THE LAWKEEPERS

"Giving ALL Due Praises to the Most High God"

I will scatter them, and then I will gather them: Deuteronomy 4:27; 28:64; 32:26; Isaiah 11:12;

Jeremiah 23:8 / Read about the African Slave Trade in Deuteronomy 28th Chapter.

REPARATIONS  NOW  IN  OUR  LIFETIME!

N E W S L E T T E R…….#16

MAY  2001

“Take direct action against the U.S. government!”  Dr. Robert Brock

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GIVE POWER AND MEANING TO

THE REPARATIONS MASS MOVEMENT

GIVE OF YOURSELF!

Note from the REPNOW Newsletter Editor:

I am truly excited about this month’s REPNOW issue.  Actually, I’m always excited about every publication, but this one is chock full of wonderful articles that give us good reason and energy to fight for Reparations and feel good about the fact that our efforts will not be in vain.  WE ARE GOING TO GET REPARATIONS, not because Whites feel they owe us, but because we are due this compensation in order for us to correct all the ills of the African Slave Trade and its affect upon us and our children! 

The Reparations Movement is growing in strength and vigor.  One organization after another is joining the Movement, and individuals are starting to speak out in support of it, while yet even others ask more and more questions that raise consciousness to the great need for this compensation for the African Slave Trade.  If we are to repair the human tragedy that has been dealt us by the powers-that-be of old and of today, we must keep the Reparations Movement in the forefront.

WE MUST FORGE ON FEARLESSLY UNTIL WE NOT ONLY SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL BUT UNTIL WE BECOME THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL AND A PEOPLE TO BE RECKONED WITH IN THIS WORLD! 

Every Black man and woman in the United States and in every country who has been victimized resulting from the Triangular/African Slave Trade should be appalled that the United Nations and the Human Rights authority in Geneva, Switzerland continue to dismiss the horrors of the merciless and cruel trade in human beings and the degradation that sustained descendants of Slaves depraved and second-class citizens.  If White Folks can protest and raise consciousness to air and water pollution, animal rights, and what they deem proper trade relations, why, then can’t Blacks demonstrate for our Human Rights?   Why isn’t there a protest march in every major city in the United States to make White Societies realize that we are serious about Reparations, so that we can be about improving our lifestyles?  Are we going to subject our children for generations to come to more police brutality, discrimination, racial profiling, impoverishment, destitution, inferior education, and humiliation?  When do we say:  ENOUGH ALREADY, AND LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?!

Where is all the Congressional Representation that is supposed to speak for Black Folks?    Are they turning a blind eye to the discrimination, deprivation, and injustice Blacks endure in America?   I listened to some of them, one at a time speak about the ills of the Presidential Election in Florida.  They went on and on for days, weeks, and months expressing their disdain for the outcome of the election, and all to no avail.  They thought that Former VP Al Gore would make a better President for Blacks in America.  I think they forgot that Former President Clinton was in office for eight years with their unconditional support, but he did nothing for the pain and suffering of Blacks.  But I don’t want to get back into that bag… 

My point is that Reparations is a fight that we must battle for ourselves with the forces that we have in place.  We cannot depend on White Folks to fight this battle.  Had the White Jews waited on others for compensation for the European Holocaust, they would not have received Reparations; they fought relentlessly.  Had the Native Americans just looked to the Whites in government to speak for them, they, too, would not have received Reparations.  And had the Japanese not been so involved and concerned for Reparations for their internment, they would still be waiting for $ 20,000 per victim. 

If Blacks have but ten members of Congress to speak in support of Reparations and ending the crimes against Black humanity, that is more than enough for a REPARATIONS FILIBUSTER that can expose the Founding Fathers of the United States, as well as the European countries involved in this institution of Slavery and provide profound reasoning and ample evidence of US involvement in the buying and selling of Black men, women, and children and sufficient rationale for restitution for making Blacks captives in these United States.  Our families, in the millions, have been brought to desolation, sorrow, and despair, and yet we, as a People, have not done all that we possibly can to resolve this racism and the debilitating conditions placed upon us by White Folks.  HELLO!  Slavery ended in 1865, and our captors are still the head and we the tail. 

They say that intelligence is based on the ability to solve problems.  Well, Black Man, we have got to resolve this problem or forever be subjects of another People and the underprivileged in their lands.

If Congressional Representatives need articles on “Why Reparations for Descendants of Slaves is the Right Thing to Do,” to start this Reparations Filibuster, they can use the revealing articles in the REPARATIONS NOW IN OUR LIFETIME Newsletters written by the various Black professors and heads of organizations involved in the Reparations Movement.  And once the Representatives finish presenting the articles in the Newsletters, we can supply them with much more information out of sensational books written by knowledgeable and articulate Black authors.  I am always amazed at the knowledge and intelligence that we comprise but that is unfortunately kept subdued by the White society in order to maintain the myth that Blacks are inferior to Whites.  Right now, short of major protests and demonstrations, a Reparations filibuster is a dynamic approach that our Black Congressional Representatives should give some serious thought.

Turning to another matter of most importance is THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM taking place in Durban, South Africa (August 31, - September 7, 2001).  Folks, I cannot tell you how critical it is for this meeting to be a whopping success.   The WORLD must know in great detail that our forebears experienced the worst Human Rights atrocities ever to occur on this planet, and that Descendants of Slaves are yet victims of these atrocities all because we are until now victims of “ethnic cleansing” and “forced migration.”  Until Blacks are given Reparations to relocate to friendly countries and establish businesses and safe and quality Communities, whereby, we can regain our cultures, worship freely, utilize self determination, and re-educate our children, we will never be free of the captivity of countries that took us into Slavery.  And for those who choose to remain in the lands where our forefathers were enslaved, then let them, too, be afforded the amenities that promote well-rounded, healthy, members of a New World Order in which Blacks make up an integral part of the whole in determining genuine justice for the operation of this planet. 

For the sake of our children’s rights to a pursuit of happiness, we have got to make THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM a worthwhile experience that will make Reparations a reality.  We cannot afford to let the Rulers of this World deter our efforts to acquire Reparations – we can’t - WE JUST CAN’T!!!  At all costs, the focus at this conference must be Reparations for Africa and for Descendants of Slaves!  Otherwise, we will be averse conspirators playing the game right along with the descendants of the Slave Masters. 

This UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM is a matter that has the potential to start to change the lives of Black Peoples all over the World.  Remember, first the continent of Africa was raped, and then the peoples.  Restitution must be made for both these atrocities that resulted in completely discrediting and damaging the reputation of Blacks on this planet and inhibiting our voice, influence, and empowerment to improve matters for Black Peoples and Descendants of Slaves.  If you can afford it, get to the UN World Conference Against Racism, as this might be our last aggressive chance to voice our right to Reparations.

And, by all means, make it your business to be enlightened about the Reparations Movement.  Read the articles in the Reparations Newsletters and visit the various WebSites of people and organizations involved in the Reparations Movement.  All our efforts are to inform Black Peoples about our predicament and what it takes to rise above sustained oppression and White Control of our lives and our minds. 

Spread the word, forward E-mail to others on your own personal Reparations Mailing List made up of:  family and friends, college students, newspaper reporters, Congressional Representatives, and those in political positions at every level.  This is the least anyone can do to generate even more energy in the Reparations Movement.  There is strength in numbers.  Those of you in positions to organize Reparations meetings with access to halls and auditoriums, might consider setting dates to have N’COBRA, local college professors, or others informed on the topic to speak on the African Slave Trade and Reparations for this crime against Black humanity.  Be sure to inform your local radio and TV stations of these events.  And of course send me an E-mail of these dates so that I can list them on the Reparations Calendar of Events.   You might also want to call the Reparations organizations in your area and ask them how you can help with our Reparations cause. 

I’m tired of fighting against discrimination and for justice and watching little Black children trying to be White or wishing they were.  I want to expend my energies now on making our youth realize that Black is truly Beautiful.  We have so much to offer of our histories, our true cultures, and our talents, and with Reparations we can educate our children OUR WAY to first know THE REAL TRUTH and then to be admirable members of this global society. 

Work with me, work with others, but let’s all work TOGETHER for the betterment of Blacks all over the World.  Either we attain this goal and be successful and prosperous Black Peoples, or we can continue on the destructive paths headed for the demise of Black Peoples that Descendants of the Slave Masters have paved for us. 

Tziona Yisrael, Editor

REPNOW Newsletter

[www.thelawkeepers.org]

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Stay strong in the struggle; we will win!

Dejoser

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ANNOUNCEMENT


AN AFRICAN AMERICAN NATIONAL PREPARATORY MEETING FOR

THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (UN WCAR)

COLLABORATING ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS:

(include, but not limited to)

REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA McKINNEY

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, GEORGIA

REPRESENTATIVE DONNA M. CHRISTIAN-CHRISTENSEN, MD

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CONYERS, JR

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

FOURTEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, MICHIGAN

NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

STUDENT NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

DECEMBER 12th MOVEMENT INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT

NATIONAL BLACK LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

FIRST AFRICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

LITHONIA, GEORGIA

THE UNITED FRONT FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN DONOR ORGANS

DECATUR, GEORGIA

WINGS OF ANGELS, INC.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

ATLANTA AD HOC COMMITTEE

THE UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM

NEW AFRIKAN PEOPLES ORGANIZATION

MALCOLM X GRASS ROOTS MOVEMENT

WAYNE GARFIELD

WAYNE GARFIELD ENTERTAINMENT

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

DR. AVERY F. BROOKS

ACTOR/COMPOSER

NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY

CONFERENCE ORGANIZER:

Jewel L. Crawford, MD,

Chairperson, Atlanta Ad Hoc Committee for the UN WCAR

P.O. BOX 1675

Lithonia, Georgia 30058

(877) 677-7625 Fax: (770) 981-1856

Web: www.geocities.com/atladhoccomm/

CONTACT INFORMATION:       

Jewel L. Crawford, MD, Chairperson

Vynnie Burse, Co-chair vynnie2@aol.com

Gene R. Stephenson, II, Co-chair itsheavy@hotmail.com

DATE OF PREPARATORY MEETING: Saturday May 5, 2001

TIME:                                         9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Location:                                 Renaissance Hotel

590 West Peachtree Street, NW

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The history and legacy of slavery for displaced Africans in America has been characterized by persistent human rights abuses and violations since the inception of the slave trade.

The suffering experienced by Africans in the Americas as a result of these abuses and violations, has persisted to this very day, and is in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on December 10, 1948.  Despite the glaring and harsh reality of racism that African Americans deal with on a daily basis, this issue has never been fully addressed by the world body; the General Assembly of the United Nations.

On August 31, 2001 in Durban, South Africa, African Americans and others impacted by racism worldwide will have an opportunity to have these issues addressed.

In 1997, the UN General Assembly agreed to hold a World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.  The following are the primary objectives of the conference:

1) To review progress made in the fight against racism and reappraise the obstacles to further progress in the field and ways to overcome them;

2) To increase the level of awareness about the scourges of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance;

3) To review the political, historical, economic, social, cultural and other factors leading to racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia;

4) To formulate concrete recommendations to further action oriented national, regional and international measures to combat all forms of racism.

PURPOSE OF THE MAY 5, MEETING:

On May 5, 2001 an unprecedented, historic gathering of African Americans will convene in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of this meeting is:

1) To inform ALL AFRICAN AMERICANS and associated organizations about the WCAR;

2) To provide an opportunity for African American non-government organizations (NGOs) to learn how they can become accredited to attend official UN meetings and have input on matters pertinent to the African American community;

3) To review and respond to the Declaration of the African NGO Forum produced at the recent African Regional Preparatory Conference of NGOs in Dakar, Senegal;

4) To include African Americans in the preparatory process that will begin to redress our present and historical grievances in an assembly of the nations of the world;

5) To discuss and document the impact of racism in all aspects of our lives;

6) To make concrete, action-oriented recommendations to the UN for provisions to be enacted and enforced to combat all forms of racism; and

7) To affirm the right of the descendants of the victims of the African slave trade to just and fair compensatory measures for the suffering they and their ancestors have endured.

KEY ISSUES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS:

* Declaration of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery as a Crime against Humanity.

*The Economic Roots of Slavery: How European and white American society have benefited financially from the slave trade and racial discrimination

* Reparations for the descendants of the victims of the African Slave Trade.

PREPARATION FOR THE WCAR:

Preparation for the WCAR has been ongoing since last year when the first of a series of planning meetings, both regional and worldwide, began.  An Inter-agency Taskforce was created by the Clinton Administration to oversee and coordinate US Government efforts related to participation. A series of closed (by invitation only) meetings have been hosted by the US Government Inter-agency Taskforce, which have not allowed for any public discussion, input or review into the government preparation process for the WCAR. This closed process is in stark contrast to the open meetings, publicity, and widespread government and non-government support in preparing for the last UN Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995.

NGOs however, in the US and worldwide have been conducting open, public planning meetings of their own. While a number of prominent African Americans have been diligently working to prepare for the conference, information about the conference has not been widely disseminated in the African American community. Of note, is the fact that longstanding African American organizations that have advocated for the African American community in various arenas over the years, have not received notification about the WCAR; nor have many of them been advised as to how they can participate on an organizational basis. The second and final worldwide preparatory meeting for the WCAR will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, starting on May 31, 2001. This is the last opportunity that African Americans will have to get these pressing issues and concerns on the agenda for global discussion and review.

This national preparation meeting for African Americans will take place on May 5th

This will be the last opportunity for African Americans who plan to attend the Geneva Preparatory Conference starting May 31, 2001, to present a series of resolutions and recommendations from a wide cross section of African American organizations to this world conference.

THE ROLE OF NGOs at the WCAR:

The United Nations distinguishes between governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. The UN consists of member countries. Each country appoints its UN representative to represent its ruling government.   Non-governmental organizations are local, regional, national and international groups that are not appointed by the U S government,  but which play a key role at UN World Conferences.  While not members of the UN, it is recognized that NGOs offer valuable experience and knowledge to the UN. Therefore provisions have been made to accommodate their participation. The lobbying and participation by NGOs at the WCAR can assure the passage of resolutions and plans of action to accomplish set goals.

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THE UNITED STATES SEEKS TO SABOTAGE

THE REPARATIONS MOVEMENT

As the August 30, opening of the UN World Conference against Racism rapidly approaches, U.S. attempts to derail the growing movement for reparations are escalating. The United Nations World Conference against Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will be the first UN World Conference of the 21st century. It represents a unique opportunity for African people to implement the demand which Malcolm X left usâ ”to put our issue before the world. It will be held in Durban, South Africa, from August 30-September 7, of this year.

Since 1997, when the UN agreed to hold this World Conference, the United States, Canada and Western Europe (the "WEO" Group of countries) have done all they can to prevent it from succeeding. "Success" is always determined from whose side of the fence you are looking. Malcolm X often quoted the African proverb, "What’s good news for some is bad news for others." For people of African descent, within the Diaspora or on the African continent, a successful World Conference must address three key issues:

1)     A declaration that the trans-Atlantic slave trade is a crime against humanity;

2)     2) Reparations for the descendants of the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery; and

3)     the economic basis of racism.

The United States, Canada and Western Europe, all the former colonizing/settler-colony countries, have formed a united front to ensure that these issues will not be addressed at the World Conference. It is normal practice before UN World Conferences are actually held, that they are preceded by a PrepCom (Preparatory Committee meetings) in the various geographical regions of the world where the actual content of the final document and program of action is worked out.

For the upcoming World Conference, all of the regional PrepComs have been completed. In Geneva, Switzerland, a working group meeting from March 6-9, considered a Draft Declaration (the "Durban Declaration") and tried to resolve a dispute about whether or not "compensatory relief" (i.e. reparations) should even be considered as a theme of the World Conference. This is only an issue because of U.S. and Western European opposition.

In respect to the situation of African people, on the Continent and in the Diaspora, the proposed Durban Declaration (written by the UN Secretariat but clearly influenced by the WEO Group) is pathetically weak. It disregards the thrust of the Dakar Declaration which came out of the African Regional PrepCom. There is no clear statement that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is a crime against humanity. There is no mention of reparations in the context of the descendants of victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery.

It highlights anti-Semitism, but incredibly doesn’t mention Negrophobia, i.e. white supremacy against Africans, the very situation that gave rise to the ideology of racism.

On these key issues, the Durban document reflects the compromise language which the U.S. and Canada finessed out of the Santiago PrepCom (held in Santiago, Chile, and attended by the author). At Santiago, the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries, in the interests of consensus with the U.S. and Canada (neither of whom are members of this Regional Grouping and who usually attend the WEO meetings), agreed to watered-down language on the issues of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and reparations. At the last minute, when it was too late to incorporate stronger language, the U.S. and Canada pulled out and refused to support the language they had put forward as being acceptable to them. It is clear that they had never intended to agree to any language on these issues and the "negotiations" were actually a ploy to weaken the final Santiago Declaration.

For more than a decade, the December 12th Movement International Secretariat has fought in defense of the human rights of African people at the United Nations, in both Switzerland and in New York. During that time, we have come to understand that while we as African people may not recognize the importance of the international arena to the progress of our struggle, the U.S. and its allies are crystal clear about it. As a result, we as an African people must step up our organizing. We must demand that our elected officials take a stand on these critical issues. We must plan to attend the World Conference in Durban.

For more information, The December 12th Movement can be contacted at (718) 398-1766; (718) 623-1855(fax). The Dakar Declaration can be retrieved from the UN website:  www.unhchr.ch.

By Roger Wareham, Esq.

Roger Wareham is a founding member of the December 12th Movement. He is the International Secretary General of the International Association Against Torture and a partner in the law firm of Thomas, Wareham & Richards located in Brooklyn, New York.

Contributed by RHazard

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CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE CALLS FOR REPARATIONS

FOR BLACK NEW YORKERS

On Wednesday, April 4, 2001, City Council candidate Charles Barron, accompanied by numerous members of N'COBRA and other organizations, entered City Hall and delivered to the office of House Speaker Peter Vallone the "Queen Mother Moore" Reparations Resolution for Descendants of Enslaved Africans in New York City. The resolution was also forwarded to the Chairperson of the Black and Latino Caucus of the City Council and the Public Advocate.

Mr. Barron, who is running for office in Brooklyn's 42nd Councilmanic District, first read this resolution in its entirety at a press conference on the steps of City Hall. He stated that "slavery wasn't just a Southern atrocity; New York City had its own brand of legal chattel slavery. African people built the infrastructure and economy of New York City during the colonial period and we the descendants are owed a debt." The resolution calls for the formulation of a Reparations Task Force to explore the impact of New York City's enslavement of African people during the colonial period and beyond.

This press conference concluded a day of activities in observance of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was organized by N'COBRA, Descendants of the African Burial Grounds, Coalition of African Students at BMCC, Sankofa Roots at CCNY and students from Medgar Evers, Hunter and other colleges, the December 12th Movement, the Black Radical Congress, the Unity Party and more.

By Marie Roberts / Greenwich Village Gazette

    

Black Reign News links to the two publications I know of so far.  The first is the Greenwich Village Gazette:

http://www.nycny.com/columns/guests/roberts04-13-01.html

The second is The Black Reign:

http://www.theblackreign.web.com/

The above information was Contributed by OnajeMuid@cs.com (Onaje Muid)

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BARRON CALLS FOR FORMATION OF REPARATIONS TASKFORCE

Brooklyn City Council Candidate Seeking Reparations For Black New Yorkers

      

"Slavery wasn't just a Southern atrocity; New York City had its own brand of legal chattel slavery. African people built the infrastructure and economy of New York City during the Colonial Period and we, the descendants, are owed a debt."

Charles Barron

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BROOKLYN, NY- On Wednesday, April 4, City Council candidate Charles Barron, accompanied by numerous members of N'COBRA (National Coalition Of Blacks for Reparations in America) and other organizations, entered City Hall and delivered to the office of House Speaker Peter Vallone the "Queen Mother Moore Reparations Resolution for Descendants of Enslaved Africans in New York City".

The resolution calls for the formulation of a Reparations Task Force to explore the impact of New York City's enslavement of African people during the colonial period and beyond. The resolution was also forwarded to the chairperson of the Black and Latino Caucus of the City Council and the Public Advocate.

Barron, who is running for office in Brooklyn's 42nd Councilmanic District, first read this resolution in its entirety at a press conference on the steps of City Hall. He stated that "slavery wasn't just a Southern atrocity; New York City had its own brand of legal chattel slavery. African people built the infrastructure and economy of New York City during the colonial period and we the descendants are owed a debt.

This press conference concluded a day of activities in observance of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was organized by N'COBRA; Descendants of the African Burial Grounds; Coalition of African Students at Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY; Sankofa Roots at City College of New York; students from Medgar Evers, Hunter and other colleges; the December 12th Movement; the Black Radical Congress and the Unity Party.

The day began with a walk from BMCC to the African Burial Ground at Duane and Reade Streets. There, libation and prayers were offered, and people spoke about the meaning of the Ancestors and what they endured, and of the justice of reparations now.

Speakers also called for the return and re-intern of the remains of their beloved Ancestors, and the construction of a museum and memorial. From there, people proceeded to City Hall where Barron read the following:

Whereas: In 1625 the Dutch established the village of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island and began the wholesale kidnapping and enslavement of African people from the Caribbean and Africa; and

     Whereas: African laborers in 1639 worked daily in Manhattan Islands' Northern Forest (Upper East Side and Harlem), clearing timber and cutting lumber at the Colony's Sawmill (74th Street and Second Avenue); and

     Whereas: These Africans also built farms beyond New Amsterdam, i.e. (Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens); and

     Whereas: In 1664 the English won control of new Amsterdam and renamed it New York after the Duke of York, and continued the wholesale thievery of African people from the Caribbean and Africa; and

     Whereas: These Africans were forced to provide "free labor" to New York City under British rule that was even more aggressive and cruel in its participation in the so-called Transatlantic slave trade; the greatest crime committed against humanity; and

     Whereas: These Africans during New York City's colonial period of enslavement, cleared land, built houses, paved roads, built forts and bridges, planted and harvested crops; and

     Whereas: The enslavement of Africans continued in New York City after the colonial period when the United States ratified its constitution in 1789 and became the United States Of America, until New York City abolished slavery in the 1840's; and

     Whereas: In short, Africans built New York City's infrastructure and economy and were never paid; and

     Whereas: Not only were these Africans never paid, they were subjected to the worst kind of rape, torture, brutality and murder the human mind can conjure up; and

     Whereas: Evidence of this cruelty can be validated by the over 20,000 African ancestral remains located in downtown Manhattan, particularly 427 of those African ancestral remains that have been excavated from the African Burial ground located on Duane and Reade Streets; and

     Whereas: These Africans are now represented by over 2.1 million people of African ancestry in New York City,; and

     Whereas: Queen Mother Moore, born Audley E. Moore on July 27th, 1898, and passed on to be with the Ancestors on May 21st, 1997, spent 77 years of her life fighting for human rights, civil rights, liberation, Black nationalism and reparations for African people; and

     Whereas: Queen Mother Moore spent decades of her struggle fighting in Harlem, New York City; and

     Whereas: In the early 1960's, Queen Mother Moore formed "The Reparations Committee of Descendants of United States Slaves" to demand reparations for Africans in America from the U.S. Government. She canvassed the country to get over a million signatures to petition the government and was successful in presenting the signatures to President John F. Kennedy; and

     Whereas: Queen Mother Moore continued the struggle of I.H. Dickerson and Callie House, who engaged in one of the earliest calls for Reparations when they established the "Ex-Slaves Pension Movement" from 1890 to 1920; and

     Whereas: Queen Mother Moore joined many other Africans in America in the fight for reparations, such as- Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., The Republic of New Africa, The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), The December 12th Movement, The Black Radical Congress, The Patrice Lumumba Coalition, United African Movement, National Action Network, The Black United Front, the Unity Party and countless others.

     Be it resolved: That a "Queen Mother Moore Reparations for Descendants of Africans of New York City Task Force" be established; and

     Be it further resolved: That this Queen Mother Moore Reparations Task Force be created by individuals and organizations of the New African Community of New York City in conjunction with the Black and Latino Caucus of the City Council; and

     Be it further resolved: That the Queen Mother Moore Reparations Task Force be funded by the City of New York for the duration of time deemed necessary by the Task Force to hold hearings, conduct research and recommend compensation to the new African Descendant Community of New York City for the debt owed for the enslavement of their African Ancestors during the colonial and post-colonial periods in New York City.

The above information was Contributed by OnajeMuid@cs.com (Onaje Muid)

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The following is a worthwhile reprint.)

BLACK REPARATIONS:  THE NEW AMERICAN CIVIL WAR PRIVATE

The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, N'COBRA, hosted its 11th Annual National Conference from June 14 - 20, 2000 in Washington, D.C. A standing room only audience (500 plus) filled Blackburn auditorium at the Town Hall Meeting on June 16 to hear presentations from Congressman John Conyers, Randall Robinson, Conrad Worrill, Claude Anderson and others.

Most significant about this annual conference was the announcement that N'COBRA will launch a lawsuit this year against the United States government for the continued human rights abuses and vestiges of slavery against Black people in America.

The national reparations movement has come of age. After over forty years of mass activism, reparations resolutions have appeared in local city councils and state assemblies around the country. Many of the resolutions are in support of John Conyers' HR40 reparations bill.

N'COBRA as a mass movement has moved beyond its beginnings amongst Black nationalists, who long held high the reparations banner. The demand for reparations now enjoys the endorsement of many Black organizations. Through education, advocacy and activism, reparations is becoming mainstream in Black America, including Sigma Gamma Rho, Delta Sigma Theta, the National Association of Black Social Workers and the National Bar Association. Indeed, the NAACP listed Conyers' reparations bill as one of its two primary legislative agenda items in 1999. Randall Robinson's recent book, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, is making serious headway in the Black middle class. Reparations resolutions are sweeping the country, from Camden, N.J. to Chicago, IL, to Detroit, MI. The pitch and tremor for reparations has never been louder and is expected to swell even more during the immediate years to come.

           

History of the Movement

The reparations movement is not new. As early as 1861, Sen. Charles Sumner (MA) and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (PA) introduced several acts demanding reparations. Then, at the Sherman Savannah Meeting in 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Order 15 granting "40 acres and a mule" to freed Africans. This popularized the movement and gave it its "40 acres and a mule" tag. Jointly, these represented the swing point of the reparations movement, (for more information, read The Forty Acres Documents, by Amilcar Shabazz). The quarter point of the movement was marked by such names as Callie House and Rev. Isaiah Dickerson. At the midpoint, Elijah Muhammad, Robert Brock and Queen Mother Moore. On the three quarter point, names like Nabilah Uqdah, Imari Obadele, Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, Nkechi Tiafa, Chokwe Lumumba, Dorothy Lewis, Irving Davis and James Forman (read the Black Manifesto) appear on the list. Now, near the end point, reparations is becoming a household word.

As slavery was to the civil war in 1865, so is reparations to the new American civil war today. Slavery has not stopped, nor the civil war that surrounded it. Then America, meaning basically white folks, had to wrestle with the moral, legal and economic justification for the continuation of slavery. Many thought that to end slavery was to end civilization and thus no one would win. Today the same is true of reparations. Many white folks believe that to pay reparations to the children of enslaved human beings would weaken or even destroy the American system.

What about white progressives? Being progressive is facing truth even if not--in fact, most definitely not--being of one's own making. Progressive whites, claiming to be working for and with oppressed peoples, at times get stuck in the beliefs, values and behaviors that support white supremacy. There is no issue other than reparations that demonstrates this point more clearly. Reparations, although directed toward Black folks, is, in the larger context, the most radical and revolutionary struggle of today. The western capitalistic system was built on the capture, kidnap, transport and enslavement of Africans. The only way to resolve this contradiction is to restore those injured to their original state, as best as possible, through compensation, restitution and rehabilitation; in other words, through reparations. Anything short of this is superficial reform.

Therefore, progressive politics must embrace four critical pillars:

1)     all human beings are entitled to their full human rights,

2)     the Transatlantic Slave Trade was a crime against humanity,

3)     reparations are due the victim and,

4)     the highest ideals of human possibility and development must be upheld.

Reparations is the nexus between the old world order and the Peoples' new world order.   More than any other issue, reparations is the next issue for the progressive movement to take up, if it chooses to be truly progressive, if it dares to side with the people and push the boundaries further to the goals of true egalitarianism. Reparations is the definitive issue in the national and international arena.

Upcoming World Conference

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, being held for five days in early September, 2001 in South Africa, will be the first United Nations world conference of the 21st Century, and the third focusing on the elimination of racism and all forms of racial discrimination. A parallel NGO Forum will also be organized. The definitive struggle over the agenda of this world conference is reparations, not just the history and current effects of the transatlantic slave trade, but the remedy.

At the UN Preparatory Committee Meeting in Geneva this past May, Israel, the European Union, Armenia and most definitely the United States contested the inclusion of compensation in the preparatory reference document. Progressives can be the decisive element to force America and the world to include reparations in the conference as a main agenda item. This is the first time that the American Civil War can and will be played out on an international stage and that American citizens can influence those results. Reparations or Corporate Globalization-the choice is before the progressive movement.

There is a role and a job to be done by everyone in this movement, regardless of age or position. Randall Robinson, in addition to his book and his national speaking campaign, has drafted a reparations resolution that can be brought to your local, state and national representatives for endorsement and advocacy within those respective bodies. The world is waiting to see what role progressive people will play in this life and death struggle.

By Onaje Mu'id

For more information on the work being done by N'COBRA, please CONTACT:

Onaje Mu'id

(onajemuid@cs.com)

(718) 7268484 Ext. 3553

N'COBRA

P.O.Box 62622,

Wash. DC 200292622

(202) 6356272.

Onaje Mu'id is the international commissioner of N'COBRA; the policy chair for the National Black Alcohol and Addictions Council, New York Chapter; and a board member of CIBI, the Council of Independent Black Institutions. He has been a human rights activist for over twenty-five years.

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The Pioneer (CSU Hayward)

SLAVERY AND THE GENOCIDE TREATY

April 12, 2001 / Opinion…

In addition to my academic research and teaching during the past 27 years at Cal State Hayward, I have researched, lobbied government representatives, and assisted in writing international human rights law, particularly as it applies to indigenous peoples, ethnic groups, and migrant workers all over the world. Currently, I am involved in preparations for the United Nations sponsored World Conference Against Racism, to be held in Durban, South Africa, in September this year. The issue of reparations for the enslavement of Africans in the United States certainly will be central.

In looking at questions of reparations for slavery, one cannot begin with the conclusion, that is determining the remedy; rather the question arises from social movements of the aggrieved group and an objective investigation into the harm alleged must take place. Before the US Congress, there is legislation that calls for such an investigation that should be supported by all without prejudice to the conclusions and recommendations.

My own thinking is that the issue of African slavery in the United States falls within the 1948 Genocide Convention, an international treaty that has no statute of limitations and is retroactive. Here are the provisions of Genocide Convention:

Article 1. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3. The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Ordinarily, a nation-state that has committed historical acts that might be construed as constituting genocide would distance itself from former regimes that held power when the acts were committed. For instance the present Republic of Turkey eschews its responsibility for the Armenian genocide by claiming a break in the "succession of states," meaning that the acts (which in fact the contemporary government of Turkey denies as having occurred) took place under a former and now discredited regime, the Ottoman Empire that no longer exists.

The contemporary United States government could also preclude charges of genocide by breaking its ties with regimes that existed before the Civil War. Although the introduction of Jim Crow laws in the former Confederate states and their legitimization by the US Supreme Court on the basis of "states rights" would possibly require severing the succession of states up to the 1954 Brown decision in the Supreme Court.

In order to implement a break in the succession of states, the United States, among other things, would have to cease honoring its "founding fathers" and the founding documents, as well as each and everyone of the administrations that maintained the legality and constitutionality of slavery.  Such revisions would have to be accompanied by apologies to the descendants of the aggrieved and possibly include damage awards or reparations. Certainly, the severance of succession of states would require the revision of approved US history textbooks, national monuments, and government rhetoric in much the same manner that Germany and Austria were required to do after World War II.

In terms of reparations, the question arises as to who would receive and who would pay. That question should not arise until after an investigation that would recommend reparations. The recent example of the 1921 destruction of the African-American Rosewood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by a white riot that included Oklahoma National Guardsmen assisting the rioters, is a good example of procedure. After a thorough investigation, the investigative committee made its recommendations, including calling for reparations for the heirs of those who were killed or lost their property.  It is now in the hands of the state legislature to determine whether to pay reparations and if so, how to do so and how much.

In the case of Nazi genocide against the Jewish people of Europe, the anti-Nazi governments of Germany have been and continue to be required to pay reparations to the state of Israel. Paying to an institutional body, such as a trusteeship for African-Americans, rather than individual, per capita payments as in the Japanese-American incarceration reparations, would be the most likely solution regarding reparations for slavery.

A great deal of extraneous questions and hypotheses (such as those voiced by David Horowitz in his infamous paid advertisements opposing reparations for slavery) get thrown into the discussions of the issue and cloud the matter. Questions of who captured and sold slaves, who transported them, who owned them, and the existence of European indentured servants in colonial North America, are historically interesting but irrelevant questions for determining United States genocide against enslaved African-Americans. Because a few Jews collaborated with Nazis does not invalidate the reality of genocide against the Jews.

However the African slave trade and enslavement of Africans began, functioned, and proceeded, the fact is that the United States was founded on not only the legalization of African slavery but also on the sanctity of "property."  African slaves were by far the most valuable property at the time of the founding of the United States. For those who argue that "in those times" everyone accepted slavery, they surely cannot mean the Africans who were enslaved, nor can they ignore the fact that slavery was debated, was opposed by most Quakers, and the international slave trade had been outlawed two decades earlier by the British under pressure by the British Anti-Slavery Society.

Another indisputable fact pertinent to the Genocide Convention is that ONLY persons of African descent were enslaved in the United States. That fact does not diminish the horrors of Chinese contract laborers or Irish famine victims building canals and railroads, nor any other oppression that occurred historically. The question should not be "where will it all end?" but rather "when will it all begin?" When will we as citizens of the United States confront the fact that unpaid labor of African slaves (and the land stolen from Native Americans) produced the accumulation of capital necessary for the United States to become the richest and most powerful country in the history of humankind?

[Anyone interested in reparations for slavery would be advised to read Randall Robinson's book, The Debt.]

By Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz <rdunbaro@pacbell.net

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PAN AFRIKAN CONFERENCE 1993 SUPPORTED REPARATIONS

REPARATIONS AND A NEW GLOBAL ORDER: 

A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW

[The following is ]A paper read at the second Plenary Session of the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations, Abuja, Nigeria, April 27, 1993. Contemplating the condition of the Black World is vexatious to the spirit: that is probably the strongest impetus which has brought us all here today. For many centuries, and especially in the last five, the black skin has been a badge of contempt. For instance, it used to be said in Brazil that if you are white and running down the street, you are an athlete; but if you are black and running down the street, you are a thief! And in most parts of the world today, if you are white and rich, you are honoured and celebrated, and all doors fly open as you approach; but if you are black and rich, you are under suspicion, and handcuffs and guard dogs stand ready to take you away.

Yes, the black skin is still the badge of contempt in the world today, as it has been for nearly 2,000 years. To make sure it does not remain so in the 21st century is perhaps the overall purpose of our search for reparations.

We are gathered here today, thinkers and activists who want to change Black People's condition in the world. What things do we need to change, both in the world and in ourselves, if we are to accomplish the mission of reparations? What changes must we make in structures, in psychology, in historical consciousness and much else?

We might begin by noting that Blacks are not the only people in the world who are seeking, or who have sought, reparations. In fact, by pressing our claim for reparations, we are latecomers to a varied company of peoples in the Americans, in Asia, and in Europe. Here is a partial catalogue of reparations, paid and pending, which are 20th century precedents for reparations to the Black World.

In the Americas. from Southern Chile to the Arctic north of Canada reparations are being sought and being made. The Mapuche, an aboriginal people of Southern Chile, are pressing for the return of their lands, some 30 m acres of which were, bit by bit, taken away and given to European immigrants since 1540. The Inuit of Arctic Canada, more commonly known as the Eskimo, were in 1992 offered restitution of some 850,000 sq. miles of their ancestral lands, their home range for millennia before European invaders arrived there.

In the USA, claims by the Sioux to the Black Lands of South Dakota are now in the courts. And the US Government is attempting to give some 400,000 acres of grazing land to the Navaho, and some other lands to the Hopi in the south-west of the USA.

In 1938, the US Government admitted wrongdoing in interning some 120,000 Japanese-Americans under Executive Order 9066 of 1942, during WW II, and awarded each internee $20,000.

Earlier on, and further afield, under the Thompson-Urrutia Treaty of 1921, the USA paid Colombia reparations, including the sum of S25 m on, for excising the territory of Panama from Colombia for the purpose of building the Panama Canal.

In Asia, following WW II, Japan paid reparations, mostly to the Asian countries it had occupied. By May 1949, $39 million had been paid from Japanese assets in Japan, and another unspecified amount had been paid from Japanese assets held outside Japan. And Japan as obliged to sign treaties of reparations with Burma 1954), the Philippines (1956, and Indonesia (1958). More recently, the Emperor of Japan has apologised to Korea for atrocities committed there by the Japanese, and North Korea is asking for $5 billion in reparations for damages sustained during 35 years of Japanese colonisation.

In Europe. after WW II, the victors demanded reparations from Germany for all damages to civilians and their dependants, for losses caused by the maltreatment of prisoners of war, and for all non-military property that was destroyed in the war. In 1921, Germany's reparations liability was fixed at 132 billion gold marks. After WW II, the victorious Allies filed reparations claims against Germany for $320 b on. Reparations were also levied on Italy and Finland. The items for which these claims were made included bodily loss, loss of liberty, loss of property, injury to professional careers, dislocation and forced emigration, time spent in concentration camps because of racial, religious and political persecution. Others were the social cost of war, as represented by the burden from loss of life, social disorder, and institutional disorder; and the economic cost of war, as represented by the capital destroyed and the value of civilian goods and services foregone to make war goods. Payments were made in cash and kind -- goods, services, capital equipment, land, farm and forest products; and penalties were added for late deliveries.

Perhaps the most famous case of reparations was that paid by Germany to the Jews. These were paid by West Germany to Israel for crimes against Jews In territories controlled by Hitler's Germany, and to individuals to indemnify them for persecution. In the initial phase, these included $2 billion to make amends to victims of Nazi persecution; $952 million in personal indemnities; $35.70 per month per inmate of concentration camps; pensions for the survivors of victims; $820 m on to Israel to resettle 50,000 Jewish emigrants from lands formerly controlled by Hitler. All that was just the beginning. Other, and largely undisclosed, payments followed. And even in 1992, the World Jewish Congress in New York announced that the newly unified Germany would pay compensation, totaling S63 million for 1993, to 50,000 Jews who suffered Nazi persecution but had not been paid reparations because they lived in East Germany.

'With such precedents of reparations to non-Black peoples in four continents, it would be sheer racism for the world to discountenance reparations claims from the Black World.

But our own search for reparations must, of necessity, be tailored to our peculiar condition, to our peculiar experience. Some others may need only that their ancestral home range be returned to them; some others that they be compensated for the indignities of internment and the loss of citizen rights; some others that acts of genocide and other atrocities against their people be atoned or and paid or; some others that lands excised from their territory be paid for. We, however, who have experienced all of the above and more, and experienced them for much longer than most, and therefore suffer chronically from their effects -- we must take a more comprehensive view of what reparations must mean for us. We must ask not only that reparations be made for specific acts, or that restitution be made of specific properties; we who have been such monumental victims are obliged to also ask: What sorts of system, capitalist as well as pre-capitalist, with their values and world outlook, made this long holocaust possible; and what must be done to transform these systems into some other kind where holocaust could not be inflicted on us? Unless we address and effectively answer that question, our quest for reparations would be flawed and incomplete. We must therefore look into the nature of the old existing global order and see what needs to be done to change it for the better.

The hallmarks of the old global order, which was initiated by the voyage by Columbus may be summarised as a propensity for perpetrating holocaust, a devotion to exploitation, and a passion for necrophobia. It has inflected holocaust, through genocide and culturecide -- but not only on the Black World; it has visited exploitation, through slavery and colonialism -- but not only on the Black World; but it has reserved for the Black World a special scourge: that virulent strain of racism known as Negrophobia!

That old global order just described is not a thing of the past; It is still very much with us. In different parts of the world today, In 1993, even as we sit here in this hall, Blacks are still being subjected to the holocaust of genocide and culturecide (as in the Sudan); to the exploitations of slavery (as in Mauritania), and of colonialism and neo-colonialism (as in every part of the Black World; and to negrophobia, in all its forms and degrees, throughout the entire globe. To end this dreadful condition and to make all the appropriate repairs, i.e. reparations, we need to move from this old global order, where holocaust happened to us, to a different global order where holocaust will never happen to us. We need to move from this old global order, which sucks resources out of our veins and piles debt upon our heads, to a different global order in which our enormous resources shall serve our own prosperity. We need to move from this old global order, which is permeated with negrophobia, to a new global order that is cleansed of negrophobia, one where we would live in dignity and equality with all the other races of humanly.

Now, what are we, the Black World, going to contribute to the making of these changes?

Let me begin by noting that reparation is not just about money: it is not even mostly about money; in fact, money is not even one percent of what reparation is about. Reparation is mostly about making repairs. self-made repairs, on ourselves: mental repairs, psychological repairs, cultural repairs, organisational repairs, social repairs, institutional repairs, technological repairs, economic repairs. political repairs, educational repairs, repairs of every type that we need in order to recreate and sustainable black societies. For the sad truth is that five centuries of holocaust have made our societies brittle and unviable. And as the great Marcus Garvey warned over 50 years ago, if we continue as we re, we are

heading for extinction.

More important than any monies to be received; more fundamental than any lands to be recovered, is the opportunity the reparations campaign offers us for the rehabilitation of Black people, by Black people, for Black people; opportunities for the rehabilitation of our minds, our material condition, our collective reputation. our cultures, our memories, our self-respect, our religious, our political traditions and our family institutions; but first and foremost for the rehabilitation of our minds.

Let me repeat that the most important aspect of reparation is not the money the campaign may or may not bring: the most important part of reparation is our self-repair; the change it will bring about in our understanding of our history, of ourselves, and of our destiny; the chance it will bring about in our place in the world.

Now, we who are campaigning for reparations cannot hope to change the world without changing ourselves. We cannot hope to change the world without changing our ways of seeing the world, our ways of thinking about the world, our ways of organising our world, our ways of working and dreaming in our world. All these, and more, must change for the better. The type of Black Man and Black woman that was made by the holocaust -- that was made to feel inferior by slavery and then was steeped in colonial attitudes and values -- that type of Black will not be able to bring the post-reparation global order into being without changing profoundly in the process that has begun; that type of Black will not be even appropriate for the post-reparation global order unless thoroughly and suitably reconstructed. So, reparation, like charity, must begin with ourselves, with the making of the new Black person, with the making of a new Black World. How?

We must begin by asking ourselves: What weaknesses on our side made the holocaust possible? Weaknesses of organisation?

Weakness of solidarity? Weaknesses of identity? Weaknesses of mentality? Weaknesses of behaviour? If we do not correct such weaknesses, even if we got billions of billions of dollars in reparations money, even if we got back all our expropriated land, we would fritter it all away yet again, and recycle it all back into alien hands. We must therefore find out what deficiencies in our sense of identity what quirks in our mentality, what faults in our feelings solidarity made it possible for some of us to sell some of us into bondage; still make it possible for us to succumb to the divide and conquer tactics of our exploiters; make it possible for all too many of us to be afflicted with Negro necrophobia -- our counterpart of the self-hating disease of the anti-Semitic Semite. Twenty years ago, when I was writing The West and the Rest of Us, I gave it a subtitle: ''White Predators, Black Slavers and the African Elite''. That was to serve notice that we cannot overlook our complicity, as Black Slavers and as the African Elite, in what happened, and is still happening to us. We must, therefore, change ourselves in order to end our criminal complicity in perpetuating our lamentable condition.

Beyond all that, we must discover where we now are in our history. We must recognise that in 36 years of independence, reckoning from Ghana's in 1957 (just four years short of the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness!), we have been blundering about in the neo-colonial wilderness.

And we must ask: Why did Moses lead his people into the wilderness and keep them wandering about for two generations? I do not believe that he, a learned man raised in the pharaoh's court, did not know the direct route to his people's Promised Land. I believe it was a dilatory sojourn whose tribulations were calculated to cure his people of the legacy of slavery. You can't make a free people out of slaves without first putting them through experiences that would purge them of the slave mentality. We, in our own wilderness years, need to take conscious steps to purge ourselves of the legacy of a 500 year holocaust of slavery and colonialism. In that way, when we finally arrive at our own Promised Land -- a Black World cured of the holocaust legacy -- we would be ready for the new liberated phase of our long adventure on this Earth.

To help us get our bearings in this wilderness phase, I would suggest four main measures:

The creation of Holocaust Monuments in all parts of the Black World, as reminders of what we have been through and are determined never again to go through. Efforts already being made in this area should continue and be added to. I am thinking, for instance, of the Goree Island Project in Senegal, and the Slave Route Project in Benin Republic. But let me recommend a major monument here in Abuja, this new capital rising in a zone that, in the past, witnessed intensive slave raiding for the trans-Sahara slave trade. We should erect here a monument complex that portrays scenes from the Black Holocaust, scenes taken from all parts of the world; a great Black Holocaust Monument that shall serve as the Black World's counterpart of the Wailing Wall of the Jews in Jerusalem.

The institution of a Holocaust Memorial Day, to be observed each year throughout the Black World, as a day of mourning and remembrance. with solemn ceremonies at local holocaust monuments. Perhaps this date, April 27, on which we have assembled here, should be designated the Holocaust Memorial Day of the Black World.

The creation of a Black Heritage Education Curriculum, to teach us our true history, and thereby restore our self-worth as descendants of the pioneers of world civilisation, and supply us with the antidote to the White Supremacist Ideology and its damaging effects. This would produce a post-holocaust Black personality, one cured of the debilities inflicted by the holocaust experience.

The creation of a Black World League of Nations, with its complex of institutions, to take care of our collective security, to foster solidarity and prosperity among us, and to prevent the infliction of any future damage on any part of the Black World. These measures, and others like them, would teach us who we are what we have been and ought to become, and would promote and concretise Black World solidarity. Having made such internal changes in ourselves and in our world, we would be better able to foster in the entire global order two key changes: A different view of global history, particularly of the last 500 years, and of the millennia before 525 BC -- that calamitous year when Black Egypt fell permanently to white invaders, leaving all of Africa open for incursions from West Eurasia; and structural changes that would block the possibility of future damage of the sorts for which we now seek reparations.

To conclude, let me note that, for us, no global order would be truly new without apologies for ancient wrongs, without an end to continuing wrongs, without reparations, without restitutions, without the creation of systems and mechanisms that would ensure that the holocaust we have been through never happens again. Our crusade for reparations would be completed only when we achieve a global order without necrophobia, without alien hegemony over any part of the Black World, and without the possibility of holocaust.

From our perspective, a global order which failed to meet such conditions would not really be new or adequate: It would be an order serving us the same old bitter wine in some new bottle. From here today, I foresee a day when we too shall get back our expropriated lands; I foresee a day when we too shall get compensation for our losses and our pains; I foresee a day when negrophobia and the conditions which foster it shall have vanished from the earth. But between now and that day, much work waits to be done. The most serious part of that work is the work of self rehabilitation. And so I say: "Black Soul, Heal Thyself, and all shall be restored to you".

I thank you all.

By Professor Chinweizu

[IS THIS MEAT WE CAN BITE INTO OR WHAT?!! – T. Y., Editor]

Fwd: http://the.arc.co.uk/arm/NewGlobalOrder.html

TFMODUPE@SABLAW.COM (Talibah Modupe) and Rhazard

Contributed by RHazard

*********

Peace Brothers and Sisters,

Are you doing the work in your community to help win Reparations Now???? There are many things you can do.  Make sure your membership in N’COBRA is current.  Participate in your local N’COBRA Chapter.   Start a Chapter, if there isn’t one in your area.  Plan to attend the N’COBRA National Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 22-24, 2001 at Southern University.  And inform others about the Reparations Movement.

Robert

For further information contact Rhazard988@AOL.COM

*********

…let's work together to heighten this righteous call for justice.

Peace and Power,

Ukali

*********

JOIN THE BLACK REPARATIONS MOVEMENT TODAY !

IT IS A WIN, WIN CASE FOR US!

Oscar L. Beard

*********

The Reparations Movement’s goals are as follows:

   -  Obtain Reparations from all countries that prospered from Black Slave Labor

   Schedule Conferences, Marches, and Protests until the White Society apologizes and

   compensates Descendants of the Slave Trade

-  Speak at the United Nations on Reparations for Survivors of the Slave Trade in order

   to gain International Support of all or most countries

   -  Demonstrate in front of the UN in Geneva for World Attention

   -  Establish an International Fund for Descendants of Slaves

-  Target Companies that existed during the days of Slavery for Reparations, and if they

   do not comply, then list them as “Unworthy” for Black patronage

   -  Seek support for Reparations from Companies that prosper off of Black Clients

   -  Seek Celebrity support for Reparations

   -  Involve the Media

   -  Make “Reparations” the buzz word for 2000

   -  Etc., etc., and by “any means necessary” within the Law

*********

IN SUPPORT OF REPARATIONS!

WAKE UP!

    STAND UP!

         STEP UP!

             and  DO SOMETHING IN SUPPORT OF REPARATIONS!

OR THERE CAN BE NO REAL -  PEACE!

Ahna Tafari

*********

Reparations for Slavery (A Flowchart)

http://www.udayton.edu/~race/02rights/repara03.htm

Contact: randall@udayton.edu (Vernellia Randall)

 Race, Racism and the Law

http://www.udayton.edu/~race/

Vernellia R. Randall

Professor of Law

Phone: (937) 229-3378

*********

April 3, 2001

“WHY” DAVID HOROWITZ’S “REPARATIONS” AD WAS RACIST

While most other college newspapers did not print the David Horowitz reparations ad, the reaction of many white students at those universities that did suggests that students,

including those at Brown, have not been exposed to enough information about the kind of attitudes the ad expresses and why those attitudes are indeed racist.

At UC Berkeley, on his latest anti-African American, racial-vendetta campaign, David Horowitz abruptly turned tail and bolted, after his speech at UC Berkeley on March 15. This after only the third questioner challenged him. People of color have rightly condemned his "reparations" ad and ranting speech as racist.

David Horowitz is a `60's-era former left-wing advocate. But, Horowitz jumped ship with the shift in the prevailing political winds toward conservative Reaganism and son of Reaganism (Bush). Horowitz apparently decided that there was more money, a better life - and especially much more media attention, as something he craves - to be gained on the right-wing side.

Unfortunately, there was always a handful of either loosely wrapped or intellectually thin leftists in the '60s (e.g., Clarence Thomas), who ultimately felt that the sails blowing to the right-wing were financially fuller - and decided to go with that.

Horowitz has long been known as a professional gadfly huckster, who basically makes a living off of disparaging Black folks. But, the greater blame here goes to student newspapers that allowed themselves to become his tool.

Horowitz runs his attack operations out of Los Angeles. His headquarters is the harmless-sounding "Center for the Study of Popular Culture." But Horowitz's activities and his recent book, "Hating Whitey," are anything but harmless. His book attacks African American civil rights activists as being anti-white racists.

In the meantime, Horowitz raises to a fine political art the same "self-victimology" that he generally attacks African Americans as perpetrating. Here, Horowitz cloaks himself as the ultimate "free speech martyr." But, David Horowitz was not out to promote free speech. David Horowitz was out to promote himself - as usual.

Many whites, including UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl, have tried to twist Horowitz's ad issue into a "free speech" issue. So, it is obvious that, even in the year 2001, many whites, including our chancellor, still don't recognize blatant racism, suitably couched. This is a despicable state of affairs in a so-called institution of "Higher Learning," to borrow from the title of Ice Cube's rap song on racism in college.

In a format perverting the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, Horowitz claimed that reparations to African Americans have already been paid in the form of welfare. In a racist mindset at the foundation of all his arguments, Horowitz thus stereotypes most blacks as living on welfare.  Apart from that being false, welfare is provided to people because they are poor, not because they are black.

In a sick twist, Horowitz then claims that not only does America not owe African Americans reparations, but that, in fact, it is African Americans who owe America a greater debt - for ending slavery. He further says that African Americans today have actually benefited from the national wealth that slavery helped to create. Would any newspaper publish an ad that said that the Jews actually benefited from the Jewish Holocaust, because that's how they got Israel?

So, Horowitz believes that the nation that immorally accepted brutal slavery, then gave blacks a gift by eventually outlawing the practice - and replacing it with American "Jim Crow" apartheid practices. By the same perverted logic, a kidnap-beating-rape victim would owe a debt to her brutal rapist, if he finally let her go free.

In another twisted claim, Horowitz said that there were thousands of blacks who also owned slaves. Actually, it was free blacks who, in many cases, purchased their own family members to protect them in and from slave-owning states.

In his ad, Horowitz also claimed that most Americans have no connection to slavery. This is patently false: slavery has spawned a legacy of racial oppression that exists to this day. As a result of slavery, whites today have inherited preferential advantage.

Southern post-Civil War laws like the "Black Codes" made it illegal for African Americans to work for themselves. From Tulsa, Okla., to Rosewood, Fla., African Americans were later told to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and when they did, successful African American business towns and districts were often destroyed by rioting whites or, even later, by "urban renewal."

For an enlightening discourse on the reparations issue, Randal Robinson, head of TransAfrica, the organization that spearheaded the American divestment movement against then-apartheid South Africa, has written the book "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks."

Horowitz's ad not only invokes racist stereotypes, but also relies on raising straw man arguments to justify his claims. Over and over, he asserts the usual specious argument that not all whites benefited from slavery. That is false: whites benefited as a nation.

But, his argument is legally irrelevant. Many Americans don't directly benefit from all national policies. But the arguments for reparations aren't made on the basis of whether every white person directly gained from slavery (just as the debts of a corporation don't depend on who it comprises). The arguments are made on the basis that the United States itself institutionalized slavery and protected it by law.

As the government is an entity that survives generations, its debts and obligations survive the lifespan of any particular individuals. As a citizen of the U.S., one not only enjoys the rights and privileges of citizenship, but also shares the debts and liabilities of the nation.

Present-day Americans cannot evade national debts by claiming they were incurred by, and only benefited, a prior generation. Thus, the moral debt arising from 350 years of free, forced, brutal labor and practically free "Jim Crow" bitter labor from millions of blacks - barely ending in the 1960's - is an obligation the U.S. cannot ignore.

Nor can the U.S. evade a moral debt merely because the direct victims have died. The descendents of slavery have inherited a right to some meaningful form of restitution, because they still greatly inherit its adverse legacy.

No government would make the descendents of each beneficiary pay the descendents of each victim for even an inhumane national policy whose detriment still exists. Thus, governments make restitution to victims as a group or class.  This is a debt that was once promised but soon abandoned by the U.S.

Finally, Horowitz was forced to admit that the First Amendment does not require any newspaper to accept a paid ad. But newspapers should have moral standards below which they would reject any ad, especially an incendiary publicity stunt. The First Amendment does, however, allow a newspaper to express regret, upon reflection, for printing a self-promoting, morally obscene ad.

The fact that the Daily Californian, Chancellor Berdahl, the Brown Daily Herald, Brown University President Blumstein, and many white students don't recognize just how racist the ad was is shocking.

By Joseph Anderson <joseph_one@hotmail.com

Joseph Anderson is a resident of Berkeley, CA, and a member of the National Council for African American Men.

***

April 9, 2001

SLAVERY, RACIST VIOLENCE, AND APARTHEID:

THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS

“I may state to all our friends, and to all our enemies, that we has a right to the land where we are located. For why? I tell you. Our wives, our children, our husbands, has been sold over and over again to purchase the lands we now locate upon; for that reason we have a divine right to the land. And den didn't we clear the lands and raise the crops of corn, ob cotton, ob tobacco, ob rice, ob sugar, ob everything? And den didn't the large cities in de North grow up on de cotton and de sugars and de rice dat we made? . . .”

I say they have grown rich, and my people is poor.

--Bayley Wyatt, a freedman from Yorktown, Virginia in Roy

  Finkenbine (ed.), Sources of the African-American Past

  (London: Longman, 1993), p. 88.

Neoconservative activist David Horowitz's anti-reparations advertisement has provoked a storm of controversy on college campuses from Maine to California. In the wake of multiracial student protests, many university newspapers have rightfully refused to run Horowitz's factually challenged ad. Despite his intentions, David Horowitz has helped move the issue of reparations for African Americans into the headlines and the consciousness of the American public. Although mainstream talk shows have merely provided Horowitz with a friendly forum in which to reiterate his simplistic and contradictory rant, his ad and appearances have reenergized student activism.

Ten Reasons why African Americans Deserve Reparations

To understand what's at stake requires we contextualize and thoroughly analyze Horowitz's "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks Are a Bad Idea for Blacks -- and Racist Too." It was first published as part of The Death of the Civil Rights Movement (Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 2000). Death is a diatribe against Rev. Al Sharpton's "Redeem the Dream" March to end racial profiling.  Consequently, Death is a vociferous attack on Black activists and a fevered defense of racial profiling. For instance, Horowitz interprets Attorney Johnnie Cochran's encouraging Blacks to join juries, as racist. Horowitz snidely sums up Cochran's point as "Get it, Whitey?" (P. 9).  Knowing his audience facilitates unmasking his motivations. Horowitz's purpose is to spark racial hostility, to mobilize opposition to the elimination of discriminatory policies and practices. Thus, "Ten Reasons" first appeared as part of a pro-racial profiling pamphlet.

Horowitz's real purpose is to promote the notion that race, by which he means racism is dead. From this perverted position, he logically concludes that contemporary Black activism is unnecessary. Therefore, he portrays activists as self-serving con artists and the African American people as their dupes. In Horowitz's color-blind perspective, group parity is irrelevant, because race is a fiction. He wants the public to believe that because race is an unscientific concept that it is also a non-existent social reality.

Horowitz is the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing. He is the prototypical color-blind liberal or neoconservative who would abolish the race concept, that is all racial classification; but would maintain the system and social relations produced by racial oppression.

As important, if not more so, is the moment during which Horowitz escalated his anti-reparations assault. Over the past few years, activists have pushed reparations to the center of discourse in the African American community.  Moreover, it has recently burst into traditional politics.  Several city councils, including Chicago, Dallas, and Detroit have passed pro-reparation resolutions. According to Horowitz, he launched his latest salvo because reparations "is fast becoming the next big `civil rights' thing" (p. 30).

Horowitz frames his anti-reparations argument in the form of questions or assertions and responses. His opinions are devoid of data and deficient in historical evidence. Because they lack validity, his responses never rise to the level of "answers." What are Horowitz's specific arguments against African American reparations? The titles in the advertisement often differ from those in Death. Whereas the pamphlet targeted the racist right, the ad aimed for a mass audience; thus, Horowitz sanitized it of its more explicitly inflammatory titles. Consequently, because the titles in Death are generally more revealing of his racist motivations I have chosen to use them. Nevertheless, I engage his responses in both Death and the advertisement.

1. Who Owes the Debt?

Horowitz claims "There is no single group clearly responsible for the crime of slavery" because of African and Arab involvement in the slave trade and 3,000 African American slaveholders. The problems with his presentation here pervades the rest of his discussion. This time his information is generally accurate but stripped from its socio-historical and legal context, and the power relations of the slave(ry) trade its trivia, at best, and duplicitous, at worst. That is, without the context we do not know what this information means and when contextualized it generally does not mean what Horowitz implies. Scholars of the slave trade generally acknowledge the role of power relations as a coercive factor stimulating African participation. As Walter Rodney pointed out in his classic text, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Europeans controlled the international slave trade. Without excusing the role of kings and other African elites, their involvement must be understood in the context of actual power relations.

Another example of how decontextualization distorts history is his discussion of Black slaveholders. First, according to census of 1830 there 3,777 Black slave owners, not 3,000 as Horowitz states (Christian, 1999, p. 100). Amazingly, his facts are wrong, even when they bolster his position! Nevertheless, the existence of 3,777 Black slaveholders is meaningless without knowing the total number of slaveholders. In 1850 there were 348,000 slave holding families (the Census Bureau collected the data on families, not individuals). Thus, the 3,777 Black slaveholders comprised only about one percent of slaveholding families! Second, African American slave owners were a statistical reality that tells us nothing about actual relationships. Although many Black slave owners held others in bondage, that is they asserted rights of ownership and exploited slave labor, most did not. Most so-called Black slave owners are a statistical phenomenon. They were people of some means who purchased family and friends from bondage, but never imposed master-slave relationships.

Even given the role of Africans, Arabs, and African Americans Horowitz's conclusion is deceptive. He offers a negative conclusion, "no single group is responsible"; yet, this scenario cries out for a positive one, i.e., that several groups were responsible. Moreover, the participation of multiple ethnicities does not mean that all participated or benefited equally. Furthermore, African Americans seek recompense from the only governmental entity still in existence the United States, their government.

2. African Americans Have also Benefited from Slavery

Horowitz makes two comparative claims here. First, he argues that if the present wealth of the United States resulted from slavery, then African Americans, as well as whites are

beneficiaries of enslavement. Second, he offers an estimate of the difference between African Americans' and Africans' per capita incomes as evidence that African Americans

benefited from slavery.

First, he proceeds as if wealth accumulation produces positive impacts across society. This illogical argument suggests that slaves of wealthy masters were better off than the slaves of poor ones. Relationships of domination and exploitation are parasitic, not mutually beneficial. That is, the slave trade and slavery enriched European nation- states and the U.S. (particularly the class of slaveholders, slave trading merchants and manufacturers) but impoverished Africans and African Americans. Horowitz can only make this argument in the abstract. Actual data reveals that African Americas' percentage of U.S. wealth has stayed roughly the same, about one percent since the ante-bellum period.  Furthermore, he limits his discussion of "benefits" to a narrow economic argument. Thus, he circumvents discussing the effects of racial oppression, particularly racist violence in producing stressors that undermine Blacks' physical and psychological health.

His second assertion is also ahistorical and represents a false comparison. It is ahistorical because he ignores the role of five centuries of slave trading and colonialism in producing contemporary African poverty. Secondly, comparing the per capita income of African Americans to various African nationalities is spurious because of the vast differences in the gross national product of African nation-states and the U.S. This difference is largely the consequence of the slave trade and colonialism.

3. What About the Descendants of Union Soldiers Who Gave Their Lives To Free the Slaves?

Here Horowitz makes three assertions. First, he contends only a minority of whites nationally owned slaves. Second, he claims only one in five whites in the ante-bellum South was a slaveholder. Third, he posits that 350,000 Union soldiers "died in the war that freed the slaves" (p. 35).  His first claim is correct; nationally, only a minority of U.S. families owned slaves. In 1790 23 percent of the U.S. families owned slaves and only 10 percent in 1850. However, his second claim is a blatant lie. In 1790 72 percent of southern families owned slaves. In 1850, in the South Atlantic and the East Central sub regions, 31 and 32 percent of families owned slaves (Census Bureau, 1979, p. 12)

In his third declaration, Horowitz deliberately misleads the reader by blurring the issue. Three hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers died in the Civil War and the war did precipitate slavery's abolition, but it was not fought to abolish slavery. The North fought to preserve the Union. It only became a war to end slavery when Lincoln realized that victory necessitated destroying the Confederacy's capacity to wage war, that is removing its most productive resource, Black slaves.

4. Most Whites Have No Connection to Slavery

Horowitz's main contention is that most contemporary U.S. citizens do not have a "lineal connection to slavery" (p. 35). His argument here is quite devious. First, he uses the ambiguity inherent in term "lineal" to manipulate the reader. Second, he cynically attempts to pit African Americans against recent immigrants of color and other oppressed ethnicities. Although Horowitz means a straight line for many readers lineal suggests a heredity relationship. Of course, most Americans are not biological descendants of slaveholders, but all white Americans have benefited from the legacy of racial oppression – white privilege and Black exploitation, exclusion and subordination. Planters, small slaveholders, and capitalist manufacturers, exporters, investors, and insurers of slave produced products benefited from the exploitation of slave labor. During the century from 1865 to 1965 the same groups, plus industrial capitalists benefited from the superexploitation of Black labor.

Third, he limits reparations to compensation for slavery. It is on this basis that he argues post-slavery immigrants are not liable for reparations. Although post slavery European immigrants were brutally exploited and endured ethnic discrimination, like the Irish and Germans before them they expressed their rage by replicating their treatment on Blacks. Even so, by World War II the Italians, Hungarians Greeks, and Poles had become "white" and have since enjoyed the full benefits of whiteness in a white supremacist country. Whether native or immigrant the vast majority of white middle and working class Americans, have benefited from the exclusion of Blacks from professional and civil service jobs, unions, and governmental programs. For instance, African Americans were denied the opportunity to participate in the 1962 Homestead Act that transferred hundreds of millions of acres to white citizens and European immigrants. Additionally, Blacks were practically excluded from the 1935 Social Security Act because almost all worked as farm laborers or domestics. Furthermore, from the 1940s to the early 1960s white homebuyers obtained low interest Federal Housing Authority loans, a program from which Blacks were excluded. Finally, as governmental data indicates whites continue to benefit from racial discrimination in employment, loans, housing, and healthcare. Consequently, activists demand reparations not just for enslavement, but for exclusion, discrimination, and the racial violence that characterized the era of segregation as well for contemporary disparities.

Finally, his argument here implicitly his contradicts the position presented in point two. There he argues that if the United States' wealth was partly created by slave labor, then African Americans, as inheritors of U.S. wealth, are also beneficiaries of slave-produced wealth. If he were right, wouldn't this situation also apply to all persons living in the U.S., including white Americans?

5. The Cases of Jewish and Japanese Reparations Are Not Comparable And Therefore Do Not Provide Precedents

Horowitz dismisses African Americans' reparation claims because unlike Jews and Japanese-Americans, he contends Blacks are not survivors of the wrongs for which they seek retribution. He frames his argument in what legal scholar Eric K. Yamamoto calls "traditional remedies law," which seeks to identify specific individual victims and abusers

(Yamamoto, 1998, p. 488). However, Black demands for reparations are based on group, not individual rights.

From about 1641 to 1965, federal and state law classified individuals by race and distinguished rights and opportunities on that basis. Group membership, not individual merit, determined one's role, position, and status in the economy, polity, and civil society. Individuals assigned to the African category were treated as a separate and subordinate group.

Moreover, since the establishment of the Indian Claims Commission in 1946, the U.S. federal government and numerous state governments have paid reparations to persons other than survivors or their immediate descendants. During the 1980s several Native American nations have received reparations in form of money and land for actions a century or more ago. For instance, in 1986 the Ottawas of Michigan received $32 million based on an 1836 Treaty.

6. What About Successful Blacks? What Is Their Economic Grievance?

Horowitz's major assertion is that slavery and subsequent racial discrimination were either non-existent or have been insufficient barriers to success. He makes this point by contrasting the Black middle class, which he claims composes the majority of African Americans, and West Indian immigrants to the so-called "underclass." Except the disparities between African Americans' and West Indians' incomes, his assertions are unsupported. Moreover, his logic and conclusions are absurd.

First, the minority of African Americans who attained middle class position, have generally done so by taking advantage of the fleeting opportunities available in the aftermath of successful collective Black struggles. Members of those classes best positioned previously have made the most advances. Moreover, that members of the Black middle and capitalist classes suffer racial discrimination is widely documented in past and current employment, housing, and loan discrimination suits. Horowitz's attempt to use Oprah Winfrey and the few wealthy Blacks to shift attention from racism to class is dishonest and malevolent. He alleges that contemporary Black-white income disparities are the consequence of "individual character" (p. 39). To blame most Blacks for not surmounting racism is analogous to questioning the character of victims of the holocaust because a few Jews managed to escape! In addition to his racism, Horowitz's central problem is his refusal to recognize that social groups (racial, ethnic, gender, class, etc.) are the organizing principle of human societies.

If the question is historic group-based disparities, why rely on income rather than wealth? The wealth index measures accumulated assets over a lifetime, instead of one year's monetary returns. Currently, the median net wealth of Black households is about 12% that of whites; but only 1% if home equity is deducted. This is extremely important since Blacks were initially excluded from government sponsored homeownership programs. Furthermore, that much of this discrepancy is due to inheritance underlines the historic accumulative nature of African American poverty.

On the surface, his comparison between West Indian immigrants and African Americans seems to have merit. Yet, a closer analysis reveals the spuriousness of this comparison.

Horowitz's discussion is ahistorical and superficial. He implicitly treats all slave systems the same. West Indian immigrants are the descendants of slaves, but they come slave systems that differed markedly from U.S. slavery.  Because African slaves greatly outnumbered whites in the West Indies, the white working and yeoman farming classes were minute; therefore a large number of slaves acquired valuable skills. More important, most contemporary Caribbean immigrants are the products of independent countries and were socialized in societies controlled by people of African descent.

7. Reparations Will Increase Victim Mentalities, Negative Attitudes and Alienation Within the Black Community

First, Horowitz has it backwards. The Black struggle for justice, freedom, and self-determination, including reparations is empowering. Participation in the struggle produces cognitive liberation, self-esteem, and a sense of efficacy. Do all reparations create a "victim mentality, or just reparations to African Americans? What is a victim mentality? Is it recognition that Blacks have been and continue to be victimized by racial oppression? Recognition is the first step toward resolution. The problem is not that Blacks possess a negative victim mentality, but that Horowitz has a "blame-the-victim" mentality. He is unwilling to honestly acknowledge the centuries of racial oppression to which African Americans have been subjected by white Americans.

8. What About the Reparations That Have Already Been Paid?

Horowitz's contention that inclusion in Great Society social programs should count as reparations is absurd. He simply ignores the multiple roles social programs play in U.S. society. On the one hand, Great Society initiated programs were ostensibly designed to abolish poverty. Programs, such as AFDC and food stamps, were class-determined minimum subsistence programs. Whites have made up the overwhelming majority of aid recipients, and the proportion of African Americans has been disproportionate. Nevertheless, Horowitz's discussion rips them from their broader public policy context. Great Society programs were part of Keynesian economics, the country's policy of using governmental spending to stimulate economic growth -- employment and consumption. In addition to increasing levels of purchasing, these programs also created well paying government jobs for a predominately white middle class. On the other hand, some programs were designed specifically to address discrimination, racial, gender, ethnic, and religious. No government program has sought to solely benefit Blacks. Moreover, white women and white men over fifty-five, not Blacks, have been the major beneficiaries of affirmative action.

9. What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America?

He continues to falsify history, here by distorting the history of the abolition movement, in both the U.S. and Britain. Two points are important:

(1)   his denial of Black agency; and

(2)   his crude one-sided interpretation of abolitionism, particularly in Britain.

African slaves and quasi-free Blacks initiated the abolition movement. Horowitz omits any discussion of Black self-activity because his goal is to present African Americans as indebted, ungrateful children. Therefore, he mentions 3,000 Black slaveholders, but omits thousands of Black abolitionists, 186,000 Black Union soldiers, and numerous slave revolts for his account.

Continuing his Manichean view of history, he presents the British Anti-Slavery Movement as simply an exercise in humanism. He simply extends his argument concerning Union soldiers and Christian abolitionists in the U.S. to Britain. In reality, the British anti-slavery movement was a mixture of humanitarians and imperialists. More important, British abolitionism drew its impetus from a complex mixture of humanist sentiments, economic motivations, and fear of slave rebellions. Horowitz misses these nuances because his purpose is to exaggerate white humanitarianism and deny Black agency. Thus, he denigrates the life and death struggle waged by African Americans throughout U.S. history by calling hard-won rights gifts. In sum, this argument approximates those who called for compensation for the slaveholders!

10. Blacks are Virtually the Oldest Americans, Why Not Embrace Their American Destiny

His last assertions are as duplicitous and dumb as those that precede them. Essentially, he reiterates the tired assimilation’s position. Consequently, he charges that pursuing reparations will only further isolate American Americans. First, as always he blames the oppressed for conditions created by the oppressor. Black isolation, geographically, socially, and politically is a consequence of white capitalist created ghettoization, ostracism, and racism.

Horowitz's one-sided analysis obscures the potentially positive aspects of reparations. Beginning with Presidential and congressional apologies (Congress apologized to Japanese-Americans in 1988 and to Hawaiians in 1993) the U.S. government and white Americans can initiate a sincere conversation on racial oppression. Finally, the payment of several hundred billion dollars in reparations would ultimately benefit all Americans. Reparations would enable the rebuilding of Black civil society, the transformation of inner city ghettoes, the rebuilding of urban infrastructure, and go along way toward eliminating poverty. Reparations represent a way to repair the past, a means "to rebuild relationships through attitudinal changes and institutional restructuring" (Yamamoto, p. 521).

Conclusion

Horowitz's argument is redundant, racist, ahistorical, and manipulative. In his zeal to discipline Blacks for challenging U.S. reality and for rejecting the hypocritical America dream, Horowitz fails to consider the debt America owes Blacks. Beyond apologies and the transfer of billions of resources for past and present oppression, the U.S., especially white Americans owe African Americans for forcing it toward its noblest ideals. The Black Freedom Movement has been at the crux of every progressive social change in the nation's history. African Americans have been the most thorough and determined fighters in the struggle to expand democracy and socioeconomic security beyond white male elites. The Black Freedom Movement has served as the inspiration and model for the new social movements that are challenging the nightmare. Horowitz wants to bury this legacy and possibility. Yet, ironically his actions have produced the opposite effect. His diatribe has energized a nascent Black student movement and transformed college campuses into sites of struggle. Furthermore, his ad has forced the mainstream media to remove the shroud covering the struggle for reparations, thus making audible the claims of our ancestors.

By Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua <schajua@aol.com

Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua is an Associate Professor of Historical Studies at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and a member of the National Council of the Black Radical Congress. 

References

Marcellus Andrews, Political Economy Of Hope And Fear: Capitalism And The Black Condition In America (New York: New York University Press, 1999),

Ronald Bailey, "The Slave(ry) Trade." Journal of Social Science History, 14: 3 (Fall 1990), pp. 373-414.

Roy L. Brooks (ed.), When Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice (New York: New York University Press, 1999).

Bureau of the Census, The Special and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States: An Historical View, 1790-1978 (Washington, D.C., Department of Commerce, 1979).

Charles M. Christian, Black saga: The African American Experience (A Chronology) Washington, D.C.: Civitas, 1999).

Edward Countryman, Americans: A Collision of Histories (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997).

Seymour Drescher, Capitalism and Anti-Slavery: British Mobilization in Comparative Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, 8th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Roy Finkenbine (ed.), Sources of the African-American Past (London: Longman, 1997).

C.L.R. James, "The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery: Some Interpretations of their Significance in the Development of the United States and the Western World," in C.L.R. James, The Future in the Present: Selected Writings (Westport, CN: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1977), pp. 235-64.

Edward Magdol, A Right to the Land: Essays on the Freedman's Community (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977), Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane, "The Political Economy of the Black World: Origins of the Present Crisis," in African Sociology-Towards a Critical Perspective: The Collected essays of Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000), pp. 405-21.

Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969).

Roger L. Ransom, Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1981).

Herbert Shapiro, White Violence and Black Response (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988).

Robert Westley, "Many Billions Gone: Is It Time to Reconsider the Case for Black Reparations," Boston College Law Review 40 (December 1998), pp. 429-76.

Eric K. Yamamoto, "Racial Reparations: Japanese Americans Redress and African American Claims," Boston College Law Review 40 (December 1998), pp. 477-523.

***

HOW  DESPERATE  CAN  THEY  GET? 

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

I just read a piece a friend forwarded to me written by a White person who opposes African Reparations. In fact, it was clear from the article that he is a European Jew. I am not making a point of who the writer is because I want to place principles before personality. I might also say that some of my best friends are European Jews. But we also need to place historical social issues before personal friendships. Some of my negro friends have trouble doing this very thing.

Typically there is an attempt to deny the African identity of the builders of the Pyramids. What the writer in discussion did is to concede that the builders of the Pyramids are African, and unfortunately I also must go on to say that he was clear that they are Black Africans. Too bad we gotta go through that little explanation too. But he made this concession in order to make the following assertion.

You may have noticed yourself that in some of the pictures on the walls of the Pyramids you will see long columns of Whites being led by an African, yes, a Black African. Well, the writer was attempting to make a case for the notion that Black Africans owe European Jews Reparations based upon the idea of there being no Statute of Limitation on Human Rights violations. So, the writer asserts, since you African Reparations activists are making so much of an ado about there being no Statute of Limitation so you still have a claim, so what about the Jews in the Exodus enslaved by Africans, you know Rameses II, black as 10,000 midnights? You owe us! There is no Statute of Limitation.

Unfortunately, the writer's history is incorrect, and he is out of context. European Jews were not a part of the historical scene at the time that the Whites seen in single file were in slavery under us. These were not European Jews but the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, an Asiatic White People who attacked Africa in about 1675 B.C. and, having been defeated, fell into slavery. The writer makes a big point of the repeated attacks against these Whites by Queen Hatshepsut's brother, Thutmose. But Thutmose's military campaign was in response to White Asiatic aggression, the Hyksos.

But, alas, European Jews have been able to convince most of the world that they WERE in this historical period. Yet there was no such thing as Greece until about 500 B.C., so you had European Jews in Africa in 1675 B.C.? Give me a break!

At any rate, even if they were in Africa, their enslavement was the result of their own criminal attack against African People, hence a natural and just consequence. We would owe them no Reparations for that.  But how desperate can they get?

Can't you see we winnin' this thing folks!

Get involved !

By Omowale Za,

African Reparations Activist

E-Mail:  Wewinnin@juno.com

*********

*****MARK YOUR CALENDAR OF EVENTS*****

SUNDAY REPARATIONS MEETINGS

Muhammad Mosque of Islam in Boston, Massachusetts invites you to attend weekly meetings each Sunday at the Dillaway located at:

      183 Roxbury Street

      Roxbury, Massachusetts

      (Next to the Timilty School, in Roxbury)

Meetings start at 2:00 PM, but on the last Sunday of the month we start at 1:00 PM. 

For more information and to schedule free lectures on Reparations at your church, school, business or organization, feel welcome to telephone Minister Malik Al-Arkam at (617) 770-2017. 

In April 2001, the Honorable Silis Muhammad will again be traveling to Geneva, Switzerland to testify before the U.N. Human Rights Commission on behalf of 40 million oppressed African-Americans.

*********

FREE THE MIND... FREE THE PEOPLE... FREE THE LAND

THE  NATIONAL  COALITION  OF  BLACKS  FOR

REPARATIONS  IN  AMERICA  (N’COBRA)

*********

May 5, 2001

Saturday


ANNOUNCEMENT


AN AFRICAN AMERICAN NATIONAL PREPARATORY MEETING FOR

THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (UN WCAR)

CONFERENCE ORGANIZER:

Jewel L. Crawford, MD,

Chairperson, Atlanta Ad Hoc Committee for the UN WCAR

P.O. BOX 1675

Lithonia, Georgia 30058

(877) 677-7625 Fax: (770) 981-1856

Web: www.geocities.com/atladhoccomm/

CONTACT INFORMATION:       

Jewel L. Crawford, MD, Chairperson

Vynnie Burse, Co-chair vynnie2@aol.com

Gene R. Stephenson, II, Co-chair itsheavy@hotmail.com

TIME:                           9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

LOCATION:              Renaissance Hotel

590 West Peachtree Street, NW

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

PURPOSE OF THE MAY 5, MEETING:

On May 5, 2001 an unprecedented, historic gathering of African Americans will convene in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of this meeting is:

1) To inform ALL AFRICAN AMERICANS and associated organizations about the WCAR;

2) To provide an opportunity for African American non-government organizations (NGOs) to learn how they can become accredited to attend official UN meetings and have input on matters pertinent to the African American community;

3) To review and respond to the Declaration of the African NGO Forum produced at the recent African Regional Preparatory Conference of NGOs in Dakar, Senegal;

4) To include African Americans in the preparatory process that will begin to redress our present and historical grievances in an assembly of the nations of the world;

5) To discuss and document the impact of racism in all aspects of our lives;

6) To make concrete, action-oriented recommendations to the UN for provisions to be enacted and enforced to combat all forms of racism; and

7) To affirm the right of the descendants of the victims of the African slave trade to just and fair compensatory measures for the suffering they and their ancestors have endured.

(See full advertisement of this meeting above.)

*********

May 19, 2001

BLACK HUMAN RIGHTS DAY/ MARCH  AT THE UNITED NATIONS IN

CELEBRATION OF MALCOLM X'S BIRTHDAY

*********

June 22 - 24, 2001

N’COBRA 12th ANNUAL CONVENTION

                                                                       

National Co-Chairs: Dorothy Benton Lewis and Hannibal Tirus Afrik

Location:      Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Site:               Southern University

Theme: "Positioning Ourselves To Get Paid"

           

Convention Contacts:     

Constance Randolph   (225) 237-3065

   Rev. Carlton " Bahiri" White (225) 778-1561

Early Registration:            

Before February 25th :          $ 60.00

  After  February 25th :           $ 75.00 Until June 1st                                                                                         Thereafter :        $ 90

Convention registration includes:

Program book, convention T-Shirt,  EN’COBRA Magazine, membership dues, admission to all convention events, including a tour of the River Rd. African American Museum in Gonzales. 

Make Check or Money Order payable to:  N’COBRA and mail to:  

P.O. Box 75437 *

Baton Rouge, LA   70874-5437.

Suggested Hotel Accommodations:

The New Comfort Suites Airport:  Call (225) 356-6500 - Mention N’COBRA Convention

Vendors, workshop panelist / leaders, performers, etc. are Welcome.  Call for arrangements. 

PLEASE SEE REPNOW NEWSLETTER #15 FOR MORE DETAILS.

*********

August 31, 2001 - September 7, 2001

THE LEGACY OF THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

AND

THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM

The December 12th Movement, based in New York, and The National Black United Front (NBUF) are co-sponsoring a Black Power conference in support of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism. 

The United Nations World Conference Against Racism will be held in Durbin, South Africa from August 31, 2001 - September 7, 2001.

By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill

***


YOU MUST BE IN SOUTH AFRICA NEXT AUGUST 2001!

To All Concerned African People:

The United Nations' World Conference against Racism begins August 31, 2001 in Durban, South Africa.  The December 12th Movement International Secretariat is seeking you to be a part of the Delegation of 400 African people to South Africa in support of two crucial issues:

1) Declaration of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as a Crime against      Humanity

2) Reparations for Africans in the Diaspora and on the Continent.
   

Malcolm X said that we must put our situation on the international agenda, in the international arena.  We must be there in a massive presence to defend our human rights.


Join us, if you want to go to Durban in support of these issues. The application is included in the text of this message, as well as an attached document in .rtf format.

Costs:
We estimate that the total cost for the trip (the Conference is from August 31, to September 7), i.e., travel, lodging and meals, will be approximately $2500.  If you are planning to go we need a deposit of $250.00 immediately.

We, along with the National Black United Front, are working with a Black Travel Agency based in Chicago which has already made airline travel arrangements to and reserved blocks of hotel rooms in Durban. Your check or money order should be made out to AARCO TRAVEL AND TOURS and should be sent to the:


December 12th Movement
456 Nostrand Avenue
Brooklyn,  NY 11216

For more information on the World Conference against Racism and the struggle to defend the human rights of African people, contact us at:


Telephone #718-398-1766
Fax #623-1855
E-mail:  Error! Bookmark not defined.


IF YOU WISH TO GO TO SOUTH AFRICA, PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW.

APPLICATION FORM FOR THE DURBAN 400

NAME:

ADDRESS

PHONE :

FAX:

E-MAIL:

ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATION (if any):


YES: I want to be a member of the Durban 400.  Enclosed is my check in the
amount of $_______________.


_____________________________________________________________
NAME

*********

October 19/20, 2001

PHILOSOPHY BORN OF STRUGGLE CONFERENCE ON

RACE, REPARATIONS, AND RESTITUTION

Place:  Brown University

            CONTACT:

 J. Everet Green

HUMANITAS 3000

37 Old Oregon Road

Cortlandt Manor

New York, New York  10567

*********

November 28 – December 2, 2001

THE “STATE OF THE BLACK WORLD” CONFERENCE

Convenes in Atlanta November 28 – December 2, 2001 at the Georgia International Convention Center.

"A set of goals and objectives have been outlined," he said. "We hope to identify, analyze and discuss the critical crises and issues facing Black people.  We also hope to provide some sort of leadership and skill development training to enhance our collective capacity to engage the struggle for liberation."

"Our agenda also includes discussion of meaningful definitions of liberation and reconstruction, intensifying the global movement for reparations and working towards the convening of an International Black Arts and Cultural Festival,"

For more information, call 1-866-ATL-SOBW or visit www.TBWT.com

*********

FROM:           RHazard988

     TO:            KAfrica33

   RE:                   REPARATIONS

I applaud the SADA movement and its interest in organizing the Afrikan Community in america around our many serious issue for self determination.  However, I disagree with the "DISORGANIZED LEADERLESS implications in the statement below. 

The NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACKS for REPARATIONS IN AMERICA (N’COBRA) has been in the forefront and leadership roll of developing a plan and national strategy to win the reparations demanded by Afrikans in america for hundreds of years.  N’COBRA was organized in 1988-'89 with the sole purpose of gaining our just payment for the work of our ancestors during the inhuman chattel slavery area and the vestiges of slavery since.  We have conducted surveys, elected (by plebiscite) an Economic Development Congress, demonstrated for passing HR#40, introduced six down payment demands, established working commissions, prepared a legal suite.  In doing all this we have tapped into the greatest minds of the Black community and touched the mass's in such away that REPARATIONS is becoming a house hold word.   Over the last decade we have met with many individuals who are: integrationist, nationalist, separatist, national/locale organizations, church groups, fraternal organizations, political parties, in locale communities and at national conferences and conventions.  In fact N’COBRA will hold its 12th. national convention June 22-24 in Baton Rouge, La. on the campus of Southern University.   "WE" don’t believe it will take "generations of UNITED FRONT to pressure for its payment."   If SADA is truly suggesting Afrikans in america to "organize themselves into a cohesive force with a LEADER who can (does) represent us," I recommend strongly that SADA join N’COBRA and attend the June Convention and work closely with the oldest, strongest, largest, leading coalition of organization in america.  Afrikans in this country are working delegently toward obtaining REPARATIONS in america.   N’COBRA is the leading REPARATIONS organization representing both individuals and organizations struggling to enhance the lives of black americans both here and abroad.   SADA must join forces with the mass's and support the current leadership in the reparations movement.  If you are among the few in the reparations movement who does not know of N’COBRA.   Please visit our website <<www.N’COBRA.com.  We don’t need to start a new organization or replace the best known advocates for reparations in this country.   We as Afrikans in america must come together to stand by our dedicated leaders and free our minds.

Free our people...... free the land......

Robert Hazard N’COBRA SE Regional Representative

***

KAfrica33 asks:

My question to your presentation is; how will any reparations funds be  distributed? Who will be legible to receive any such funds?

THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA (SADA) AFRICANIZATION SOCIETY says the concept of reparation due to the Africans is a very simple one, it is a real issue for the Europeans to respond, BUT, unfortunately, the DISORGANIZED LEADERLESS of the Africans and the ways we Africans are approaching the issue is going to take generations of UNITED FRONT to pressure for its payment, or its solution.  Africans are Afraid to organize themselves into a cohesive force with a LEADER who can represent us.   We in SADA are proposing that either a new organization be formed to take care of our needy people instead of depending upon EVERY BODY ELSE BUT US to care for our poor people, or SADA be accepted as the African organization to deal with the solution to our problems GOD BLESS AFRICANS:

FORWARD EVER BACKWARD NEVER:  AFRICANS MUST UNITE

Kofi

*********

"Power never conceded without a demand, it never did and never will - where there is no struggle, there is no progress."   F. Douglas

 BECOME A MEMEBER OF N'COBRA. Visit us at www.N’COBRA.com, write the national headquarters at:

P.O. Box 62622

Washington. D.C. 20029-2622

E-mail me for further information about the WCAR at onajemuid4@cs.com or write:

Onaje Mu'id

P.O. Box 8003

Englewood, NJ  07631.

 *Onaje Mu'id is a human rights activist with the International Commissioner of N'COBRA and Policy Chair of the National Black Alcoholisms and Addiction Council-New York Chapter and Ndundu member of the Council of Independent Black Institutions.

*********

BOOK LISTINGS

The book listing on Reparations and Black History can be found in REPNOW Newsletters 1 - 5.

WE SHALL WIN THIS WAR!

Imari A. Obadele

*********

“Without Sanctuary”

The web address for Without Sanctuary” is listed in the REPNOW Newsletter #13.

Please pass this information on to others for it is out of…

AMERICA'S SHAME: CONTEMPT & THE LYNCHINGS

James Allen’s photos on the lynchings of Blacks in America

*********

E-mail Addresses & WebSites On Reparations, Black Issues, and Current Events:

UNFORTUNATELY FOR SOME REASON, I KEPT GETTING “Error!  Bookmark not defined” FOR ALL THE WEBSITES THAT WERE LISTED, SO I HAD TO ELIMINATE THEM FROM THIS NEWSLETTER.  However, please see the complete list of WebSites in the REPNOW Issue #13.  If someone knows how to remedy this problem, so that I can retain the Website addresses, please advise.

Tziona Yisrael, Editor

*********

Hotep,

I am Gregory Carey, Founder and President of Reparations Central, an online reparations searchable database. We would like for you to view our website that is in the development stage at http://www.reparationscentral.com

We are also attempting to unify and centralize the reparations movement. We are looking for other organizations that are doing reparations work to put on our website. Also, we are asking every organization to consider putting an audio/video presentation on our website. This website is the hub of the reparations movement worldwide. We need your support and help to make this reparations clearinghouse a successful venture.

In Struggle,

Aluta Continua Asante Sana

*********

HOW CAN I SUPPORT THE REPARATIONS MASS MOVEMENT?

1.)  I suggest that you approach the city in which you reside for reparations, support for reparations, or information as to how to obtain reparations.  Your strategy may be a model we all may benefit from at the local level.

2.) Next, demonstrate your willingness to join others in the struggle for reparations.

3.)  I would hope that you join or start an N’COBRA chapter in your locale area (if there is none) and become an active and energetic member/reparations information resource, for your Afrikan brothers and sisters.

   

Submitted by R. Hazard, N’COBRA

*********

"Together We shall Win REPARATIONS NOW!!!"

Free Your Mind - Join N’COBRA.... Free The People.... Free The Land...

Robert Hazard

S.E. Regional Rep. N’COBRA

*********

"If you are thinking one year ahead, sow a seed.

if you thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.

If you thinking one hundred years ahead ...

educate the people."

A Manchurian Proverb

Compliments of Shakira A. Ali

*********

Up You Mighty Race; We Can Accomplish What We Will!!!! 

I Remain to Serve,

Senghor Baye

*********

Interesting Information of Significance and FYI:

Black Youth:  “The older generation could have prevented this…”  Hey, I told you so!

*

What is it going to take before Descendants of Slaves finally decide to do something about our predicament and the injustices we face?  Our children are suffering in every respect, and we have no legacy.  Let’s all become “Activists” in fighting for Reparations and our Human Rights, before our children start asking, to our chagrin, why we have permitted this unfairness and degradation to continue for so long.

Tziona Yisrael, Editor

REPNOW Newsletter

[www.thelawkeepers.org]

***

AFTER RIOTS IN CINCINNATI, BLACK YOUTHS DEMAND CHANGE

The recent riots in Cincinnati (started because of the April 7, shooting death of Timothy Thomas, 19, who was running from police because of traffic violations) just might be a prelude of what’s to come for this Nation and what’s necessary for us to make a statement and be heard.  Heck, we’ve got good reason to protest and demonstrate and about a lot of things.   The powers-that-be have no respect for our needs.  The voicing of injustices against us, our complaints about degradation, oppression, repression, and impoverishment, and our right to and requests for Reparations all fall on deaf ears.  Is rioting the only recourse to end this affliction troubling our people as a whole?  Accordingly, read what the youth in Cincinnati had to say about our Black leaders:

(T.Y., Editor)

“Dozens of black teenagers, emboldened by last week’s rioting, say the established community leaders don’t speak for them and they’re tired of being ignored.  The older generation could have prevented this,” said Derrick Blassingame, 14, president of the newly-formed Black Youth Coalition Against Civil Injustice.  “Our black leaders are not leading us.”  …The teenagers, speaking to about 300 people, blamed last week’s racial tension on police, the media and the black men considered their spokesmen.  “Some of our black leaders just want their faces on TV.  They are in this for four things only:  reputation, power, politics and money,” Blassingame said.

Some youth urged boycotts of white-owned businesses.  Others demanded punishment for Officer Steve Roach, who shot Thomas.

Jordan Times Newspaper (4/18/01)

www.jordantimes.com

***

Our youth are the wiser.  They are watching us, the older generation very closely to see what we will do for them - OUR PROGENY.  Our children are suffering in this Nation called “Good Ol’ US of A.  This place is only “Good” for White Folks, the truly privileged in this White World System.  Since the Emancipation Proclamation and since the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s have any worthwhile improvements been made in Education, Health Care, the job market/employment practices/Affirmative Action (or should I ask, What Affirmative Action), ghetto life, and justice for all???  

We’ve got to acquire these Reparations Funds and utilize our right to self-determination, re-educate our children, and build Black Communities where White Cops can’t and won’t kill our youth – be these Communities in or out of the United States – preferably out!  Don’t let us delude ourselves, as long as Blacks are based in Western societies, we will be controlled by them in one way or another.    

And if Black groups follow the dictates of White groups, Heaven help us, or should I say:  Heaven won’t help us!  It is imperative that we determine what’s right for Black Peoples and focus on our needs.  Only our most sincere and honest Black leaders with compassionate hearts to do right by our people can say with authority exactly what needs must be fulfilled to empower and improve the Black dilemma, not just in the USA but all over this globe.

Did I digress from the Cincinnati riot?  Not at all.  The Blacks in Cincinnati made a statement that is well worth our undivided attention.  I know and you know that if our Black youth are not going to jail, they are going to drugs, or going to the grave by authorized assassinations.  Racial profiling and modern-day lynchings are obviously not going away, therefore, which one of our children will be next??? 

So, what is the answer to our pain, suffering, and misery?  Unequivocally, we have got to acquire Reparations and spend the monies ever so wisely to get out of this abysmal hell and by all means necessary.  Right now, the people of Cincinnati have an opportune chance to lay Reparations on the municipal table and demand to be heard.  But will they?

“From here today, I foresee a day when we too shall get back our expropriated lands; I foresee a day when we too shall get compensation for our losses and our pains; I foresee a day when negrophobia and the conditions which foster it shall have vanished from the earth. But between now and that day, much work waits to be done. The most serious part of that work is the work of self rehabilitation. And so I say: "Black Soul, Heal Thyself, and all shall be restored to you".”

Professor Chinweizu

I hope you read Professor Chinweizu’s “complete” article (above).  It is most enlightening and extraordinary!  I pray that he is alive and well, as he will be very much needed when we receive Reparations!!!  No more can we permit corrupt leadership, Black or White, to give direction to Black Peoples.  Corrupt leadership works for the abusers  - not for those in need and not for the people as a whole.  

Tziona Yisrael, Editor

***

April 15, 2001

BOILING POINT IN THE GHETTO

Police have the streets of the Ohio city under control – for now. But the burial of one more black victim could spark a chain reaction.

The ghetto has not looked like this, they say, since the days after Martin Luther King was assassinated. Cincinnati's dark streets are ghostly and deserted; the only sounds are the wails of sirens in the mid-distance and the drone of helicopters casting their searchlight beams across the spectral slumscape.

The only movement is that of the State Troopers' grey patrol cars and white armoured vans full of helmeted riot police, more Blade Runner than a busy metropolis on the shores of the wide Ohio. The streets had emptied on Friday night as an 8pm curfew fell across the last golden sunlight.

Downtown, only the birds chirped and signs flapped as the last office workers hurried for their cars loaded up with take-out food. Only a few stragglers outside O'Byron's pub refused to believe this was happening on Good Friday.

In the ghetto, a church rally by the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People had ended abruptly to the anger of his audience. 'It wasn't enough time,' said one Dead Hawkins, 'We're going away mad.'

The NAACP's president Kweisi Mfume had clasped hands with the still dazed mother of the boy whose shooting by a police officer had provoked the scenes of only 18 hours earlier - another, more tumultuous, first for Cincinnati since 1967: fury and shooting, burning and looting which - after two nights of the usual tragic wreckage within the ghetto confines - had broken onto the white man's turf.

This time, the cops were charging for real and the crowd was shooting back - an officer was slightly wounded. This time, Swat teams were throwing up barricades and their snipers leaping over the rooftops. Every American riot tells a story, and on the surface it is the same: an incident undams years of tension between angry and poor black youths and a white police force stained by racism - whether in Cincinnati or its big cousins, Detroit and Chicago in the North, Los Angeles or Miami in the South.

Like its northern counterparts, Cincinnati's slums were once middle-class neighbourhoods into which white Appalachian hillbillies moved first, then sharecroppers from the plantations in the great migration north. Time was when blacks taking the trains south from Cincinnati's great Union Terminal would have to occupy segregated compartments, while those arriving would be traveling with the whites.

Cincinnati's ghetto is unique - indeed 'ghetto' is hardly the right term in an urban area that is 43 per cent black.  It is called Over-the-Rhine, a name explicable by the moulded lettering on the front of the church that towers over the place: 'Deutsche Protestantische St. Johannes-kirche. 1865' - now the Apostolic Bethlehem church.

The community was founded by German immigrants and is one of America's nineteenth-century urban wonders: buildings of a design made more famous in San Francisco, only of brick, adorned by iron thickets of fire escape ladders. The world has seen these streets in the movie Traffic, with all its familiar ghetto hallmarks - ubiquitous porn shops and a rough-and-tumble summer street life.

It was here that Timothy Thomas was raised and drove his 1978 Chevy around. Eleven times since March 2000 he had been stopped by police and cited for 12 offences, mostly driving without carrying his licence or not wearing a seatbelt. The core of the row that rages not only here but across the US is that Timothy was victim of what is politely called 'racial profiling' - that is, he was picked on because he was black.

Twice he ran from the police as they chased him and twice slipped the net, but the third time he died from a bullet fired by officer Steve Roach. He fell lifelessly outside an abandoned building in a little alleyway, number 1313 Republic Street, where the tributes are modest - bottles of wine or beer on his flagstone deathbed, and a placard: 'No seatbelt equals death.'

'It just goes on and on,' said Melvin Wills, hanging an arm out of his car at the corner of Republic and 13th. And so it does in Cincinnati, for it was not only Timothy's death that caused the rioting.

Eighteen black men and boys have been shot dead by the police in Over-the-Rhine since the start of last year – a concentration of police violence that outstrips any other US city. The Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, who marched with Martin Luther King from Birmingham to Selma in the great hike of the 1960s, remains a minister in Cincinnati, of the Greater New Light Baptist church.

He is now 79 but has been on the streets all week, sleepless. 'Race relations haven't changed very much since those days,' he ponders now. 'If anything, things are worse if everybody thinks they have changed yet, in reality, those changes are not every blood-vein deep - then the system never really changed.'

His hometown of Cincinnati, he says, 'has had time to change, but the whites have blocked progress and the police is more a prosecutor than a protector. The anger is justified but the violence is not. However, people will rebel if they don't see themselves progress. The riots happening now are the result of Cincinnati not responding to change.'

Although the mayor, Charlie Luken is no Rudy Giuliani and admits to 'a serious race relations problem', there are few northern cities in which blacks are so proportionately unrepresented in the police or government. While unemployment is minimal among whites at 2 per cent, it tops 20 per cent in Over-the-Rhine; in schools there is almost total segregation. Current census figures show Greater Cincinnati to be the eighth most segregated metropolitan region in the U.S. The city lost nearly 45,000 whites, leaving an urban area that is 43 per cent black with middle-class blacks also fleeing the slums around the city centre.

Another veteran who saw this coming is Cecil Thomas, who left the police to head the city's Human Relations Commission. He warned that Cincinnati was 'one questionable shooting away from riots,' and on Wednesday was one of a group of 20 who formed a human wedge between an advancing crowd of youths and columns of riot police just as the confrontation was about to blow, physically separating each side. Then the police advanced and a man called Larry Brenton shouted: 'We need to take this fucking city down!  I'm tired of getting up every morning and finding out someone else I knew has been murdered by the police.'

Uprisings invariably throw up leaders and in this case the figure is the Rev Damon Lynch. Whatever President George Bush intended by placing his trust in 'faith-based' leaders, it is unlikely he had people like Lynch in mind.  Pastor of the New Prospect Baptist Church in the heart of the ghetto, he wears a gold earring, was with Cecil Thomas in that human wedge, then stayed on the front lines of the demonstrations as police horses and then plastic bullets were unleashed across the boulevards around the ghetto.

The following day, outside his church office window, children played on swings in a scrappy playground as he prepared to host yesterday's funeral of Timothy Thomas. All afternoon his cell phone rang with calls about arrangements for the presence of the Governor and the Mayor – unsettled enough to make sure that they spent their Easter Saturday attending the last rites of a serial traffic offender. So too would a crowd of thousands on the streets outside the church - and the hundreds of riot police, unsure whether the precarious peace that had almost held since Wednesday's violence could last the weekend after the funeral.

'Is it consistent?' asks Pastor Lynch. 'We've had 15 young blacks killed by the police since 1995 and seven since November - I call that consistent. In every case except one the officer was white.' Cincinnati, he says, now incorporates, 'the worst of the North and the worst of the South. It's a southern town trying to be a northern metropolis and it's not. Racism here is worse than in the new South and the police come from within that culture from the west side of town where the blacks just don't go - they'd be lynched, it's not our town. There, they learn that African Americans are the scum of the earth - then they are sent here.'

What motivates Pastor Lynch - politics, faith, or what? 'It ain't politics,' he almost snaps. 'It's faith. It's my calling. It's what God asks of me.' He has a portrait of Martin Luther King on the wall and a Koran on the floor.  'This is Easter time,' he says, 'Today is Good Friday and we mourn. Tomorrow we bury the kid, and on Sunday we look for the resurrection of our community. Three days of Easter.'

A man called Chuck Walters walks in and says: 'Keep praying, brother, we're with you.' Later, outside with friends, he asks to see the pastor's list of 18 men killed since February 1995. He points at the name of Alfred Pope, shot dead in March last year. 'That's my stepson, found with 10 gunshot wounds in his back, handcuffed from behind in the surrender position. Can't count the time we went to City Hall looking for answers but we never got one. We're tired here, we're all tired. The cops' families come up here from Kentucky and the hills where all they can talk about is niggers. We're tired of being treated this a-way.'

On Good Friday evening, women and the elderly chatter on steps beneath the fire escapes while the men collect in groups to banter. The riot police vans prowl the little streets, and choppers fly low above the rooftops. There's a bar called the Race Cafi (on Race Street) where drinkers are squeezing in a last Schlitz before curfew. 'Maybe it'll blow,' ponders Cyril Harris, 85, who has seen it all, from Alabama to the riots last time around. 'Maybe it won't.'

By Ed Vulliamy <ed.vulliamy@observer.co.uk>

http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,473417,00.html

*********

WHY THE-POWERS-THAT-BE OWE US…BIG TIME!

“RACIST  PROFILING”

Historically, the intersection of race and law enforcement in the United                          States has been entrenched in the ideology of white supremacy.   Laws are written and carried out by whites and in the interest of whites.  Laws are in fact, an instrument used to determine the conditions of Black people.  For instance, Black folks have been enslaved by law, "emancipated" by law, disenfranchised by law and segregated by law.  Moreover, 19th century US slave codes created an entirely separate set of crimes and punishments that were not applicable to whites and punished enslaved Blacks more harshly for crimes committed against whites than against another black person.

Contemporary slave codes have manifested themselves in many different arenas, but none as prolific as in the nefarious domain of illicit narcotics. Despite the fact that this multi-billion dollar industry dictates international manufacturing and distribution mechanisms; law enforcement "profiles of drug dealers" sanctioned by the highest levels of the courts, undoubtedly contain the characteristic of dark skin or Black males residing in impoverished urban areas.  Therefore the police practice of detaining, harassing, illegally searching, arresting, and murdering Black men is common place on the airports, highways, streets, and households of America. According to an April 1999 report prepared for the US Commission on Civil Rights by The Sentencing Project, Black people constitute 13% of the country's drug users; 37% of those arrested on drug charges; 55% of those convicted; and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

The high profile cases involving New Jersey State Troopers shooting of Leroy Germaine Grant, Rayshawn Brown, Keshon Moore, and Daniel Reyes in a van on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1998 and the New York City Police Departments' murder of Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Patrick Dorismond in 2000, all of whom were unarmed and did not possess any drugs, dramatically exposed the insidious nature this particular human rights violation and the levels of judicial collusion involved.

Notoriously racist police formations have been periodically exposed.  For example, in 1988 an internal investigation revealed the existence of fraternity within the ranks of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio Police Department call "SNAT" or "Special Nigger Arrest Team".   In California, a March 2000 report by the Los Angeles Police Department on corruption in its Rampart District station house exposed an elite secretive anti-gang squad called the "CRASH" or Community Resource Against Street Hoodlums unit that operated as a criminal enterprise which terrorized the Black community.  They committed widespread perjury and sent hundreds to jail on trumped up charges.  They stole and dealt in illegal drugs.  They even shot a handcuffed and unarmed Black man in the head and when he survived they testified against him and sent him to prison.  In order to get into this elite unit, a white officer had to pledge like a fraternity.  In New York City the elite Street Crimes Unit operating under the slogan "We own the night" was responsible for the murders of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, shooting Mr. Diallo forty-one times.  In court, the murderers of Mr. Diallo were acquitted and the murderers of Mr. Dorismond were not even indicted.  From 1997 through 1998 the Street Crimes Unit documented that they stopped and frisked 45,000 primarily Black and Latino men, many thousands more are believed to have gone undocumented.

The Civil Rights Act of 1965, section 1(E) and 2(E), allegedly grants protection to minority motorist from interference by intimidation, injury, or interference of individuals.  The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Section 2 Article 4 of the US Constitution affords protection for the rights to interstate travel or personal mobility.  And the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution is supposed to protect citizens from unreasonable governmental intrusion when it infringes on a person's expectation of privacy without probable cause.  Therefore the racist practice of profiling drug dealers should be illegal.  But when these "illegal" acts are committed by racist law enforcement officials against Black people, the laws suddenly do not apply.

A macro-view of the practice of racist profiling incorporates many different spheres of Black life.   Education policies and the widespread practice of tracking Black students to "special education" and remedial classes.  The steady decline of low and moderate income housing and the re-gentrification of cities across the US.  Banking and financing "red-line" policy in small business and home mortgage loans.  Employment and hiring practices.  Inferior health care facilities in Black communities.  The systematic violation of Black voter rights.  And the entire criminal justice system including the massive prison industrial complex whose population has surpassed 2 million, with another four million who are being supervised on parole or probation.

US laws are written and carried out by whites and for whites, and are an instrument used to determine the conditions of Black people - their ex slaves.  Those conditions are subjugation, terror, and oppression.

By Amadi Ajamu

112213.3531@compuserve.com (aajamu)

*********

On Being Black!

         

They take my kindness for weakness

They take my silence for speechless

They consider my uniqueness strange

They call my language slang

They see my confidence as conceit

They see my mistakes as defeat

They consider my success accidental

They minimize my intelligence to "potential"

My questions mean I'm unaware

My advancement is somehow unfair

Any praise is preferential treatment

To voice concern is discontentment

If I stand up for myself, I'm too defensive

If I don't trust them, I'm too apprehensive

I'm deviant if I separate

I'm fake if I assimilate

My character is constantly under attack

Pride for my race makes me "TOO BLACK"

Other than the above I am treated like everyone else…

         

                                                                                    Author Unknown

Contributed by gpj@ix.netcom.com

*********

Free The Mind... Free The People... Free The Land...

Robert Hazard

N’COBRA

Board Member

S. E. Regional Representative

*********

INTERESTING TIDBITS:

FROM:  Kafrica33

    TO:   Rhazard988

    RE:  Reparations

REPARATION IS A WAY TO DIVERT THE AFRICANS WHO CAN THINK TO SOLVE PROBLEMS, BLINDED BY A DESIRE FOR A DREAM BASED UPON HISTORICAL FACTS AND FAITH.   40 YEARS FROM NOW, WE WILL STILL HAVE TO FIND A WAY OUT OF OUR DILEMMA, BECAUSE THE PRESENT GENERATION JUST LIKE THOSE BEFORE US ARE DREAMING THAT THE EUROPEANS WILL HAVE COMPULSION AND SO DO WHAT IS RIGHT.     DO YOU BELIEVE IT?

KOFI

***

FROM:   Rhazard988

     TO:   Kafrica33

    RE:  Reparations

Peace Elder Brother Kofi.  To answer the above.  If I must answer.  I will give the short version.  NO!!!.  HELL NOOOOO!!!!!.  Here is my opinion why.  Reparations is not away to divert or divide Afrikan energies.   Europeans did not start the reparations movement. Nor do they control it.   Reparations is one just and righteous resource owed to Afrikans as a solution for a few of the mental and physical injuries that was and is inflicted upon our ancestors and the generations that followed chattel slavery including the current survivors.   We have other spiritual injuries that we must heal our selves.  There are many, many Afrikans whose eyes are wide open and they see through fog of white supremacy. They see with the depth of the ancestors dreams and the Sankofa of our own story.  We continue the movement for self determination (with facts) in their names. There are enough conscious minded independent thinkers and doers who have educated several generations of self awareness and self determined thinkers and doers to educate many more generations of liberated thinking Afrikans to change the immediate future.  There is a large and growing number of liberated thinkers T many to stop us.....  That education process has been going on for generations already. The number of conscious minds are growing.  Many, man, many Afrikan people who educate Afrokan people today are preparing the young to handle a future far different than any the world has known.  Check out CIBI.... ASCAT.  US Organization.  N’COBRA.  PG-RNA, etc.   Forty years from now the world will be in a much different state.  Today’s dilemmas will not exist tomorrow because of the activities of those organizations and collaboratives listed above and more.   Many of yesterday’s and today’s generations have had a clear enough vision of our unification and salvation for a long enough time for the seeds to be planted and nurtured. That continuity has created the opportunity of producing an actualization for our liberation through self determination.

Free My Mind.... Robert

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FROM:  Kafrica33

    TO:   Rhazard988

    RE:  National Black Community in America

RHazard988 wrote:

<Hoteph Sisters And Brothers: It is time that we as a national Black community in America>

WHAT ORGANIZATION IS CALLED "NATIONAL BLACK COMMUNITY IN AMERICA?"

We assume too much for our own good.  Unless we follow the efforts of organized communities in the form of non profit corporation, we are leaving mere words to our posterity.  Are you a member of UNIA?

Kofi

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FROM:   Rhazard988

     TO:   Kafrica33

    RE:    National Black Community in America

MY response to you, good brother is.... NO.  I am not an on the book member of The UNIA.  Yet, I am a spiritual member - an Afrikan NATION STATE of our ancestors that created the ideology for the UNIA on these shores.  Their genes have passed down from generation to generation - Community to community.  It is that genetic make up that tells me I am Black in america, born in a community in america.  Therefore, I was born a member of the "NATIONAL BLACK COMMUNITY IN aMERICA" that created the UNIA and many other nationlistic "organizations."  Is a 501 necessary???

Brother Kofi, there is to my knowledge no such formal organization with that name.  BUT, in my humble opinion, we are truly a NATION of Displaced Afrikans in a foreign land with distinct communities called the "Black Community" a.k.a. GHETTOS/INNER CITIES.  We have all the distinctions of melanin identification to be a nation without land of our own to exercise political power to develop.  I apply this status of nationhood simply because of how we are treated in america.  We have our own story, culture, spirituality, language (ebonics), power structure, citizenship (race/ethnicity), etc.  True we may be a dysfunctional nation in need of better organization.  Still all the same.  A nation without land or borders or ownership of governmental institutions to prosper.  The white power structure has by his-story kept us together (in servitude), separate and unequal, not quite Americans, but always classified as one of the following: slave, nigger, colored, negro, black, to define our citizen identification to the larger power state.  If we are not granted the rights/privileges of full citizens in the nation of the USA - america.  Then we must be citizens somewhere else - therefore, another nation! 

My explanation is raw/gruel.  But, I guess you can follow my meaning. 

Free My Mind. 

Robert

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

September 26, 1997

HITLER’S  FORGOTTEN BLACK  VICTIMS

The Nazi's ëfinal solutioní had a dress rehearsal in Namibia, writes Delroy Constantine-Simms…

At a time when the fight for justice for Jewish Holocaust victims makes front-page news, few people know that a significant number of black people suffered, too, under Nazi rule. Revelations about their experiences are made in a documentary, to be screened in Britain next month, entitled Hitler’s Forgotten Victims.

It reveals that sterilisation programmes of blacks were instituted by Germany’s most senior Nazi geneticist, Doctor Eugen Fischer, who developed his racial theories in German South West Africa (now Namibia) long before World War I. In Namibia, Fischer claimed there were genetic dangers arising from race mixing between German colonists and African women.

The documentary also provides disturbing photographic evidence of German genocidal tendencies in Africa. In 1904 the Herero tribe revolted against their German colonial masters in a quest to keep their land. It was a rebellion that lasted four years and led to the death of 60 000 Herero people ó 80% of their population. The survivors were imprisoned in concentration camps or used as guinea pigs for medical experiments, a  foretaste of things to come.

Hitler’s Forgotten Victims shows that Germany’s 24 000-strong black community were the number-one target for Hitler’s sterilisation programme. The film makes it clear that Hitler’s view on racial superiority did not develop in a vacuum. He was influenced by the work of the 19th- century German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, whose views were based on distorted versions of Darwinism. He wrote of woolly- haired Negroes incapable of higher mental development.

The film shows that the Nazis’ obsession with racial purity and eugenics was provoked and intensified in 1918, following Germany’s defeat in World War I. Under the terms of the peace treaty signed at Versailles, Germany was stripped of its African colonies and forced to submit to the occupation of the Rhineland. The deployment of African troops from the French colonies to police the territory incensed many Germans.

To many it was the final humiliation that began with their 1918 defeat in the World War I. The film shows Germans complaining bitterly in newspapers and propaganda films about African soldiers from the French colonial army having relations with their women.

As soon as Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, he retaliated by targeting black people living there. At least 400 mixed- race children were forcibly sterilised in the area by the end of 1937, while 400 others disappeared into camps.

Hans Hauck, a victim of Hitler’s sterilisation programme, says: We were lucky that we weren’t victims of euthanasia; we were only sterilised. We had no anaesthetic. Once I got my vasectomy certificate, I had to sign an agreement that we were not allowed to have sexual relations whatsoever with Germans.

In 1932 in Bresau, Hitler gave a speech in which he ordered Africans, Jews and anyone not Aryan to leave Germany or go into the camps. But most blacks in Germany could not heed Hitler’s warning as they were German citizens with German passports and had nowhere else to go. While a fair number escaped to France, others tried to return to the former German colonies, taken over by the League of Nations in 1920. The British colonial authorities in the newly named South West Africa would not allow black Germans refugee status on the grounds that they had fought for the Germans in World War I.

Hitler’s Forgotten Victims does not give enough insight into the lives of black Germans who resisted the Nazis, such as black activist Lari Gilges, who founded an organisation of entertainers that fought the Nazis in his home town of Dusseldorf. He was murdered by the SS in 1933, the year Hitler came to power. More insight is given into black and mixed-race Germans who toured in the Hillerkus Afrikaschau circuses, films and shows to escape persecution.

Says interviewee Elizabeth Morton: My father was one of the founders of the Afrikaschau. There was everything: dances, songs and acrobatics, music breaking, tap dancing. It was like a variety show. The Afrikaschau actually became the place to go for all black people; it was something new.

These shows were eventually taken over in 1940 by the SS, who considered them racially unacceptable and used them for racist propaganda. But eventually Hitler’s propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels, realised that in order to spread the Nazi gospel of Aryan supremacy, he needed to exploit the most popular medium of the timeó German feature films. Propaganda films such as Kongo Express, Quax in Africa, and Auntie Wanda from Uganda presented Germany as a benevolent colonial power.

Says black actor Werner Egiomue: We had an agent then who had all the addresses of black people in Berlin. The Reich’s chamber of commerce was in touch with him when they were casting a film. It was fun inside the studio. Outside the door you could be arrested. But inside you were as safe as in a bank.

Another experience is given by the Michaels family, who were orphaned and separated at an early age. Theodore Michael, one of Germany’s greatest character actors of the time, gives a gripping account of how he survived.

He says: Black people in Germany were aware that if the Nazis wanted to get rid of us, they could catch us in one swoop. I was eventually sent to a munitions factory, where I was liberated by Russian soldiers. They were surprised to see a black man still alive.

Not only black Germans suffered at the hands of the Nazis black soldiers were also targets. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 200 000 black troops from African colonies were serving in Europe. The Nazis segregated black inmates for extra special treatment of the fatal kind. In breach of the Geneva Convention, black prisoners were denied food, and given dangerous jobs. In film never seen before, black soldiers and civilians are seen scavenging for scraps of food in garbage heaps at the Hemer POW camp near Dortmund in north-west Germany. No one knows how many black soldiers or civilians died in the camps at the hands of the SS guards, producer Moise Shewa says, because where Jews were noted as Jews, blacks were noted by nationality.

One description of concentration camp life is given by Johnny William, born to an African mother and white Frenchman, who was transported by the Gestapo to the Neugengamme concentration camp near Hamburg. There were five or six of us. As soon as we arrived, we were immediately separated from the white deportees by the SS. They considered us to be subhuman beings like animals, chimpanzees.

Hitler’s Forgotten Victims makes it clear that the treatment of blacks in the Holocaust should be acknowledged. Most black Germans were stripped of their nationality, so it has been difficult for them to claim reparations. Hopefully, this film will go some way to force the German government to acknowledge their experience at the hands of the Nazis and recompense black Germans in the same manner as the Jewish community, who suffered the same fate.

Click here: Hitler's Black Victims

http://www.daveyd.com/hitlerpol.html

Contributed by RHazard

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Yehudah Benyamin Yisrael, President (yehudah@thelawkeepers.org / jwright@blackomahaonline.com / Yehudah74@hotmail.com)

Yehudah Yacob, Vice President (MilzAhead@AOL.COM)

                           Tziona Yisrael, Executive Secretary (Afraqueen@AOL.COM)

    (We Exalt and Sanctify the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and profess the Laws HE gave to HIS Prophet Moses.)

               Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding, Proverb 4:7 / Deuteronomy 28th Chapter:  The African Slave Trade