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During
this Presidential election cycle the issue of reparations for African
people in America should be raised just like all the other interest
groups raise their issues and demand a response from the candidates.
The backdrop to this idea is centered around the period of 1997.
In 1997, the question was raised as to why the President of the United
States, William Clinton, decided to speak on the issue of race
relations in America at the University of California at San Diego.
President Clinton also announced the appointment of a special panel to
examine race relations in America that was be headed up by noted
historian Dr. John Hope Franklin. Further, Clinton announced he would
also have a series of town hall meetings throughout the country to
address this issue.
In this same connection, President Clinton responded to proposed
legislation “introduced by a dozen white members of Congress who argued
that a formal statement of regret (national apology to African
Americans whose ancestors were sold into slavery) would help bind the
wounds that still sting 134 years after President Abraham Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in the
Confederate South.”
Clinton was quoted as saying on CNN's Late Edition that “An apology
under the right circumstances, those things can be quite important.”
Continuing, he said, “Surely every American knows that slavery was
wrong, and that we paid a terrible price for it and that we had to keep
repairing that… And just to say that it’s wrong and that we’re sorry
about it is not a bad thing. That doesn’t weaken us.”
During this period in 1997, I made the point that the African community
in America should be clear on the eighty year tradition of African
leadership in this country seeking relief for our grievances through
international bodies. This tradition has been carried out by the
petitions to the United Nations by the New African Independence
Movement, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, the work at the United
Nations of the International Human Rights Association of American
Minorities and the NBUF genocide petition/declarations of 157,000
signatures that were filed on May 20, 1997.
It was my observation during this period that the international work of
these Black Liberation Movement organizations placed tremendous
pressure on the United States Government to respond to the various
petitions of these groups without identifying them. Through the
procedures of the United Nations these official complaints are
forwarded to the State Department. That means the Government is fully
informed as to the complaint against them by these non-governmental
organizations and the nature of the complaint. In fact, through this
process nations throughout the world become informed of these
complaints.
Other factors that caused the United States Government to respond to
the condition of African people in this country in 1997, as a result of
international pressure, can be cited by three additional examples.
In response to these complaints and petitions, Mr. Maurice
Gle'le'-Ahanhanzo, N. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forums
of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,
conducted an official mission to the United States on October 9-12,
1994 “to meet with representatives of the U.S. government and
individuals in the political, economic and social fields who were in a
position to provide him with information relating to various aspects of
his mandate.”
Mr. Gle'le'-Ahanhanzo (who was from Benin in Africa) reportedly stated
his belief that “racism and racial discrimination persist in American
society, even if not as a result of a deliberate policy on the part of
the United States Government.”
Also, he found that “sociological inertia, structural obstacles and
individual resistance hindering the emergence of an integrated
society based on the equal dignity of the members of the American
nation and willing to accept ethnic and cultural pluralism. Vested
interests, competing influences and the power struggle between the
various political and social components of American society also
provide opportunities for residual racism and racial discrimination to
linger on.”
This report was read widely throughout the world by government leaders,
scholars and activists. The U.S. Government criticized the report.
On March 4, 1997 Ren Yanshi of China wrote a stinging critique of the
United States human rights record. Mr. Yanshi said, “The United States
State Department released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
for1996 on January 30, 1997, once again distorting and attacking at
length the state of human rights in China and more than 190 other
countries and regions.”
Mr. Yanshi revealed, “The U.S. Government, posing as the human rights
judge of the world, turned a blind eye yet again to the serious human
rights problems in its own country and did not utter a single word
about them in the report. In fact it is the United States itself, the
self-declared human rights authority that has a very poor human rights
record in the world today.”
The third additional and final example of international pressure placed
on the United States concerning the condition of Black people was the
October 16, 1995, Million Man March, led by Minister Louis Farrakhan.
The impact of this event around the world was witnessed recently by the
20th Anniversary of the Million Man March that was held on October 10,
2015, where, once again, more than a million people responded to
Minister Farrakhan’s call under the theme “Justice or Else.”
During this Presidential election cycle, the now more than 100 years of
international organizing by the Black Liberation Movement in the United
States, should demand that all Presidential candidates address the
question of the African Holocaust/Maafa that caused the continuing
genocide against African people worldwide. We should demand that the
issue of Reparations for African people be a central point of
discussion for all Presidential candidates and that negotiations for
this long standing issue begin.
Reparations for the repair of the damages inflicted on African people
as a result of our enslavement in the western hemisphere should be the
key issue we fight for during this Presidential election cycle.
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BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritus of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Contact Dr. Worrill and BC.
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 is published every Thursday |
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD |
Managing Editor:
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Publisher:
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