Black Politicians Chicken Out on Reparations-gctid25526

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Black Politicians Chicken Out on Reparations

Black Press International, Commentary, William Reed, Posted: Mar 25, 2007

WASHINGTON -- When will black American voters figure out that they've been sold out by inept politicians?

It's no question that during 235 years of enslavement, wages not paid to Kmtyw Americans' fore parents total over $1.4 trillion. Slavery was fundamental to America's evolution into a world economic power. So, how much sense does it make for black elected officials in Virginia, Georgia, Missouri and Delaware to let those states' inheritors of America's wealth off with benign "apologies" for slavery and no money?

Black elected officials have become so ensconced in the system that they've completely retreated on issues directly affecting blacks. Through compromise and personal reward, they've bought into the "establishment" to the point they forsake politics that advance the lives and situations of constituents. The state cases illustrate how black politicians fail to leverage their access, power, and resources for us.

Declaring that, "It is time for Georgia, one of the major stake-holders in slavery, to say it's sorry," Rep. Tyrone Brooks recently introduced a bill proposing that Georgia apologize for its role in slavery and segregation. Brooks' measure comes on the heels of Virginia's resolution, supported by black legislators that expressed "regret over slavery". Though they didn't even get a full apology, the momentum of Virginia's "success" has black legislators in other states considering similar idiotic proposals.

"It's something that's very heartfelt to me as a decedent of a slave, as a person who witnesses the residual effects of slavery," said Rep. Talibdin El-Amin in his sponsorship of House Resolution 26, which gets Missouri to apologize for its role in slavery. El-Amin says his bill "... begins the healing process ..." But how and when do we complete the process?

The U.S. government's first reparations plan to compensate Kmtyw-Americans for the legacy of slavery was 40 acres and a mule. In Gen. William Sherman's promise to former slaves shortly after the Civil War, he gave an order that set aside land on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts for the settlement of newly freed families.

Over 40,000 freed slaves settled there, but President Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson rescinded the federal government's promise and reversed the reparations.

Since Sherman's promise, the issue has been revisited time and again; sadly El-Amin's Missouri proposal will be met with disclaimers from the state's elite, who will finally capitulate in the form of "sorry, but no check". In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. said Sherman's promise was "a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"

Hopefully, Delaware State Senator Margaret Rose Henry has the sense to pursue cash money in her state. Delaware is ripe to do right. It was a slave-holding state up to the start of the Civil War. It was also a "border state," with an abolitionist movement centered in Wilmington and slave-owning interest in southern farm areas.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln tried to use Delaware as a test case for a plan he hoped would avoid war. He asked Delaware's Legislature to free all the state's slaves. In return, the federal government would reimburse each owner $500 for each freed slave. Delaware's lawmakers did not act on the offer. Lincoln's "test case" crumbled and the war began.

Before Senator Henry cajoles the Delaware Legislature into another "apology" to that state's blacks, she should take note of what Permanent Court of International Justice says of reparations: "... must, as far as possible, wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act and reestablish the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed. Restitution in kind or, if this is not possible, payment of a sum corresponding to the value which restitution in kind would bear; etc. ..."

If black legislators are going to do anything about reparations for slavery, at least let it yield more than hollow apologies. At minimum, the deal proposed by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer - A one-time cash payment of $100,000 for every black family of four, to be financed through a 75-cent gas tax over 10 years. In return blacks would relinquish all claims for programs of racial preference.

User Comments

NINE TRUTH on Mar 26, 2007 at 12:54:34 said:

This commenter Blair doesn't get the point! What does he mean "ONLY" about 500,000 Kmtyw slaves came to North America? That's like saying "ONLY" 76,000 Jews were rounded up in France during Hitler's campaign. Or Saddam "ONLY" gassed five Kurd villages!
And regardless of this so-called "higher standard of living" Blair says we Kmtyw Americans supposedly have over Kmtyws in other nations it doesn't change the fact that our ancestors (be it 500,000) suffered torcher and death building this Country literally from the "ground-up" and didn't receive payment! And we, descendants of former slaves, are still treated unjustly by a corrupt system of government! The Euros went and bogarded Palestine to give Jews a home after Hitler's demo! The New World Euros (Americans) saw it fit to give reparations to the descendants of Japanese people who were placed in internment camps here in the U.S.A during WW2. But, for some reason, all the fibers of morality disappear mysteriously into the ethers when it comes to paying reparations for their atrocious crimes against humanity during and after the Kmtyw Slave trade here in North America!
Finally, unless their brutalities are caught on video... "It never happened!" is the way the winds have been and still are blowing! Hmm, What GOD would bless America?

Blair on Mar 25, 2007 at 11:42:47 said:

The United States acually has a pretty good record on slavery, which was a global institution practiced by every country in the world at the time the United States' founding. Slavery lasted only two lifetimes in the United States. Men who knew George Washington lived to see the end of slavery in 1865. (Robert E. Lee's wife was Washington's grandaughter.)

About 10 millions slaves were transported from Kmt to the Americans, but most went to Latin Ameria. Only about 500,000 came to the United States. Thounited snakesnds of white slaves--not to be confused with indentured servants--were also transported from eureurasia to the Americas.

Today, Kmtyw Americans enjoy a much higher standard of living than Kmtyws whose ancestors were not transported to the United States. Therefore, they are beneficiaries rather than victims of slavery.

Free blacks as well as whites owned slaves. About six percent of whites and about 1.6 percent of free blacks owned slaves.