Why They Owe Us

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 and assume responsibility for repairing ourselves, which includes: changing the way we think, supporting our own institutions (particularly financially), supporting our families, supporting our own Black business enterprises, cleaning up our 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 that we have a historic responsibility to demand reparations from those forces of white supremacy that continue to benefit from what they did to us and that lingers on as part of the vestiges of our enslavement.

As we continue to organize around the issue of reparations, 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.

The 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 the United States and its wealth as a nation. Also, the thousands of white individuals and their families that accumulated wealth and continue to this day to benefit from this free labor.

The 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 slaves,” enslaved Africans. The Dred Scott Decision should be consulted to fully understand the implications of the Fugitive Slave Laws.

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.

We Were Denied Our 40 Acres and Our Mule: We didn’t get it! We were sold down the river and the land was given to white confederate soldiers.

& 19. Centuries of MisEducation 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.

No matter how controversial it may be in these economic times, we as African people in the

United States of America are “Still Owed!”