Day-by-day, African people in America
are becoming more familiar with the concept of reparations and what
it means to our continued struggle in America for self-determination,
liberation, independence, and freedom. Therefore, we must be clear that
reparations means repair for the damages inflicted on a people
or a nation. In pursuit of this repair, we are conscious of the fact
we must engage in the process of assuming responsibility for repairing
ourselves that includes: changing the way we think, supporting our own
institutions, particularly financially, supporting our families, supporting
our own Black business enterprises, cleaning up our own communities,
and changing the way we relate to, and think of, each other as a people.
These are just a few of the internal repairs we must constantly work
on.
In this connection, part of our internal
repair is to struggle, fight, mobilize, and organize to demand external
reparations from those governments, corporations, and institutions that
are responsible for our historical and continuing state of oppression.
Just as Jewish people proclaim “Never Forget,” African people should
do no less.
We should “Never Forget” that “They
Owe Us!” Part of our internal repair is to consciously understand that,
“We Are Owed” and have a historic responsibility to demand reparations
from those forces of white supremacy that continue to benefit from what
they did to us that lingers on as part of the vestiges of our enslavement.
As we continue to build the Reparations
Movement, we should be clear that They Owe Us For:
-
The
Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery- The United Nations World Conference
Against Racism declared that the Trans Atlantic Slave
Trade and Slavery were Crimes Against Humanity. Crimes against humanity
have no statute of limitations.
- Expropriation
of Our Labor- For more
than 250 years, we were forced to work for free. Our free labor was
a major ingredient in the building of America and its wealth as a nation.
Also, the thousands of white individuals and their families’ accumulated
wealth that continues to benefit them as a result of our free labor.
- Slave
Code Laws- The slave owners
developed their own codes of what they could do to enslaved African
people in America that permeated throughout the emergence of this country.
In many ways, informal slave codes exist today (racial profiling).
- Destruction
of the African Family- The
Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery had a devastating impact on destroying
and dismantling African families.
- Raping
of African Women- Our capture
and enslavement provided white men with the power to rape African women
and girls by the thousands without reprisal.
- Fugitive
Slave Laws- When our enslaved
ancestors resisted their enslavement and fled plantations, the government
of this country sanctioned laws and policies that supported the capture
and return of so-called runaway enslaved Africans. The Dred Scott Decision
should be consulted to fully understand the implications of the Fugitive
Slave Laws.
- Colonizing
of Our African Culture- Created
systems by law and societal practices that forbade African people, in
our captured state, to engage in our traditional spiritual cultural
practices.
- KKK
Night Riders and Lynchings- The
Ku Klux Klan was established in the late 1860s as a secret society whose
mission was to exterminate, by any means necessary, African people in
America. They were known to have been responsible for the lynching and
murdering of thousands of African men, women, and children.
- The
13th and 14th Constitutional Amendments- The abolishment of slavery was really a constitutional
scam and the 14th Amendment that allegedly made African people citizens
of America was imposed on us. We were never asked if we wanted to be
citizens.
- Denied
Our 40 Acres and a Mule- We
didn’t get it! It was sold down the river and the land was given to
white confederate soldiers.
- Jim
Crow Laws- The Jim Crow
Policies of America became the fabric and foundation of American society
after the period of Reconstruction. Jim Crow Laws and Policies reinforced
the foundation of white supremacy and Black inferiority in every aspect
of American society.
- Fighting
and Dying In Imperialist and White Supremacist Wars- We fought and died for the freedoms of others and
were denied our own freedoms and civil rights.
- Assassination
of Black Leaders- Malcolm
X, Dr. King, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark to name a few.
- COINTELPRO-
This was a government program, established by the
FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, designed to destroy the
Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 70s.
- Crack
Epidemic- Research reveals
the United States Government, through the CIA, targeted Black communities
for the dispensing of Crack Cocaine.
- Criminalizing
Our Youth- It should be
obvious that the aim of the Prison Industrial Complex is to Criminalize
Our Youth to insure a young and viable work force for this multibillion-dollar
industry.
- Jailing
of Freedom Fighters- The
incarcerating of our Freedom Fighter thus, making them Political Prisoners.
- &
19. Centuries of Mis-Education and Mental Atrocities- This has caused serious damage to our people, which
continues to cause much mental confusion about our true reality as an
African people in America and around the world.
Remember, “They Owe Us!”
BlackCommentator.com
columnist
Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the National Black
United Front (NBUF). Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill.
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