone from every part of the Globe has faced discrimination and persecution at one point or another, bringing up the past will not solve todays problems....