A Friendship Anniversary? A novel, but long overdue concept!
By: Regina F. Brown
Recently one of my best friends sent me an email that really caused me to stop and reflect on myself as a woman and a friend. She sent me an email saying that we were coming up on our 20th year anniversary as friends and that we should really do it up and celebrate in NYC or other grand style.
Immediately, I thought it was a great idea. My friend Estashia Perkins-Bryant and I first became friends in High School on the track team. We ran the freshman relay together and although we were well-coached on passing the baton…I ran out of steam running into the hand-off zone and rather than risk certain disqualification for a missed hand-off I tried a lob which sorely missed its intended target. Nevertheless, a great friendship was born and even though I am dating us both something more valuable is revealed in our friendship’s close examination.
Like most great friends we have been there for each other through the good times and the bad. Actually, our friendship has outlasted many marriages. And if we are honest many of our female friendships have been our saving grace when the men in our lives have failed to be the men we thought we could count on them to be. When my husband preferred not to be in the delivery room when I had my daughter, it was my friend who came through for me and my new baby girl. I know my pulling double-duty as Maid of Honor and Honeymoon getaway driver meant a lot to her for her to even have dreamt up such a novel concept as to celebrate our best friends with the same verve and joie de vivre that we celebrate our male partners’ anniversaries and our children’s birthdays.
So, why when my friend suggested we celebrate 20 years of friendship was this the first time I’d heard of such a thing?
The quote from Gandhi that ‘We must be the change we seek in the world’ reverberates with me now. As women we want to be valued as wives, friends, mothers, workers, etc., just as men look to be valued in their respective roles. But if we are not even valuing ourselves and our best friends, how do we even have a chance being valued by men or bosses, or anyone else that we encounter in our quest to thrive and to help those we love to thrive?
My friend Estashia (Stacy) and I will admit to being foodies and since we could drive have always taken time out to chat and fellowship over a good meal. Probably, the Red Lobster franchise owes us a debt of gratitude for the small fortune we’ve spent there throughout the course of our friendship.
But even though we have taken out time to do the little things we could to show each other we appreciate our friendship, I think it is a fabulous idea to do something big to celebrate a milestone in our friendship as well. I am hoping that the Broadway smash FELA (a shameless plug for ticket hook-up) is still running and that we might be able to see it, but whatever we do we are going to do it up BIG. Because hey, my sister, you’ve been a great friend and I hope we have many more friendship milestones to reach! I also hope your great idea inspires other friends to celebrate each other in major ways too!
This piece was first published at http://beigerage.blogspot.com. Regina Faye Brown is the author of ‘Dear Langston, It Explodes!’ available on amazon.com and authorhouse.com. She is also a wife and a mother of two, Brighton and Gianna, and a Pre-K teacher with Head Start. Estashia Perkins-Bryant is the co-owner of Trend City Cutz in North Brunswick, NJ and StacyCakes Confectioners in Somerset, NJ. She is also a wife and the mother of two children, Emoni and Elias.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, June 22, 2009
What we need to do is stop trying to make the point and look to the best who ever made the point for us....'In My Face is Black, Is True; Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations' by Mary Frances Berry, Frederick Douglass is quoted on page 39:
Initially, Douglass responded that he found the reparations idea impractical, but finally decided that the nation owed retribution to African Americans (descendents of African slaves, I say), for the nation had "robbed him of the rewards of his labor during more than 200 years." Furthermore, Douglass continued, the promise of land had been broken: "The Egyptian bondsmen went out with the spoils of his master, and the Russian serf was provided with farming tools and three acres of land with which to begin life, -but the Negro has neither spoils, implements nor lands, and today, he is practically a slave on the very plantation where formerly he was driven to toil under the lash." Douglass asserted that if land had been given as promised during the Civil War, "The [N]egro would not be on his knees, as he is supplicating the old master class to give him leave to toil." [If something had been done] "untold misery might have been prevented."
Even Martin supported reparations in the 'I Have a Dream' speech when he stated America has given descendents of African slaves a check marked 'Insufficient funds' (to paraphrase). But we've been programmed to focus on the dream part...dreams aren't real. Crimes against humanity with no statue of limitation in International Law are. Why is there a clause in the recent Senate apology which denies liability for reparations? They scared. No fellas, if you say it enough times it will never be true. It's just a matter of time and is it me or has it been flying by lately? Isaiah 60:22. “The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” ... Peace to NOI for the 'Reparations Now' cover on the Final Call.
Initially, Douglass responded that he found the reparations idea impractical, but finally decided that the nation owed retribution to African Americans (descendents of African slaves, I say), for the nation had "robbed him of the rewards of his labor during more than 200 years." Furthermore, Douglass continued, the promise of land had been broken: "The Egyptian bondsmen went out with the spoils of his master, and the Russian serf was provided with farming tools and three acres of land with which to begin life, -but the Negro has neither spoils, implements nor lands, and today, he is practically a slave on the very plantation where formerly he was driven to toil under the lash." Douglass asserted that if land had been given as promised during the Civil War, "The [N]egro would not be on his knees, as he is supplicating the old master class to give him leave to toil." [If something had been done] "untold misery might have been prevented."
Even Martin supported reparations in the 'I Have a Dream' speech when he stated America has given descendents of African slaves a check marked 'Insufficient funds' (to paraphrase). But we've been programmed to focus on the dream part...dreams aren't real. Crimes against humanity with no statue of limitation in International Law are. Why is there a clause in the recent Senate apology which denies liability for reparations? They scared. No fellas, if you say it enough times it will never be true. It's just a matter of time and is it me or has it been flying by lately? Isaiah 60:22. “The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” ... Peace to NOI for the 'Reparations Now' cover on the Final Call.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
From: Aaron Jones Subject: RE: Method Man & RedmanTo: "'Jonathan Brown'" Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 10:49 AM
DefJam sucks!! They gave up on their established artists years ago in favor of focusing on the future (The Dream, Fabolous, DJ Khaled, Young Jeezy). I always thought that blending the new with the old was the way to go for longevity. The established acts benefit from being exposed to a new demographic, while the new artist benefits from reaching a core audience outside of their “core”. Not to mention what can be gained from studio time, tours, showmanship, etc…
Def Jam used to be the epicenter of hip hop culture. They have become nothing more than another “corporate” entity that answers to it’s shareholders before its customers. The one good thing that I see about all of this is that the underground scene is becoming more relevant. When the labels bought into hip-hop, the fans lost their voice. It’s good to see these labels starving for sales!! Now going gold (circa 92 Redman) is a major accomplishment and artists realize more than ever that their catalog and performances are going to be the life or death of them. Roc-A-Fella, Universal, or Def Jam can’t save you.
From: Jonathan Brown [mailto:jonathanbrown79@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:39 AMSubject: Method Man & Redman
Ya'll,
What's up wit Def Jam? No promotion for one of hip hops best tandems ever? Something is really wrong with hip hop.
Oh!!!! Did you hear Meth and Red are putting out another album, Blackout 2?
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/audio/id.7414/title.method-man-redman-f-raekwon-ghostface-killah-4-minutes-to-lock-downJonathan Brown
DefJam sucks!! They gave up on their established artists years ago in favor of focusing on the future (The Dream, Fabolous, DJ Khaled, Young Jeezy). I always thought that blending the new with the old was the way to go for longevity. The established acts benefit from being exposed to a new demographic, while the new artist benefits from reaching a core audience outside of their “core”. Not to mention what can be gained from studio time, tours, showmanship, etc…
Def Jam used to be the epicenter of hip hop culture. They have become nothing more than another “corporate” entity that answers to it’s shareholders before its customers. The one good thing that I see about all of this is that the underground scene is becoming more relevant. When the labels bought into hip-hop, the fans lost their voice. It’s good to see these labels starving for sales!! Now going gold (circa 92 Redman) is a major accomplishment and artists realize more than ever that their catalog and performances are going to be the life or death of them. Roc-A-Fella, Universal, or Def Jam can’t save you.
From: Jonathan Brown [mailto:jonathanbrown79@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:39 AMSubject: Method Man & Redman
Ya'll,
What's up wit Def Jam? No promotion for one of hip hops best tandems ever? Something is really wrong with hip hop.
Oh!!!! Did you hear Meth and Red are putting out another album, Blackout 2?
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/audio/id.7414/title.method-man-redman-f-raekwon-ghostface-killah-4-minutes-to-lock-downJonathan Brown
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Never Enough-Always Too Much
Never Enough
Never black Enough
Never white Enough
Never loved Enough
Never praised Enough
Never held Enough
Never fucked Enough
Never come Enough
Never satisfied Enough
Never feel Enough
Never laugh Enough
Never friends Enough
Never accomplish Enough
Never spend Enough
Never thin Enough
Never sexy Enough
Never good Enough
Always Too Much
Always Too Much Bullshit
Always Too Much Pressure
Always Too Much Hate
Always Too Much Insanity
Always Too Much Racism
Always Too Much Mistrust
Always Too Much Poverty
Always Too Much Comparison
Always Too Much "Grass is always Greener"
Always Too Much Self-Loathing
Always Too Much Losing Myself
Always Too Much Putting him First
Always Too Much Bearing the Pain
Never black Enough
Never white Enough
Never loved Enough
Never praised Enough
Never held Enough
Never fucked Enough
Never come Enough
Never satisfied Enough
Never feel Enough
Never laugh Enough
Never friends Enough
Never accomplish Enough
Never spend Enough
Never thin Enough
Never sexy Enough
Never good Enough
Always Too Much
Always Too Much Bullshit
Always Too Much Pressure
Always Too Much Hate
Always Too Much Insanity
Always Too Much Racism
Always Too Much Mistrust
Always Too Much Poverty
Always Too Much Comparison
Always Too Much "Grass is always Greener"
Always Too Much Self-Loathing
Always Too Much Losing Myself
Always Too Much Putting him First
Always Too Much Bearing the Pain
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Segregated Schools in New Jersey
"Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This quote was taken from the landmark federal supreme court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that forever changed the state of education in the United States. This is the premise set forth by the federal Supreme Court of this land almost fifty-five years ago.
Today, however, New Jersey is one of the nation’s most racially segregated states with “85 percent of all African-American and Latino students enrolled in 31 (the ‘Abbott’ districts) of more than 600 school districts.” (“Birthdays come and go, but the racism remains” The Star Ledger, March 23, 2006, Bob Braun, p. 17, 20)
In the 1994 and 1997 Abbott v. Burke decisions, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered “parity” funding, meaning the state was forced to bring the spending in the 31 segregated districts up to the level of that of the state’s wealthiest districts. Ten years later when that spending has not solved the problems in these segregated districts, the funding is scheduled to be reduced to levels more on par with districts at the state average level of spending and not with the wealthiest districts as the Supreme Court mandated.
I have problems with what is going on in New Jersey’s schools for so many reasons, on so many levels. First, I am the product of an Abbott School district, that is up until the 5th grade when my parents high-tailed it deeper into the suburbs into one of New Jersey’s awesome, diverse, high-performing school districts. After teaching in the public schools of New York City, my hometown Abbott district, and even a semester at one of the state’s leading community colleges, I have come to understand more fully what students who cannot “escape” from these segregated school districts face while in school and upon (hopefully) graduation.
Economically speaking, it is really tough out here right now. How can people make it out here when so many jobs are just disappearing and, specifically for minorities, the schools are just not preparing students to be able to sustain themselves?
Racially speaking, I have serious problems with anyone arguing the lack of fairness that extra funding in segregated schools causes. I am a bi-racial American (like Obama) and this argument is ignorant because it does not address the generations of unfairness (the understatement of the century!!) that occurred to cause the conditions under which entire groups must exist. These conditions do not allow entire groups the opportunity to make the most of their lives, exercise their liberties or pursue happiness.
The fact that such hoards of people can express their outrage at the extra funding of the segregated, Abbott districts is appalling. Their numerous, one-sided comments in “letters to the editors” and blog forums speak to the disenfranchisement of the products of these segregated districts who would speak to the fallacy of their arguments if only they were not working so hard to survive without the leisure time to voice their opinions in public forums.
Minorities whose ancestors did not come to America by their own free will, seeking a better life for themselves, but instead were forcibly kidnapped and forced to toil for hundreds of years without pay, need to embrace their humanity and demand what other Holocaust survivors have fought and continue to fight for-to be made whole and to have justice served. We need to stop begging for it not to be okay for us to be gunned down, unarmed (Sean Bell case?) and demand reparations. And we need to stop being chastised for supposed mismanagement (Why was there no oversight or stipulations on spending?) or the unfairness of this appropriation and start demanding schools that aren’t segregated!
Since people want to complain so much about the extra funding, why don’t we look for alternate solutions that are best for the children of New Jersey? Why keep the Abbott districts- if they didn’t succeed with more funds, how will they do so with less? Has bussing been looked into? I have a feeling that the same people who argue so vehemently that Abbott districts should not receive extra funds would shut up if other alternatives that actually had New Jersey’s most vulnerable students’ best interests in mind were explored.
Today, however, New Jersey is one of the nation’s most racially segregated states with “85 percent of all African-American and Latino students enrolled in 31 (the ‘Abbott’ districts) of more than 600 school districts.” (“Birthdays come and go, but the racism remains” The Star Ledger, March 23, 2006, Bob Braun, p. 17, 20)
In the 1994 and 1997 Abbott v. Burke decisions, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered “parity” funding, meaning the state was forced to bring the spending in the 31 segregated districts up to the level of that of the state’s wealthiest districts. Ten years later when that spending has not solved the problems in these segregated districts, the funding is scheduled to be reduced to levels more on par with districts at the state average level of spending and not with the wealthiest districts as the Supreme Court mandated.
I have problems with what is going on in New Jersey’s schools for so many reasons, on so many levels. First, I am the product of an Abbott School district, that is up until the 5th grade when my parents high-tailed it deeper into the suburbs into one of New Jersey’s awesome, diverse, high-performing school districts. After teaching in the public schools of New York City, my hometown Abbott district, and even a semester at one of the state’s leading community colleges, I have come to understand more fully what students who cannot “escape” from these segregated school districts face while in school and upon (hopefully) graduation.
Economically speaking, it is really tough out here right now. How can people make it out here when so many jobs are just disappearing and, specifically for minorities, the schools are just not preparing students to be able to sustain themselves?
Racially speaking, I have serious problems with anyone arguing the lack of fairness that extra funding in segregated schools causes. I am a bi-racial American (like Obama) and this argument is ignorant because it does not address the generations of unfairness (the understatement of the century!!) that occurred to cause the conditions under which entire groups must exist. These conditions do not allow entire groups the opportunity to make the most of their lives, exercise their liberties or pursue happiness.
The fact that such hoards of people can express their outrage at the extra funding of the segregated, Abbott districts is appalling. Their numerous, one-sided comments in “letters to the editors” and blog forums speak to the disenfranchisement of the products of these segregated districts who would speak to the fallacy of their arguments if only they were not working so hard to survive without the leisure time to voice their opinions in public forums.
Minorities whose ancestors did not come to America by their own free will, seeking a better life for themselves, but instead were forcibly kidnapped and forced to toil for hundreds of years without pay, need to embrace their humanity and demand what other Holocaust survivors have fought and continue to fight for-to be made whole and to have justice served. We need to stop begging for it not to be okay for us to be gunned down, unarmed (Sean Bell case?) and demand reparations. And we need to stop being chastised for supposed mismanagement (Why was there no oversight or stipulations on spending?) or the unfairness of this appropriation and start demanding schools that aren’t segregated!
Since people want to complain so much about the extra funding, why don’t we look for alternate solutions that are best for the children of New Jersey? Why keep the Abbott districts- if they didn’t succeed with more funds, how will they do so with less? Has bussing been looked into? I have a feeling that the same people who argue so vehemently that Abbott districts should not receive extra funds would shut up if other alternatives that actually had New Jersey’s most vulnerable students’ best interests in mind were explored.
Reparations Now!
Hey--The Obama Presidency adds a whole new paradigm to an oldie but goodie...
REPARATIONS NOW!
BY: REGINA BROWN
WITH ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY: RAVAN PATRICK
I was watching t.v. several months ago and heard a woman, a Nazi Holocaust survivor, speak the words that compelled me to write this paper. She said, to paraphrase, “any time work is done, the worker deserves to be compensated.” This statement struck a chord deep within my soul. That chord was plucked by my ancestors who slaved for this country without ever being compensated. It was also plucked by my more recent ancestors, who although never worked without compensation, were hindered by being relegated to begin their careers on the lowest socio-economic rung of society’s ladder for no other reason than being descendants of slaves who built this country with blood, sweat, and tears…for free!
I decided that I must write a paper about this issue. After being in school for over sixteen years, this seemed the obvious answer for me. You see, anytime I was given a paper assignment where I was free to choose my own topic, I would choose something that bothered me about society and basically just vent my anger. I knew at least one person (teacher or professor) would have no choice but to give my thoughts a forum. But as a financial analyst, I found myself without a forum to vent. But then, I thought of Bill Gates. He bought Hotmail because of the advertising power that inserting a plug for his company at the bottom of each email sent would give him. This is the exponential information dissemination power of email via the internet. This is why the revolution will not be televised…it will be on the internet.
So, I started doing research where I could. Where I could was the automobile industry.
In The Detroit News on March 17, 1999 it was reported that in Cologne, Germany a fund was set up by Volkswagen (and DaimlerChrysler, Bayer,…) to pay slave laborers used during the Nazi regime. While the fund paid 219 people so far, Volkswagen estimates that some 17,000 forced laborers toiled in its factories from 1941 to the end of World War II, and others estimate the numbers are much higher. In the Detroit Free Press on February 17, 1999, they mentioned that the creation of this fund came only as a response to lawsuits against German companies in the United States by former “slaves”. In the New York Times on February 18, 1999, there was an article entitled, “Holocaust Lawsuits Spark Demand for Historians.” It said that the mounting wave of Holocaust-related lawsuits has created both a litigation and public-relations nightmare.
So what? What does any of this have to do with African-Americans? It’s simple, the Jews are creating legal precedents for reparations for descendants of African slaves in America. African-Americans would still be attending segregated schools if some brave Black lawyers had not sued for the right to an equal education. We still would not be able to vote if we hadn’t sued and protested for the right. We would not have Affirmative Action if people hadn’t given their lives to the cause of equalizing the playing fields when it comes to employment. Oh that’s right, Affirmative Action is on its’ way to extinction since we have grown complacent. Those who benefit most from its existence feel they are just so special and qualified that they had to be picked from the masses to succeed, instead of being grateful their predecessors paved the way and making sure to further pave the way for future generations.
The Jews understand that the only way to get paid what is owed to you by those dishonest and evil enough to take it from you in the first place is to sue them and humiliate them publicly to the point where their business interests are being hurt by negative publicity and they just want to shut you up! Not suing for what’s owed to us in America is like saying, “We don’t deserve to share in the wealth of this nation even though our ancestors literally built it.”
There is another powerful means of bringing corporate powers-that-be to their knees. Let’s not forget the lesson of the Montgomery Bus boycotts. We can still use our collective economic purchasing power (estimated at $220-290 billion) to send a message that until our demands are met, you won’t see our money.
Okay, so who are we going to sue or boycott? To me, the answer is obvious. Let’s take it back to the fields…cotton and tobacco baby!
By 1860 cotton industries were the leading component of the industrial economy. Due to multiplier effects, the free labor of slaves spearheaded the industrial revolution in the United States and in Britain. In 1944 in Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams wrote, “Most of the cotton British workers spun, wove and dyed into cloth was picked by slaves. The slaves’ labor subsidized industrialization in Britain, allowed British workers to be paid and British industrialists to prosper. British textile industrialization created demand for iron and coal, banking, transportation and other service.” These same multiplier effects were at work in the United States, allowing prosperity to be shared not only by cotton plantation owners, but the entire early-industrialists as a whole.
I decided to go to the source: www.cotton.org They listed the Cotton Council International, 1521 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Email: cottonusa@cotton.org phone(202)745-7805 fax (202)483-4040.
On this site the Council’s President, Jack S. Hamilton is quoted, “I learned firsthand this year about the victories that do not make the front-page headlines. One only has to imagine the impact on our industry if [we] had not led efforts to improve the availability of labor and had not sidetracked new, burdensome clean air rules.”
I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a mighty powerful council that can affect labor supply, an economic factor, I thought remained constant. The Environmentalists lobby for clean air for all, regardless of race or economic level. But this man and his council seen to have the power to sidetrack those pesky environmentalists that stand in the way of their cash flow. That means, they have some awesome political connects!
Slaves in America picked tobacco too…for free! Why then would it be improper to question this industry as a whole, to acknowledge this egregious past and compensate descendants of slaves? Especially when facts prove that the industry targets these very descendants with its’ harmful (main) product.
One of the industry’s most notorious minority cigarette marketing campaigns was for “Uptown” cigarettes. The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association played an active role in the Philadelphia “Coalition Against Uptown Cigarettes,” which pulled health, consumer, and social justice groups together to oppose the test-marketing of Uptown cigarettes in Philadelphia. RJReynolds Tobacco Co., the manufacturers of Uptown, eventually withdrew the product under pressure from HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan, MD., and the coalition. Dr. Sullivan said, “At a time when our people desperately need the message of health promotion, the tobacco industry’s message is more disease, more suffering and more death for a group already bearing more than its share of smoking-related illness and mortality.”
Reed Tuckson, former District of Columbia Health Commissioner, called the tobacco industry’s marketing practices “the subjugation of people of color through disease.” Smoking rates among black males had doubled in four years when the Centers for Disease Control studied these rates in 1996.
Black-oriented and Black-owned magazines receive more revenues from cigarette advertising than other magazines. Stronger, mentholated brands (Newport-Alive with Pleasure!) are also more commonly advertised in Black-oriented than in White-oriented magazines. Billboards advertising tobacco products are placed in African-American communities four to five times more often than in white communities.
The tobacco industry is also cozy with the political powers-that-be in America. How do I know? In 1992 Phillip Morris’ Senior Vice-President, Craig Fuller, was the manager of the Republican National Convention. In an article in the Washington Monthly (September 1989) this analysis of the tobacco industry is given: “Donning the mask of philanthropy the tobacco companies have courted almost everyone with a glimmer of uprightness and a use for cash…The purpose of this fevered gift-giving has been to divert the public’s attention from what the tobacco companies really do: lure people, particularly young ones, into buying a highly addictive drug.” Obviously this industry has powerful, outspoken opponents who would probably love to participate in a boycott of their products for whatever reason.
RJ Reynolds-Nabisco, DelMonte, KFC
Phillip Morris-Seven-Up, Miller Brewing Co., General Foods
(**As an aside, I cannot say that I have not smoked cigarettes and act all holier-than-thou. But I do remember when the high-level whistle-blowers cam out a few years ago and revealed that ammonia was added to facilitate the “free-base” effect in nicotine (like some crack) and I am going to do my best to stay away from cigarettes!)
Let me clarify my vision. I don’t have the answers, I just think we’d better damn sure start asking the right questions to the right people. How about this one-email, mail, phone call, whatever-“Dear Mr. Hamilton (cotton Council Pres. Or Procter &Gamble CEO if you wish), I am a consumer of the product Tide. I am concerned with its affiliation with Cotton, Inc, since I see that logo with a boll of cotton right on the front of the label. The cotton industry has never addressed the issue of reparations for slave laborers’ descendants. I therefore regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to purchase this product in good conscience.” Or, to one of the Big Tobacco companies: “I am appalled by your targeting of minorities and lack of address of the issue of reparations for the millions of slaves who picked tobacco to enrich your industry’s early tobacco ventures. I will continue to speak out against your industry until this racial targeting is ceased and the issue of reparations is addressed.” I don’t expect that any cotton or tobacco company will actually pay Black people for slaves’ labor (I might be wrong you know?). I think they are some of the correct people to question since they have undeniable political influence and some of the inherited wealth, which has been passed down from generation to generation and now rests with the leaders of these industries, is rightfully the property of African-Americans. If they are completely innocent, let them come out publicly and prove they are not proper targets for boycotts demanding slavery reparations. That would just fan the flame of the Reparations Movement through publicity. If they are guilty, they will probably not want to face that debt alone and will petition the government to pay the Reparations promised by Special Field Order #15 on January 16, 1865 and sought again in the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill.
The most disturbing revelation in this research process came when I asked my long-time friend to help me with some research. She sent me a healthy-sized packet in the mail and on the first page was the following information:
Forty Acres and a Mule: Civil War: Special Field Order#15,1865
On this day in 1865, in the midst of his ‘March to the Sea’ during the Civil War, General William T. Sherman and the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 Black Community leaders of Savannah, Georgia. Based in part to their input, General Sherman issued Special Field Order # 15 on January 16, 1865, setting aside the Sea Islands and a 30 mile inland tract of land along the southern coast of Charleston for the exclusive settlement of Blacks. Each family would receive 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land. Gen. Rufus Saxton was assigned by Sherman to implement the order. On a national level, this and other land confiscated and abandoned, became the jurisdiction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, headed by Gen. Oliver Otis Howard (Howard University-Go Bison!) In his words he wanted to “…give the freedmen protection, land and schools as far and as fast as he can.” However, during the summer and fall of 1865, President Johnson issued special pardons, returning the property to the ex-Confederates. Not giving up one inch, Howard issued Circular 13, giving 40 acres as quickly as possible. Upon his hearing this, Johnson ordered Howard to issue Circular 15, returning the land to the ex-Confederates.
How could it be possible, I wondered with horror, that the man responsible for fighting for reparations to the point of defying the President of the United States was the founder of my illustrious alma mater? I was angry. Why didn’t they tell us? If I knew, maybe I would’ve done a little less partying (probably not!) and gotten involved in some campus activism! But the truth is omnipresent. It was there for me to find, I only needed to go looking for it.
A couple years later Thaddeus Stevens spoke to the US House of Representatives on Section 4 of HR 29, the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill. Speaking of this bill he noted that the guardianship of the Freedmen’s Bureau could not be expected to protect blacks for long since it encounters the hostility of the old slaveholders because it deprives these ‘dethroned tyrants’ the luxury of despotism. Further he states that once the Freedmen’s Bureau is dismantled, blacks would be left as prey to the legislation and treatment of their former masters, and the evidence already furnished shows they will soon become extinct, or be driven to defend themselves…and it seems probable that the war of the races might ensue which the President feared would arise from the kind treatment and the restoration of their r[ights].
He goes on to say that in order for blacks to be independent of their old masters and not be forced to work under unfair conditions, they must have their own land. He also noted that nothing elevates the character of a citizen like property ownership. He mentions also that when one of the wisest monarchs, the Czar of Russia, freed 25 million serfs (slaves), he didn’t have any foolish notions of depriving his empire of their labor or of robbing them of their rights. Instead the Czar ordered their former masters to make compensation for their unrequited toil by conveying to them the very houses in which they lived and a portion of the land which they had tilled as serfs.
But what I was happy to read in his address were the actual dollar figures. The fourth section provides that out of the confiscated lands each liberated slave who is a male adult, or head of a family, shall have assigned to him a homestead of forty acres of land, with $100 to build a dwelling. It called for $200 million to be invested in US Securities at 6% with the interest semi-annually added to the pensions allowed by law to pensioners who become so by reason of the Civil War. There was also $300 million, or so much as needed, allotted to pay damages done to loyal citizens by the civil or military operations of the Confederate States of America.
One only needs to do a simple present value calculation using the formula (1+r)^t. Since no one was given this money or land, there’s no need to speculate on whether or not our ancestors would have squandered it or saved it for us. Since it was never given, but should have been, it’s like money in the bank. Let’s focus on the $200 million called to be invested in securities since we have all the necessary information to apply to the formula: r =.06 (6%interest) t=143 (year 2000-1867) The future value factor is : (1.06)^143=4156.604782. So to find out how much that is worth today, we would multiply that factor by $200 million. Hold on,…it’s $831,320,956,304.17. That’s billion y’all! Assuming there are approx. 30 million blacks in the country, that is $27,710.70 each, and that doesn’t even take into account the 40 acres, mule or the other $300 million that was called for allotment to the freed slaves. Hey, I have a heart and I care about this country, it’s my home! If the government can’t cut me a check right away, it’s all good. They can just stop taking 1/3 of my income in taxes until I reach $27,710.70, or whatever figure is agreed upon with in depth study.
This type of thinking may seem crazy or far-fetched to some. But what I realize now that I didn’t when I started my research is that there is a Movement out there that feels exactly as I do. You probably won’t see a report about this movement on the news or in the paper, but all you have to do is go to the internet and all the information you could ever want is available.
In an article on Afronet.com, Trudy Goodwin outlined the efforts of the Reparations Movement yesterday and today. Since the 1950’s leaders have come for the to speak for disenfranchised blacks. Queen Mother Moore was the matriarch of the reparation/compensation movement. Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Robert Brock of the Self-Determination Committee, the Obdelies of the Nat. Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), the National Commission for Reparation (NCR) and Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (C.U.R.E) are working nationally to gain reparations for African Americans.
In 1989, Congressman Conyers introduced H.R. 3745 which commissioned a study of the Reparation Proposal for African Americans Acts. In 1998, it was changed again to H.R. 40. The bill would establish an appointed commission charged with researching slavery’s effects on today’s African-Americans and deciding if a remedy, such as reparations is necessary.
In an open letter to Congressman John Conyers Jr. (669 Federal Bldg., W Lafayette, Detroit, MI, 48226.) an anonymous writer says:
It is indeed a blessing to know that you and Dr. Robert Brock of the “Self Determination Committee” are front runners in addressing the “Reparations” for all African Americans of Slave Descent. I have recently been informed about HR 40, in which you spearheaded this movement to gain what lawfully belongs to us, and yes, it is TIME.
Your letter to Dr. Brock of February 6, 1998 indicates that there is substantial precedent for requesting reparations. I am motivated to contribute in getting the word out to many slave descendants, who are still unaware that such a movement exists. The government needs to recognize that such a debt to our people is well overdue and the interest alone on this debt has to be quite large. Dr. Martin Luther King was on this road and fully recognized the Reparations due to the people of slave descent. Yes, this too is part of his dream.
Dr. Brock won a default against the Internal Revenue Service/Federal Government in the United States Supreme Court on the issue of “Reparations.” Also, most recently, Dr. Brock represented another case, where Blacks in a class-action lawsuit against the IRS and the United States for illegal Black taxation, slavery and a myriad of human violations.
The Honorable Silis Muhammad, CEO of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (LFNOI) established the National Commission for Reparations (NCR). In 1994 an extensive legal document entitled, Petition for United Nations Assistance Under Resolution 1503 on Behalf of African-Americans in the USA, was filed with the UN’s Sub-Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Goodwin believes that we, as African-Americans must push the NCR petition, which carries far-reaching historical significance for approximately 40-50 million African-Americans. She also gives a counter-argument to Caucasian Americans that might ask why they must pay for the wrongdoings of their ancestors. In 1994, the year tax funds were used to pay Japanese American Reparations, nearly one third of those who paid taxes were born after World War II. All Americans, whether they supported the imprisonment of Japanese Americans or not, shouldered the financial burden.
The Reparations Movement extends beyond African-Americans in the United States. The Africa Reparations Movement (ARM) was formed in 1993 as a result of the Abuja Proclamation, which called for a National Reparations Committee to be set up throughout Africa and the Diaspora. (http://the.arc.co.uk/arm/FAQs.html) In a paper presented to the First Pan-African Congress on Reparations (Abuja, Nigeria on April 27-29) Lord Anthony Gifford, British Queens Counsel and Jamaican Attorney-at-Law outlined the legal basis for the claim for African [All Africans!] Reparations:
1. The enslavement of Africans was a crime against humanity.
2. International law recognizes that those who commit crimes against humanity must make reparation.
3. There is no legal barrier to prevent those who still suffer the consequences of crimes against humanity from claiming reparations, even though the crimes were committed against their ancestors.
4. The claim would be brought on behalf of all Africans, in Africa and the Diaspora, who suffer the consequences of the crime, through the agency of an appropriate representative body.
5. The claim would be brought against the governments of those countries which promoted and were enriched by the African slave trade and the institution of slavery.
6. The amount of the claim would be assessed by experts in each aspect of life and in each region affected by the institution of slavery.
7. The claim, if not settled by agreement, would ultimately be determined by a special international tribunal recognized by all parties. (http://212.212.12.9/arm/legalBasis.html)
If you are still reading, I thank you infinitely! I wrote this so I could feel as though I had done something in my life to inform my people of our yet unattained but richly deserved inheritance, not for a grade or to find validation in one of this society’s publications. By reading my thoughts, I hope you will do something to further the cause of the Reparations Movement, whether it be bringing up the subject in conversation, passing along this email, or even running for public office with Reparations as your platform.
I dedicate this effort to my inspirations for writing it, my great-grandmother Leesidner Baskerville and the late Tupac Shakur. My great-grandmother is 95 years old and still vital, active in her church and a joy to behold. She is a constant reminder for me to DO THE MATH! She was born in 1904 and her grandparents are the ones who should’ve received the 40 acres, etc! I think about how much better off her life would have been if her ancestors had gotten what was owed to them. And, of course that makes me think of how much better off my parents, grandparents and entire family would be if we [all] would have just gotten what was owed to us. While I was never the biggest Tupac fan while he was alive, in a post-mortem special he was quoted as saying, “I might not change the world, but my music can spark the mind that will change the world.” In that one profound statement he crystallized the challenge Hillary Clinton gave my graduating class. That challenge is to believe in our hearts that we (one person) can make a difference. She quoted Nelson Mandela who said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are all powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
James 5:1-8
1 Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches
are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust
of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as if it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandmen waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.
Genesis 15:13-14
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs , and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance.
PEACE!!!
REPARATIONS NOW!
BY: REGINA BROWN
WITH ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY: RAVAN PATRICK
I was watching t.v. several months ago and heard a woman, a Nazi Holocaust survivor, speak the words that compelled me to write this paper. She said, to paraphrase, “any time work is done, the worker deserves to be compensated.” This statement struck a chord deep within my soul. That chord was plucked by my ancestors who slaved for this country without ever being compensated. It was also plucked by my more recent ancestors, who although never worked without compensation, were hindered by being relegated to begin their careers on the lowest socio-economic rung of society’s ladder for no other reason than being descendants of slaves who built this country with blood, sweat, and tears…for free!
I decided that I must write a paper about this issue. After being in school for over sixteen years, this seemed the obvious answer for me. You see, anytime I was given a paper assignment where I was free to choose my own topic, I would choose something that bothered me about society and basically just vent my anger. I knew at least one person (teacher or professor) would have no choice but to give my thoughts a forum. But as a financial analyst, I found myself without a forum to vent. But then, I thought of Bill Gates. He bought Hotmail because of the advertising power that inserting a plug for his company at the bottom of each email sent would give him. This is the exponential information dissemination power of email via the internet. This is why the revolution will not be televised…it will be on the internet.
So, I started doing research where I could. Where I could was the automobile industry.
In The Detroit News on March 17, 1999 it was reported that in Cologne, Germany a fund was set up by Volkswagen (and DaimlerChrysler, Bayer,…) to pay slave laborers used during the Nazi regime. While the fund paid 219 people so far, Volkswagen estimates that some 17,000 forced laborers toiled in its factories from 1941 to the end of World War II, and others estimate the numbers are much higher. In the Detroit Free Press on February 17, 1999, they mentioned that the creation of this fund came only as a response to lawsuits against German companies in the United States by former “slaves”. In the New York Times on February 18, 1999, there was an article entitled, “Holocaust Lawsuits Spark Demand for Historians.” It said that the mounting wave of Holocaust-related lawsuits has created both a litigation and public-relations nightmare.
So what? What does any of this have to do with African-Americans? It’s simple, the Jews are creating legal precedents for reparations for descendants of African slaves in America. African-Americans would still be attending segregated schools if some brave Black lawyers had not sued for the right to an equal education. We still would not be able to vote if we hadn’t sued and protested for the right. We would not have Affirmative Action if people hadn’t given their lives to the cause of equalizing the playing fields when it comes to employment. Oh that’s right, Affirmative Action is on its’ way to extinction since we have grown complacent. Those who benefit most from its existence feel they are just so special and qualified that they had to be picked from the masses to succeed, instead of being grateful their predecessors paved the way and making sure to further pave the way for future generations.
The Jews understand that the only way to get paid what is owed to you by those dishonest and evil enough to take it from you in the first place is to sue them and humiliate them publicly to the point where their business interests are being hurt by negative publicity and they just want to shut you up! Not suing for what’s owed to us in America is like saying, “We don’t deserve to share in the wealth of this nation even though our ancestors literally built it.”
There is another powerful means of bringing corporate powers-that-be to their knees. Let’s not forget the lesson of the Montgomery Bus boycotts. We can still use our collective economic purchasing power (estimated at $220-290 billion) to send a message that until our demands are met, you won’t see our money.
Okay, so who are we going to sue or boycott? To me, the answer is obvious. Let’s take it back to the fields…cotton and tobacco baby!
By 1860 cotton industries were the leading component of the industrial economy. Due to multiplier effects, the free labor of slaves spearheaded the industrial revolution in the United States and in Britain. In 1944 in Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams wrote, “Most of the cotton British workers spun, wove and dyed into cloth was picked by slaves. The slaves’ labor subsidized industrialization in Britain, allowed British workers to be paid and British industrialists to prosper. British textile industrialization created demand for iron and coal, banking, transportation and other service.” These same multiplier effects were at work in the United States, allowing prosperity to be shared not only by cotton plantation owners, but the entire early-industrialists as a whole.
I decided to go to the source: www.cotton.org They listed the Cotton Council International, 1521 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Email: cottonusa@cotton.org phone(202)745-7805 fax (202)483-4040.
On this site the Council’s President, Jack S. Hamilton is quoted, “I learned firsthand this year about the victories that do not make the front-page headlines. One only has to imagine the impact on our industry if [we] had not led efforts to improve the availability of labor and had not sidetracked new, burdensome clean air rules.”
I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a mighty powerful council that can affect labor supply, an economic factor, I thought remained constant. The Environmentalists lobby for clean air for all, regardless of race or economic level. But this man and his council seen to have the power to sidetrack those pesky environmentalists that stand in the way of their cash flow. That means, they have some awesome political connects!
Slaves in America picked tobacco too…for free! Why then would it be improper to question this industry as a whole, to acknowledge this egregious past and compensate descendants of slaves? Especially when facts prove that the industry targets these very descendants with its’ harmful (main) product.
One of the industry’s most notorious minority cigarette marketing campaigns was for “Uptown” cigarettes. The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association played an active role in the Philadelphia “Coalition Against Uptown Cigarettes,” which pulled health, consumer, and social justice groups together to oppose the test-marketing of Uptown cigarettes in Philadelphia. RJReynolds Tobacco Co., the manufacturers of Uptown, eventually withdrew the product under pressure from HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan, MD., and the coalition. Dr. Sullivan said, “At a time when our people desperately need the message of health promotion, the tobacco industry’s message is more disease, more suffering and more death for a group already bearing more than its share of smoking-related illness and mortality.”
Reed Tuckson, former District of Columbia Health Commissioner, called the tobacco industry’s marketing practices “the subjugation of people of color through disease.” Smoking rates among black males had doubled in four years when the Centers for Disease Control studied these rates in 1996.
Black-oriented and Black-owned magazines receive more revenues from cigarette advertising than other magazines. Stronger, mentholated brands (Newport-Alive with Pleasure!) are also more commonly advertised in Black-oriented than in White-oriented magazines. Billboards advertising tobacco products are placed in African-American communities four to five times more often than in white communities.
The tobacco industry is also cozy with the political powers-that-be in America. How do I know? In 1992 Phillip Morris’ Senior Vice-President, Craig Fuller, was the manager of the Republican National Convention. In an article in the Washington Monthly (September 1989) this analysis of the tobacco industry is given: “Donning the mask of philanthropy the tobacco companies have courted almost everyone with a glimmer of uprightness and a use for cash…The purpose of this fevered gift-giving has been to divert the public’s attention from what the tobacco companies really do: lure people, particularly young ones, into buying a highly addictive drug.” Obviously this industry has powerful, outspoken opponents who would probably love to participate in a boycott of their products for whatever reason.
RJ Reynolds-Nabisco, DelMonte, KFC
Phillip Morris-Seven-Up, Miller Brewing Co., General Foods
(**As an aside, I cannot say that I have not smoked cigarettes and act all holier-than-thou. But I do remember when the high-level whistle-blowers cam out a few years ago and revealed that ammonia was added to facilitate the “free-base” effect in nicotine (like some crack) and I am going to do my best to stay away from cigarettes!)
Let me clarify my vision. I don’t have the answers, I just think we’d better damn sure start asking the right questions to the right people. How about this one-email, mail, phone call, whatever-“Dear Mr. Hamilton (cotton Council Pres. Or Procter &Gamble CEO if you wish), I am a consumer of the product Tide. I am concerned with its affiliation with Cotton, Inc, since I see that logo with a boll of cotton right on the front of the label. The cotton industry has never addressed the issue of reparations for slave laborers’ descendants. I therefore regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to purchase this product in good conscience.” Or, to one of the Big Tobacco companies: “I am appalled by your targeting of minorities and lack of address of the issue of reparations for the millions of slaves who picked tobacco to enrich your industry’s early tobacco ventures. I will continue to speak out against your industry until this racial targeting is ceased and the issue of reparations is addressed.” I don’t expect that any cotton or tobacco company will actually pay Black people for slaves’ labor (I might be wrong you know?). I think they are some of the correct people to question since they have undeniable political influence and some of the inherited wealth, which has been passed down from generation to generation and now rests with the leaders of these industries, is rightfully the property of African-Americans. If they are completely innocent, let them come out publicly and prove they are not proper targets for boycotts demanding slavery reparations. That would just fan the flame of the Reparations Movement through publicity. If they are guilty, they will probably not want to face that debt alone and will petition the government to pay the Reparations promised by Special Field Order #15 on January 16, 1865 and sought again in the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill.
The most disturbing revelation in this research process came when I asked my long-time friend to help me with some research. She sent me a healthy-sized packet in the mail and on the first page was the following information:
Forty Acres and a Mule: Civil War: Special Field Order#15,1865
On this day in 1865, in the midst of his ‘March to the Sea’ during the Civil War, General William T. Sherman and the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 Black Community leaders of Savannah, Georgia. Based in part to their input, General Sherman issued Special Field Order # 15 on January 16, 1865, setting aside the Sea Islands and a 30 mile inland tract of land along the southern coast of Charleston for the exclusive settlement of Blacks. Each family would receive 40 acres of land and an army mule to work the land. Gen. Rufus Saxton was assigned by Sherman to implement the order. On a national level, this and other land confiscated and abandoned, became the jurisdiction of the Freedmen’s Bureau, headed by Gen. Oliver Otis Howard (Howard University-Go Bison!) In his words he wanted to “…give the freedmen protection, land and schools as far and as fast as he can.” However, during the summer and fall of 1865, President Johnson issued special pardons, returning the property to the ex-Confederates. Not giving up one inch, Howard issued Circular 13, giving 40 acres as quickly as possible. Upon his hearing this, Johnson ordered Howard to issue Circular 15, returning the land to the ex-Confederates.
How could it be possible, I wondered with horror, that the man responsible for fighting for reparations to the point of defying the President of the United States was the founder of my illustrious alma mater? I was angry. Why didn’t they tell us? If I knew, maybe I would’ve done a little less partying (probably not!) and gotten involved in some campus activism! But the truth is omnipresent. It was there for me to find, I only needed to go looking for it.
A couple years later Thaddeus Stevens spoke to the US House of Representatives on Section 4 of HR 29, the 1867 Slave Reparation Bill. Speaking of this bill he noted that the guardianship of the Freedmen’s Bureau could not be expected to protect blacks for long since it encounters the hostility of the old slaveholders because it deprives these ‘dethroned tyrants’ the luxury of despotism. Further he states that once the Freedmen’s Bureau is dismantled, blacks would be left as prey to the legislation and treatment of their former masters, and the evidence already furnished shows they will soon become extinct, or be driven to defend themselves…and it seems probable that the war of the races might ensue which the President feared would arise from the kind treatment and the restoration of their r[ights].
He goes on to say that in order for blacks to be independent of their old masters and not be forced to work under unfair conditions, they must have their own land. He also noted that nothing elevates the character of a citizen like property ownership. He mentions also that when one of the wisest monarchs, the Czar of Russia, freed 25 million serfs (slaves), he didn’t have any foolish notions of depriving his empire of their labor or of robbing them of their rights. Instead the Czar ordered their former masters to make compensation for their unrequited toil by conveying to them the very houses in which they lived and a portion of the land which they had tilled as serfs.
But what I was happy to read in his address were the actual dollar figures. The fourth section provides that out of the confiscated lands each liberated slave who is a male adult, or head of a family, shall have assigned to him a homestead of forty acres of land, with $100 to build a dwelling. It called for $200 million to be invested in US Securities at 6% with the interest semi-annually added to the pensions allowed by law to pensioners who become so by reason of the Civil War. There was also $300 million, or so much as needed, allotted to pay damages done to loyal citizens by the civil or military operations of the Confederate States of America.
One only needs to do a simple present value calculation using the formula (1+r)^t. Since no one was given this money or land, there’s no need to speculate on whether or not our ancestors would have squandered it or saved it for us. Since it was never given, but should have been, it’s like money in the bank. Let’s focus on the $200 million called to be invested in securities since we have all the necessary information to apply to the formula: r =.06 (6%interest) t=143 (year 2000-1867) The future value factor is : (1.06)^143=4156.604782. So to find out how much that is worth today, we would multiply that factor by $200 million. Hold on,…it’s $831,320,956,304.17. That’s billion y’all! Assuming there are approx. 30 million blacks in the country, that is $27,710.70 each, and that doesn’t even take into account the 40 acres, mule or the other $300 million that was called for allotment to the freed slaves. Hey, I have a heart and I care about this country, it’s my home! If the government can’t cut me a check right away, it’s all good. They can just stop taking 1/3 of my income in taxes until I reach $27,710.70, or whatever figure is agreed upon with in depth study.
This type of thinking may seem crazy or far-fetched to some. But what I realize now that I didn’t when I started my research is that there is a Movement out there that feels exactly as I do. You probably won’t see a report about this movement on the news or in the paper, but all you have to do is go to the internet and all the information you could ever want is available.
In an article on Afronet.com, Trudy Goodwin outlined the efforts of the Reparations Movement yesterday and today. Since the 1950’s leaders have come for the to speak for disenfranchised blacks. Queen Mother Moore was the matriarch of the reparation/compensation movement. Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Robert Brock of the Self-Determination Committee, the Obdelies of the Nat. Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), the National Commission for Reparation (NCR) and Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (C.U.R.E) are working nationally to gain reparations for African Americans.
In 1989, Congressman Conyers introduced H.R. 3745 which commissioned a study of the Reparation Proposal for African Americans Acts. In 1998, it was changed again to H.R. 40. The bill would establish an appointed commission charged with researching slavery’s effects on today’s African-Americans and deciding if a remedy, such as reparations is necessary.
In an open letter to Congressman John Conyers Jr. (669 Federal Bldg., W Lafayette, Detroit, MI, 48226.) an anonymous writer says:
It is indeed a blessing to know that you and Dr. Robert Brock of the “Self Determination Committee” are front runners in addressing the “Reparations” for all African Americans of Slave Descent. I have recently been informed about HR 40, in which you spearheaded this movement to gain what lawfully belongs to us, and yes, it is TIME.
Your letter to Dr. Brock of February 6, 1998 indicates that there is substantial precedent for requesting reparations. I am motivated to contribute in getting the word out to many slave descendants, who are still unaware that such a movement exists. The government needs to recognize that such a debt to our people is well overdue and the interest alone on this debt has to be quite large. Dr. Martin Luther King was on this road and fully recognized the Reparations due to the people of slave descent. Yes, this too is part of his dream.
Dr. Brock won a default against the Internal Revenue Service/Federal Government in the United States Supreme Court on the issue of “Reparations.” Also, most recently, Dr. Brock represented another case, where Blacks in a class-action lawsuit against the IRS and the United States for illegal Black taxation, slavery and a myriad of human violations.
The Honorable Silis Muhammad, CEO of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (LFNOI) established the National Commission for Reparations (NCR). In 1994 an extensive legal document entitled, Petition for United Nations Assistance Under Resolution 1503 on Behalf of African-Americans in the USA, was filed with the UN’s Sub-Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Goodwin believes that we, as African-Americans must push the NCR petition, which carries far-reaching historical significance for approximately 40-50 million African-Americans. She also gives a counter-argument to Caucasian Americans that might ask why they must pay for the wrongdoings of their ancestors. In 1994, the year tax funds were used to pay Japanese American Reparations, nearly one third of those who paid taxes were born after World War II. All Americans, whether they supported the imprisonment of Japanese Americans or not, shouldered the financial burden.
The Reparations Movement extends beyond African-Americans in the United States. The Africa Reparations Movement (ARM) was formed in 1993 as a result of the Abuja Proclamation, which called for a National Reparations Committee to be set up throughout Africa and the Diaspora. (http://the.arc.co.uk/arm/FAQs.html) In a paper presented to the First Pan-African Congress on Reparations (Abuja, Nigeria on April 27-29) Lord Anthony Gifford, British Queens Counsel and Jamaican Attorney-at-Law outlined the legal basis for the claim for African [All Africans!] Reparations:
1. The enslavement of Africans was a crime against humanity.
2. International law recognizes that those who commit crimes against humanity must make reparation.
3. There is no legal barrier to prevent those who still suffer the consequences of crimes against humanity from claiming reparations, even though the crimes were committed against their ancestors.
4. The claim would be brought on behalf of all Africans, in Africa and the Diaspora, who suffer the consequences of the crime, through the agency of an appropriate representative body.
5. The claim would be brought against the governments of those countries which promoted and were enriched by the African slave trade and the institution of slavery.
6. The amount of the claim would be assessed by experts in each aspect of life and in each region affected by the institution of slavery.
7. The claim, if not settled by agreement, would ultimately be determined by a special international tribunal recognized by all parties. (http://212.212.12.9/arm/legalBasis.html)
If you are still reading, I thank you infinitely! I wrote this so I could feel as though I had done something in my life to inform my people of our yet unattained but richly deserved inheritance, not for a grade or to find validation in one of this society’s publications. By reading my thoughts, I hope you will do something to further the cause of the Reparations Movement, whether it be bringing up the subject in conversation, passing along this email, or even running for public office with Reparations as your platform.
I dedicate this effort to my inspirations for writing it, my great-grandmother Leesidner Baskerville and the late Tupac Shakur. My great-grandmother is 95 years old and still vital, active in her church and a joy to behold. She is a constant reminder for me to DO THE MATH! She was born in 1904 and her grandparents are the ones who should’ve received the 40 acres, etc! I think about how much better off her life would have been if her ancestors had gotten what was owed to them. And, of course that makes me think of how much better off my parents, grandparents and entire family would be if we [all] would have just gotten what was owed to us. While I was never the biggest Tupac fan while he was alive, in a post-mortem special he was quoted as saying, “I might not change the world, but my music can spark the mind that will change the world.” In that one profound statement he crystallized the challenge Hillary Clinton gave my graduating class. That challenge is to believe in our hearts that we (one person) can make a difference. She quoted Nelson Mandela who said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are all powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
James 5:1-8
1 Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches
are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust
of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as if it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandmen waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.
Genesis 15:13-14
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs , and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance.
PEACE!!!
Obesity: Slavery's Legacy?
My most recent reparations article
Obesity, one legacy of slavery?
By: Regina F. Brown 11/14/06
In the article, ‘Obesity prevalent in Southern States, Study’ from October 16, 2006’s Jet Magazine, the research pointed out that people living in the Southern states have a higher prevalence of obesity. I’m sure I’m not the only Ebony/Jet reader that noticed the correlation of obesity prevalence and former slave statehood.
According to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) report entitled ‘U.S. Obesity trends in Adults from 1991-2001’, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults was broken down by population characteristics, including race. Blacks had a disproportionately high occurrence of obesity at 31.1% obesity rate. This compares to an obesity rate of 19.6% for whites and a rate of 23.7 for Hispanics. If the rate is disproportionately high, as it is for African-Americans, the rate is not closely related to the percentage of African-Americans compared to the population as a whole, in fact it is more than double the percentage of African-Americans in the population, 12.8 % in 2004 (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html). The White population comprised 67.4% of the United States in 2004 with Hispanics accounting for 14.1%.
One of the Jet Obesity article’s main points was that poverty increases the chances that a person will be obese. This is partly due to the lack of availability of more nutritious, more expensive foods available in neighborhoods where real supermarkets exist. Almost one-third of African American children lived in poverty in 1999, compared with 27 percent of other minorities and nine percent of non-Hispanic Whites. (http://www.prcd.org/summaries/blacks/blacks.html). The White population comprised 67.4% of the United States in 2004 with Hispanics accounting for 14.1%. So if you live in the South, as 53.6% of black people do, are affected by poverty and also happen to be black, is there a good chance that you will have a higher prevalence of obesity? Is this so, and if so, why?
In ‘Rethinking Weight’ by Amanda Spake the story of the offspring of women who survived the Dutch winter famine of 1944-45 is noted. The article points out that “Babies born to women who suffered severe malnutrition early in their pregnancies tended to have more fat and become obese more readily as adults.” Are these findings exclusive to the Dutch of that year or could these findings, on human beings, be related to the experiences of others, human beings as well.
This is essentially what this paper is all about. Are we humans? Because if we are, and I know we are because if white is human, and I am that also, then black is human because you cannot (no matter how hard they try to beat you in the head with this concept) be half human unless your name is Jesus! If we are, then where is the outrage? Am I the only one outraged, me and Farrakhan? If we are, where are the revolutionaries? All murdered? Ron Brown?
On the United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ website in the section entitled ‘National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in an article called ‘As Survivors Age: Part II’, Yael Danieli, Ph.D. argues that “victimization/trauma” causes a rupture, a possible regression, and a state of being “stuck”, called fixity.” Danieli states, “The Holocaust not only ruptured continuity but also destroyed all the individual’s existing supports. The ensuing pervasive conspiracy of silence between survivors and society including mental health professionals, deprived them and their children of potential supports.’
Dr. Danieli’s article contends that survivors of the Nazi Holocaust suffer from Post Traumatic Stress and pass it to their offspring. It also mentions a study done by Matussek where “survivors in the USA and Israel… have been more successful in coping with their concentration camp past than …in Germany which for them, is still the land of their persecutors.”
Can slavery have predisposed blacks to obesity and other Post Traumatic stress symptoms? If the Nazi Holocaust could have done that to future generations of Jews, then certainly an argument can be made for this assertion. Is obesity more prevalent for blacks living in the South because the South is technically “still the country of their persecutors”? Or even more broadly, is coping with intergenerational Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for African-Americans more difficult in an entire nation which is essentially, “still the country of their persecutors’?
In her new book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary tackles this most important topic. On inthesetimes.com Dr. Leary is interviewed by Silja J.A. Talvi. Dr. Leary effectively countered the argument that whites often give for ignoring the problems passed down intergenerationally from slavery. The argument is that they weren’t alive then and therefore do not deserve to be blamed or be made to feel guilty about any of the circumstances that occur today in the African-American community because of the existence of the Slavery Holocaust. She states “It’s irrelevant that you weren’t alive during slavery days. I wasn’t there either. But what we as a nation face today has been heavily impacted by our history, whether we’re talking in the gulf between the haves and have-nots; education gaps between white and black children; or the racial disparities in our prisons.” How about the disparities in health problems like obesity? I would further add to her argument the fact that whites as a group derive benefit from inclusion in the upper echelons of the racial hierarchy which exist in this country whether they saw the institution which gave birth (LITERALLY) to this hierarchy with their own two eyes or not.
This is provable statistically with the data that their prevalence toward poverty is less than their normal, statistically expected rate…correlated with percentage of the population they hold. A whopping 67.4% of the U.S. population is white in 2004 (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html), yet only 9% of Non-Hispanic whites live in poverty. It is actually negatively correlated, meaning it would be expected to be 67.4 % of the cases of poverty, ceteris parabis or all things being equal and there’s probably a really interesting reason why the actual rates of white poverty are over 7 times less likely than they should be. If this is true, that whites derive a benefit from their race, how can anyone in good conscience (key) refuse to entertain the concept that the converse of their reality does not also exist?
In the October 16th, 2006 edition of Jet Magazine, ‘Black Plaintiffs Push for Federal Appeal of Slave Reparations Lawsuit in Chicago’ divulged that “lawyers for slave descendents are asking for federal appeals court to revive a landmark reparations case that demands 17 of the nation’s insurers and banks (including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc., Bank of America and Lehman Brothers) publicize and pay for their roles in the country’s slave trade.”
A dollar figure is mentioned for the current day “market value” of the company-owned slaves at $850 million. What about the current day “market value” of the non company-owned slaves? Are only corporate enslavers responsible to remedy their victims?
Given the evidence on multigenerational inheritance of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Nazi Holocaust victims, information discussed in Dr. Leavy’s book, the incidence of disproportionately high levels of obesity and the Dutch study which suggests that malnourishment of a mother can cause obesity in a child it follows that a new outlook on slavery reparations lawsuits should be adopted. We should not be singularly focused in our reparations lawsuits. Corporations….fair game. Individuals…(genealogical research required, possible denied inheritance, DNA tests?) fair game. If they can dig up Jefferson for his currently white descendents to claim their presidential burial plot by alleging relation to his black children, they can dig up anybody. Government…(which enacted laws both condoning and outlawing the Black Holocaust and up until today has not formally even apologized to African-Americans for the crime against humanity that slavery was and that its intergenerational consequences continue to be)…you see the direction in which this is headed.
To even mention a dollar figure associated with the worst crime against humanity that has ever occurred is pointless because there is no dollar figure that can quantify this obstruction of justice, which continues. Until this concept is accepted by reparations advocates and those hell-bent on denying even the prospect of reparations, consideration of reparations to the descendents of slavery will be less than comprehensive in scope.
Visit http://www.prcdc.org/summaries/blacks/blacks.html
Obesity, one legacy of slavery?
By: Regina F. Brown 11/14/06
In the article, ‘Obesity prevalent in Southern States, Study’ from October 16, 2006’s Jet Magazine, the research pointed out that people living in the Southern states have a higher prevalence of obesity. I’m sure I’m not the only Ebony/Jet reader that noticed the correlation of obesity prevalence and former slave statehood.
According to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) report entitled ‘U.S. Obesity trends in Adults from 1991-2001’, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults was broken down by population characteristics, including race. Blacks had a disproportionately high occurrence of obesity at 31.1% obesity rate. This compares to an obesity rate of 19.6% for whites and a rate of 23.7 for Hispanics. If the rate is disproportionately high, as it is for African-Americans, the rate is not closely related to the percentage of African-Americans compared to the population as a whole, in fact it is more than double the percentage of African-Americans in the population, 12.8 % in 2004 (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html). The White population comprised 67.4% of the United States in 2004 with Hispanics accounting for 14.1%.
One of the Jet Obesity article’s main points was that poverty increases the chances that a person will be obese. This is partly due to the lack of availability of more nutritious, more expensive foods available in neighborhoods where real supermarkets exist. Almost one-third of African American children lived in poverty in 1999, compared with 27 percent of other minorities and nine percent of non-Hispanic Whites. (http://www.prcd.org/summaries/blacks/blacks.html). The White population comprised 67.4% of the United States in 2004 with Hispanics accounting for 14.1%. So if you live in the South, as 53.6% of black people do, are affected by poverty and also happen to be black, is there a good chance that you will have a higher prevalence of obesity? Is this so, and if so, why?
In ‘Rethinking Weight’ by Amanda Spake the story of the offspring of women who survived the Dutch winter famine of 1944-45 is noted. The article points out that “Babies born to women who suffered severe malnutrition early in their pregnancies tended to have more fat and become obese more readily as adults.” Are these findings exclusive to the Dutch of that year or could these findings, on human beings, be related to the experiences of others, human beings as well.
This is essentially what this paper is all about. Are we humans? Because if we are, and I know we are because if white is human, and I am that also, then black is human because you cannot (no matter how hard they try to beat you in the head with this concept) be half human unless your name is Jesus! If we are, then where is the outrage? Am I the only one outraged, me and Farrakhan? If we are, where are the revolutionaries? All murdered? Ron Brown?
On the United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ website in the section entitled ‘National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in an article called ‘As Survivors Age: Part II’, Yael Danieli, Ph.D. argues that “victimization/trauma” causes a rupture, a possible regression, and a state of being “stuck”, called fixity.” Danieli states, “The Holocaust not only ruptured continuity but also destroyed all the individual’s existing supports. The ensuing pervasive conspiracy of silence between survivors and society including mental health professionals, deprived them and their children of potential supports.’
Dr. Danieli’s article contends that survivors of the Nazi Holocaust suffer from Post Traumatic Stress and pass it to their offspring. It also mentions a study done by Matussek where “survivors in the USA and Israel… have been more successful in coping with their concentration camp past than …in Germany which for them, is still the land of their persecutors.”
Can slavery have predisposed blacks to obesity and other Post Traumatic stress symptoms? If the Nazi Holocaust could have done that to future generations of Jews, then certainly an argument can be made for this assertion. Is obesity more prevalent for blacks living in the South because the South is technically “still the country of their persecutors”? Or even more broadly, is coping with intergenerational Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for African-Americans more difficult in an entire nation which is essentially, “still the country of their persecutors’?
In her new book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary tackles this most important topic. On inthesetimes.com Dr. Leary is interviewed by Silja J.A. Talvi. Dr. Leary effectively countered the argument that whites often give for ignoring the problems passed down intergenerationally from slavery. The argument is that they weren’t alive then and therefore do not deserve to be blamed or be made to feel guilty about any of the circumstances that occur today in the African-American community because of the existence of the Slavery Holocaust. She states “It’s irrelevant that you weren’t alive during slavery days. I wasn’t there either. But what we as a nation face today has been heavily impacted by our history, whether we’re talking in the gulf between the haves and have-nots; education gaps between white and black children; or the racial disparities in our prisons.” How about the disparities in health problems like obesity? I would further add to her argument the fact that whites as a group derive benefit from inclusion in the upper echelons of the racial hierarchy which exist in this country whether they saw the institution which gave birth (LITERALLY) to this hierarchy with their own two eyes or not.
This is provable statistically with the data that their prevalence toward poverty is less than their normal, statistically expected rate…correlated with percentage of the population they hold. A whopping 67.4% of the U.S. population is white in 2004 (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html), yet only 9% of Non-Hispanic whites live in poverty. It is actually negatively correlated, meaning it would be expected to be 67.4 % of the cases of poverty, ceteris parabis or all things being equal and there’s probably a really interesting reason why the actual rates of white poverty are over 7 times less likely than they should be. If this is true, that whites derive a benefit from their race, how can anyone in good conscience (key) refuse to entertain the concept that the converse of their reality does not also exist?
In the October 16th, 2006 edition of Jet Magazine, ‘Black Plaintiffs Push for Federal Appeal of Slave Reparations Lawsuit in Chicago’ divulged that “lawyers for slave descendents are asking for federal appeals court to revive a landmark reparations case that demands 17 of the nation’s insurers and banks (including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc., Bank of America and Lehman Brothers) publicize and pay for their roles in the country’s slave trade.”
A dollar figure is mentioned for the current day “market value” of the company-owned slaves at $850 million. What about the current day “market value” of the non company-owned slaves? Are only corporate enslavers responsible to remedy their victims?
Given the evidence on multigenerational inheritance of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Nazi Holocaust victims, information discussed in Dr. Leavy’s book, the incidence of disproportionately high levels of obesity and the Dutch study which suggests that malnourishment of a mother can cause obesity in a child it follows that a new outlook on slavery reparations lawsuits should be adopted. We should not be singularly focused in our reparations lawsuits. Corporations….fair game. Individuals…(genealogical research required, possible denied inheritance, DNA tests?) fair game. If they can dig up Jefferson for his currently white descendents to claim their presidential burial plot by alleging relation to his black children, they can dig up anybody. Government…(which enacted laws both condoning and outlawing the Black Holocaust and up until today has not formally even apologized to African-Americans for the crime against humanity that slavery was and that its intergenerational consequences continue to be)…you see the direction in which this is headed.
To even mention a dollar figure associated with the worst crime against humanity that has ever occurred is pointless because there is no dollar figure that can quantify this obstruction of justice, which continues. Until this concept is accepted by reparations advocates and those hell-bent on denying even the prospect of reparations, consideration of reparations to the descendents of slavery will be less than comprehensive in scope.
Visit http://www.prcdc.org/summaries/blacks/blacks.html
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