REPARATIONS – WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT IS NOT

Daoud J. Khaliq & Alex Davis

Reparations United Front   

 

There is a lot of confusion about the issue of reparations.  We hope to clear up any and all confusion about this all important issue and add to the understanding of it.  First of all reparations (for Afrikan American slavery) is not a new issue.  The concept has been around almost since the beginning of slavery, itself.  Various leaders in the Afrikan-American resistance movement have spoken of and worked for reparations, among them David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Martin L. King, Congressman John Conyers (author of HR 40, the reparations study bill), Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Minister Silas Muhammad among others.

 

Reparations – Definitions

Reparations is a complex, multifaceted issue.  Reparations impacts on a variety of areas due to the complexity of the crimes committed against us and the consequences we suffered as a result of those crimes.  Reparations is defined in 2 parts: 

 

EXTERNAL REPARATIONS

 

  1. A government acknowledged, apology, atonement and

compensation for it’s participation in the seizure and misuse of valuable property-labor property taken from Black Afrikan-Americans who were kidnapped and enslaved between 1775 and 1865 in this country, using that ill gotten property to unjustly enrich this country and help it become the great nation it is today, all without fairly compensating those Afrikan-Americans or their for the deliberate loss of said property.

  1. Compensation (demonstrating the atonement) for the 140 years (and counting) of a set of government supported activities called JIM CROWISM and BLACK SEGREGATION (including the lynching, murdering and raping of Black people and the razing of Black townships) all of which relegated Afrikan Americans to the bottom rungs of society).
  2. Compensation (demonstrating the atonement) at fair market value for continuing government supported anti-Black socio-political economic activities and their consequences that have deprived Afrikan Americans of respect and their rightful honored place in USA society.

 

INTERNAL REPARATIONS

 

NOTE: Internal reparations does not excuse, absolve or dilute the responsibility of the various US governmental components nor American corporations, vis-à-vis Black Americans and what it owes us. However, our redemption is both external and internal and will not occur without our taking responsibility for part of our own healing.

 

  1. Black assessment and identification of those negative and

       debilitating aspects of our communities that we can mobilize

       and organize our efforts to repair, reform and correct for

       our own benefit.

 

  1. The formulation of actions plans – both short term and long

     term – to address the problems and negative aspects,

     assessed and identified, and the implementation of those

     plans.

 

WHAT REPARATIONS IS

 

  1. It is our race-based quest for justice in America.
  2. It is our race-based quest for the restoration and redemption

     of our dignity and positive worth as a people in this country

     and on this planet.

 

  1. It is our relentless quest to achieve respect for simply being

    Black people in the country and in this world.  The single

    collective existence of Black people in America and on this

    planet is one of common, habitual and omnipresent

    disrespect. 

    From that core (a nurtured product of white supremacy) all

    else that ails us comes.

 

  1. It is the race-based quest for an APOLOGY (to our

   ANCESTORS) An ATONEMENT (to demonstrate the

  sincerity or at least the seriousness of the APOLOGY) and 

  COMPENSATION (in some form decided by Black people in

  the USA).

 

  1. It is our race-based quest to heal this country of its racist past

   and present and to provide a viable, non-racist alternative for

   this country’s future.

 

  1. It is the accumulation of overwhelming bushels of evidence, including personal testimony, property records and deeds, financial profits and transactions, historical documentation and a clear sense of righteous indignation together balled up into tight, steel-trap arguments that will compel victory in the foreseeable future.

 

  1. It is a national/regional struggle in the USA that is closely

   intertwined with a global reparations struggle against vestiges

  of colonialism and capitalist exploitation. A reparations victory

  anywhere will show the way for reparations victories

  everywhere!

 

  1. It is both an INTERNAL and EXTERNAL struggle to exact

   acknowledgment, apology and atonement for this country’s

   long-term abuse and exploitation of Black people.

  1. It is a demand for the release and return of our Black

     political  prisoners.

 

  1. It is logical, it is correct and it is winnable.

 

WHAT REPARATIONS IS NOT

 

  1. It is not a plea for a hand-out, another welfare program, or an

   extortion plot to fleece White folk.  Reparations is not solely an

   economics issue – we cannot buy the respect that is due us.

 

  1. It is not a substitute for regular and ordinary social

     programming done by the USA government.

 

  1. It is not a far-out fantasy of the lunatic fringe.

 

  1. It is not an issue that Black people will simply forget and “get

    over it”.

 

  1. It is not going to be won by trying to solve all our problems

     at once. We must focus our efforts.

 

  1. It is not the panacea for all Black problems, but it is the

     beginning of our being able to end those ills that have kept

     us down for so long.

 

  1. It will not cause more racial friction; it will finally allow racial

    healing in America.

 

  1. It is not a struggle that can be won by one segment of the

   Black population in the USA. To win, we need a coming

   together of virtually all segments of the Black population.

 

  1. It is not a struggle for the lazy and/or one-time participant. To

   win this struggle we must be RELENTLESS for reparations.

 

  1. It is not a struggle that will be won by EMOTIONS,

     ZEAL,RIGHTEOUSNESS and PASSION alone.

We must have continuous strategic planning, common sense,

      mother wit and mutual respect to get this great task

      accomplished.

 

We hope to be given the opportunity to share more

        news and information concerning the Reparations

        Movement with our comrades in Pasadena and San

       Gabriel, as well as the rest of the nation.