A NATIONAL STRATEGIC
REPARATIONS PLAN 2006-2010
======================
WE WELCOME COMMENTS
GREETINGS, REPARATIONS ADVOCATES
This is a blog set up to discuss the Reparations Movement. It will begin with the National Strategic Reparations Plan that was the follow-up consequence of the National Reparations Congress gathering held in Compton, California, 2004, involving over 50 reparations organizations from over 36 American cities.
We expect participants on this blog to read the NSRP, and comment on it/critique it, and talk about how we can implement it. In order to win reparations in the USA, we must have a strategic, unified and unifying plan.
DL
H=============================================
A NATIONAL STRATEGIC
REPARATIONS PLAN 2006-2010
The Documentary Result of
THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS CONGRESS
Held in Compton/Los Angeles, California
MAY 28-31, 2004
PRESENTED AND COMPILED BY
THE REPARATIONS UNITED FRONT OF
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
==============
THE REPARATIONS UNITED FRONT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
REPRESENTING THE PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE
NATIONAL REPARATIONS CONGRESS
PRESENTS
A NATIONAL STRATEGIC REPARATIONS PLAN
2005-2010
www.reparationunitedfront.org
(310) 967-5871
----------------------------------
In order to be effective and credible, any action plan---a battle plan, architectural plan, educational growth and development plan, etc.--- must have, at minimum, the five components immediately listed below:A. A clear view of the relevant issue/problem to be dealt with or corrected.
B. A fairly accurate depiction of what has been attempted before, if anything,
to deal with this issue/problem.
C. Why dealing with this issue/problem is necessary.
D. An operational definition of the issue at hand.
E. Specific steps to take to handle/correct the issue or problem.
CONTENTS OF A NATIONAL
STRATEGIC REPARATIONS PLAN (NSRP)
I. Rationale For the Plan
II. Five Principle Goals For The National Reparations Effort
III. The Operational Definition Of Reparations for African Americans
IV. Broad Tactics For Short-Term Goals
1. Youth/Students
2. Churches/Mosques
3. Black Fraternal and Social Organizations
4. Education
(a) Public/Charter
(b) Higher Education
5. Community-based Organizations
6. Entertainment Industry
(a) Record Industry
(b) Movies/T-V/Cable
(c) Pro Athletes
7. Business Community
8. Legal Community (Including the Black Political Prisoners Issue)
9. Legislative/Governmental Community
10. Mass Media
V. Broad Tactics For Long-Term Goals
VI. Needs And Resources To Achieve Effective Implementation And
Success Of This Plan
I. RATIONALE FOR THE PLANAt this historical time towards the end of 2004, the
Reparations Movementneeds to move to the level of regional and national strategic reparations plans. Why?
As long as the primary aim of the
Reparations Movement is actually to achieve reparations, the momentum forward towards that goal will either be through divine intervention (usually called accidents, miracles, or dumb luck) or through carefully thought-out strategic steps by Reparations Movement organizers and planners.
Spiritual intervention will occur, whenever it does, in its own timing and is not in
our control. The strategic implementation of group tactics is.
For the past five years or so, we have had hundreds of meetings, Town Halls,
gatherings, sit-downs, conferences, and one congress to engage reparationists in
discussions of what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and how it needs to be
done. We have had over fifteen mass market books, more than five hundred printed
articles, and at least twenty websites publicly distributed that deal specifically with
aspects of the
African American Reparations Movement, and, frequently, with the
International Reparations Movement.During this time, we have filed over twenty-five new reparations cases nationwide and have not yet achieved a single legal victory, including the flagship Tulsa (Greenwood), Oklahoma case. The nine cases brought to the Chicago federal district court in a consolidated package, including a California state case, were dismissed early in 2004. Eight of the cases were amended and re-considered, but as of December of the same year, the attorneys for the cases fully expected them to be rejected again by the same judge. The California case, brought on the basis of slavery and its legacy being an unfair business practice, sought to be remanded and will probably be adjudicated separately in 2005. Hopes for success are very dim since in November, 2004, California voters substantially weakened the unfair practices law. Additionally, according to a recent
N’COBRA study by Wautella and Kibibi, we have gotten more than twenty-eight city councils and at least three state legislatures to pass public resolutions which support U.S. Congressman John Conyers’ H.R. 40 bill to study the reparations issue. Still the bill languishes in obscurity, continually left off the agenda of the House Judiciary Committee on which Mr. Conyers sits as the senior member. The bill is barely alive and is essentially on life support with less than fifty congressional sponsors and no companion bill pending in the Senate.
N’COBRA, the most recognizable reparations group in the USA, has had at least five annual conferences during the period, and several special gatherings, including two important leadership roundtables . The
NDABA series of reparations leadership meetings, called the “Great Sit-downs,” were created by Dr. Conrad Worrill of the National Black United Front, in association with Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and has been held at least four times, twice in 2003, and twice in 2004. Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman’s National Reparations Convention has also met annually since 2000, and the Reparations United Front of Southern California, in association with the Compton College BSU and the NRC National Planning Group, produced and held the first National Reparations Congress, which was a gathering of reparations activists from across the U.S., in the early summer of 2004. The Millions for Reparations committee, spearheaded by Viola Plummer of the December 12th Movement and Conrad Worrill of NBUF, held a national reparations rally in Washington, D.C. in August, 2002, and numerous other organizations have held panel discussions, Town Halls, Teach-ins, Black History Month lectures, etc., to spread the Reparations Movement word.
But with notable exceptions, the Black Church remains uninterested and
uninvolved in the Movement. The traditional civil rights groups, with the exception
of the local Political Action Committees of the NAACP, have eschewed any real
commitment to or involvement in the Movement. Similarly, American youth and
students, except on scattered occasions, have thus far not been motivated by or interested in the Reparations Movement to any significant degree. The Masons, Shriners, Elks,
Eastern Stars, Black fraternities and sororities, and most Hollywood celebrities,
except Transafrica Chairman Danny Glover, have shown little knowledge and given virtually no attention to the Movement, save the snide jokes of Cedric the Entertainer
in “Barber Shop,” and Chris Rock in his monologues.
A Black political movement, once achieved, cannot be sustained with the continued absence of the above components. Some advocates say that the Movement currently needs a charismatic, M.L. King-like leader; some say there must be a single, credible reparations organization that can be depended on to take us forward. These ideas, while critically important, are for another document. Here, the point is made that one of the central components necessary for this stage of the Reparations Movement is a set of regional strategic plans with common principles and goals, and a single, unifying national strategic reparations plan. There have been great and profound speeches made, some brilliant ideas and projects offered and discussed by well-meaning reparationists, and a few activities actually carried through to completion, like the
NDABA’s grass roots petition campaign to Congress, and
N’COBRA’s Black Fridays, and the Year of Black Presence, among others.
But what is crystal clear when contemplating all that has been said and done in the last five years of this Movement is that while there has certainly been a great deal of talk accompanied by a number of important visions of things to come, there has been very little evidence of organized, strategic follow through.
The Reparations Movement currently hovers at another of its many crossroads. An increasing number of committed and dedicated Western States’ activists who have invested a lot of time, money, energy and thought to the Movement are now constantly in high frustration mode and they cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. Many of them are thinking of moving on to other things and issues. To help us re-invigorate them and provide an impetus for choosing the right path forward and to avoid the road to perdition, it is clear that the Movement must now have many more reparations chess players and less folk who merely talk a good game. At this critical time, there must be the coming to the fore of the strategic planners and organizers.
The following document, which is unequivocally a product both of the National
Reparations Congress held in Los Angeles/Compton, California in May, 2004, and the
flow of ideas discussed at the
N’COBRA Leadership Roundtable in June, 2004, in
Washington, D.C., and the two
NDABAs held in Houston, Texas and Baltimore,
Maryland in 2004, is the
NRC National Strategic Reparations Plan. It is a five year roadmap to be implemented regionally to accomplish the reparations goals of the African American population. We expect each region of the country to do its part, and the accumulated total should be the overall reparations victory that Black folk in this country, and in the world, deserve.
II. FIVE PRINCIPAL GOALS FOR
THE NATIONAL REPARATIONS PLAN
All activity, projects, tasks and efforts identified in this reparations plan are to ensure
the accomplishment of the following principal goals:
• The raising of the level of consciousness concerning reparations to
a critical mass of African Americans in each region of the USA---to wit, each reparations group in various parts of the country should dedicate itself to ensuring that reparations will be on the lips and in the conversations of all Black folk in the
organizing realm of that group.
• The organization, coordination and implementation of selective economic
boycotts to gain bargaining leverage concerning reparations.
• The planning, coordination and implementation of a national legal strategy.
• The planning, coordination and implementation of a broader political/
legislative strategy than H.R. 40 alone.
• The establishment, coordination and implementation of regional Slave
Remembrance and Restitution Funds that will eventually merge into a national
SRR Fund..
III. THE OPERATIONAL DEFINITION FOR BLACK AFRICAN AMERICAN
REPARATIONS AS THE BASIS FOR A NATIONAL STRATEGIC
REPARATONS PLAN PUT FORTH IN THIS DOCUMENT 1
EXTERNAL REPARATIONS(A) GOVERNMENTAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, APOLOGY, ATONEMENT, AND COMPENSATION FOR ITS PARTICIPATION IN THE SEIZURE AND MISUSE OF VALUABLE PROPERTY --LABOR PROPERTY--TAKEN FROM BLACK AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO WORKED AS SLAVES BETWEEN 1775-18652 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 AFRICAN AMERICANS OR THEIR DESCENDANTS FOR THE DELIBERATE LOSS OF SAID LABOR PROPERTY;
(B) COMPENSATION (DEMONSTRATING THE ATONEMENT) FOR THE 140-YEAR 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 AFRICAN AMERICANS TO THE BOTTOM RUNGS OF SOCIETY;
(C) COMPENSATION (DEMONSTRATING ATONEMENT) AT FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR CONTINUING GOVERNMENT-SUPPORTED ANTI-BLACK SOCIO-POLITICAL-ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES THAT HAVE DEPRIVED AFRICAN AMERICANS OF RESPECT AND THEIR RIGHTFUL HONORED PLACE IN USA SOCIETY.
INTERNAL REPARATIONS
(NOTE:
Internal Reparations does not absolve, excuse or dilute the responsibility of the various U.S. governmental components nor American corporations viz-a-viz Black Americans and what is owed us. However, our redemption is both external and internal and will not occur without our taking responsibility for part of our own healing.)
(D) 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.
(E) THE FORMULATION OF ACTION PLANS—BOTH SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM---TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS ASSESSED AND IDENTIFIED, AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THOSE PLANS.
A STRAIGHTFORWARD BREAKDOWNWHAT REPARATIONS IS: (Based on our continuing veneration of and connection to our African and African descendent ancestors)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.
3. It is our relentless quest to achieve respect for simply being Black
people in this 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.
4. 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).
5. It is the 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.
6. 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.
7. 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!!
8. It is both an Internal struggle for us to redeem and rescue
ourselves, and an External struggle to exact acknowledgement,
apology and atonement for this country's long-term abuse and
exploitation of Black people.
9. It is a demand for the release and return of our Black political
prisoners.
10. 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, nor an extortion plot to fleece White folk. Reparations is not solely an economics issue—we cannot buy the respect that is due us.
2. It is not a substitute for regular and ordinary social programming done by the USA government.
3. It is not a far-out fantasy of the lunatic fringe.
4. It is not an issue that Black folk will simply forget and "get over it."
5. It is not going to be won by trying to solve all our problems at once.
We must focus our efforts.
6. 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.
7. It will not cause more racial friction; it will finally allow racial healing in America.
8. 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.
9. It is not a struggle for the lazy and one-time participant. To win this struggle we must be relentless for reparations.
10. It is not a struggle that will be won by emotion, zeal, righteousness and passion alone. We must have continuous strategic planning, common sense, mother wit and mutual respect to get this done.
_________________________________________________________
1 The Operational Definition of reparations, which is the basis of this NSR Plan, was developed and submitted by The Reparations Research & Advocacy Group, Los Angeles, California and enhanced by suggestions from participants and Planning Group members for the National Reparations Congress, Los Angeles/Compton, California, 2004); approved and adopted by the RUF membership, September, 2004.
This Operational Definition is a complement to the current conceptual definitions of reparations regularly referred to in the Reparations Movement. Conceptual definitions, while very important for envisioning the “big picture” of a process, are essentially generalized notions or ideas about an issue, thing or activity. It is rare for conceptual definitions
to be adequate or very useful when it’s time for real work.
The most accepted concept of reparations in the Movement, for example, is that it is equivalent to repairing the Black community. Whether it is ‘repairing a wrong or an injury, or repairing the community back to wholeness,’ the idea of repair presupposes an original condition of non-injury, non-wrong, non-damaged when we were whole and healthy, or when we existed in efficient, harmonious operation or normal relations.
But exactly when was that in the African American Experience? Was it back in various West African villages that we are still trying to find our DNA connections to? Was it during the Maafa/Transatlantic Slave Trade? Was it during the heyday of several successful Black towns in America before their Rosewood and Greenwood-like devastation by enraged white citizens and surrounding governments? Was it during the bullwhip days of chattel slavery in America? During Jim Crow days after the Civil War?
During the era of Emmit Till and the Civil Rights Movement? In reality, there exists no clarity in the Reparations Movement about what historical period we are referring to when demanding repair. That makes it amorphous and virtually impossible to focus on and achieve. That is characteristic of conceptual definitions.
Operational definitions are more specific, pragmatic, clarifying articulations of a process, thing or activity and can be more readily put into tangible action.
The NRC NSRPlan respectfully recognizes and acknowledges the following two aspects of the current conceptual definitions of Reparations, one international, the other national:
(a) The Van Boven Report, 1989, representing the U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, stated that, “Reparations includes restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. Restitution refers to measures such as restoration of liberty, family life, citizenship, return to one’s place of residence and, return of property. These measures seek to re-establish the situation that existed prior to the violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Compensation refers to monetary compensation for any economically assessable damage resulting from violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Rehabilitation includes medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services. Satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition includes, inter alia, an apology (including public acknowledgement of the facts and acceptance of responsibility) and, measures to prevent recurrence of the violations.” This quote is from “International Law Obligations to Provide Reparations for Human Rights Abuses,” by Antonio Buti, Murdoch University School of Law, as provided by The Afrikan American Institute For Policy Studies and Planning, Greenville, South Carolina.
(b) N’COBRA’s conceptual definition of reparations is, “Payment of a debt owed; the act of repairing a wrong or injury; to atone for wrongdoings; to make amends; to make one whole again; the payment of damages; to repair a nation; compensation in money, land, or materials for damages.”
2Although it is more regularly asserted that American slavery began for Black folk either in 1619 with the landing of the Dutch slave ship in Jamestown, or 1661-1664, when Maryland, and then Virginia, made slavery a specifically color-coded thing, the dates here refer to the birth and legal establishment of America (the USA) as an independent and “sovereign” country in 1775-77, with the Second Continental Congress’ declaration of the United States of America, the writing of America’s first Constitution (the Articles of Confederation), and the Declaration of Independence. Colonial America—1607-1775-- was “owned” and
regulated by England and English companies..
_________________________________________________________
IV. BROAD TACTICS FOR SHORT-TERM REPARATIONS GOALS IN THE REGION (NOTE: These are activities that can and should be completed within one year or less)Youth/Students should
(1) Disseminate the word to all college/university campuses, public and
charter schools, that for Black History Month Activities, Feb. 2005, for
Black graduation dinners and seminars, periodic campus guest speaker
events, graduation speakers, etc., bring in reparations speakers. (See
www.reparationunitedfront.org for a list of solid reparations speakers)
(2) Make sure that for all upcoming student conferences, 2004-2005, where
there will be Black attendance, reparations – in its international and/or national dimensions— will be discussed somewhere on the agenda.
(3) Make sure that in all regional areas that have Black-Africana-Pan African-
African American Studies programs or departments, students should try to
get professors to set up reparations classes, colloquia or seminars to discuss
the issue, or else incorporate the topic into their current course syllabi. BSU
and ASU-type meetings should initiate dialogue on the issue, do student
debates regarding the issue, and/or coordinate student-faculty retreats to
discuss reparations, among other ideas.
(4) Set up book clubs on reparations to keep current with the increasing literature
on the topic
(5) Buy and support rap/hip-hop artists and other talents who push the reparations
issue, and request reparations songs to be played on the radio, including
campus radio shows.
(6) Make sure that in all church, mosque, community group, and campus cultural
activities (e.g. theater, poetry, dance, singing, step shows, etc.) that students
and youth are involved in, they push for the reparations issue to be included
in the activities in some way.
(7) Find out whether your campus—high school or college/university—was
built by slaves or founded by investors who made money from slavery or
the slave trade. If your research shows either to be the case, demand a campus
memorial or other kind of recognition of that fact.
(8) Find a distinctive tactic that appeals to youth and students and spread it
(e.g., Rap-ins, where students consistently stand in front of classroom
buildings, on the campus lawns, or in the campus Quads, and do short rap/
spoken word pieces on reparations); Challenge-ins, where students select
certain social science or humanities classes and, with the professor’s
permission, challenge the particular class to a reparations debate, etc.).
(9) Set up a student reparations response team on every campus to immediately
produce a written rebuttal to any Horowitz-type campus or community
newspaper article/opinion piece on reparations.
(10) Put out flyers and leaflets promoting the various pro-reparations arguments.
Take out ads in the campus and community newspapers supporting and advocating reparations.
Churches, Mosques(1) Investigate the scheduling of all upcoming church conventions and
conferences where policy resolutions and substantial discussion will be
allowed. Get on the agenda (contact whatever ministers, program
coordinators, or planning committees that are in charge and negotiate
participation) and get reparations resolutions written and passed in all
available regional denominations of the Black Church.
(2) Try to get church and mosque ministers to let your best reparations
speakers do a Black History Month sermon during February, 2005.
(3) During Sunday School, use Bible verses and stories that promote
reparations (See www.reparationunitedfront.org for relevant Bible verses.)
(4) For churches and community groups that have Kwanzaa celebrations in the
region, get the reparations issue into the discussion topics.
(5) Whenever churches have youth choirs, theater/drama activities, teen
development/rites of passage activities, get the reparations issue discussed
in those venues through skits, songs, and other techniques.
(6) Get the adult choirs—particularly on Men’s Day, Women’s Day or other
special activities—to do something on reparations. Find a reparations-oriented song, write one, or have one written for the choirs. Be creative and get this done.
(7) Work with any and all NOI mosques in the area to push the reparations issue. Have panel discussions at the mosques, when allowed, and find other ways of helping all mosque members to become highly knowledgeable about the reparations issue.
(8) If a Second Million Man March is organized, reparations groups should work
closely with mosques and other interested groups to ensure the success of that effort, and to ensure a prominent role is made on the agenda for discussion of the National and International Reparations Movement.
Black Fraternal Organizations and Related Activities(1) If you are or you know a member of the Masons (three or four letter),
Shriners, Eastern Stars, Elks, Moose Lodge, or any other similar
organization, find a way of getting the reparations issue put into the
organization’s newsletter, get it on the agenda of lodge and temple
meetings, annual conferences, etc. Get the Masons and other similar
groups to endorse the Reparations Movement.
(2) If you are or you know a member of a Black Greek organization, get
the issue of reparations on the group’s agenda at any and all meetings
that are available for such public discussion. Get the organization to
sponsor reparations projects. Discuss the issue in the organization’s
newsletter or bulletin.
Education
PUBLIC SCHOOLS/CHARTER SCHOOLS(1) Engage PTAs in discussions about the reparations issue and how it can
be incorporated into regional school work.
(2) Get a small group of concerned individuals together and offer $100-
500 rewards for the best student essays on the reparations issue during
Black History Month, MLK festivities, and any other time the issue can
be pushed.
(3) Get reparations storytellers, dramatic skits, singing groups/rap groups,
etc., to bring the issue of reparations to as many schools as possible
during Black History Month, graduation ceremonies, and any other
available times. There will always be current and retired teachers who
are resident in our communities. Converse with them about how best
to achieve these ends; use their expertise.
(4) Pass out, whenever it’s allowable, the reparations one-sheets to kinder-
garteners, 1-6 graders, middle school students and high school students.
There are one-sheets specifically designed for each broad grade level
in the Appendix to this plan. For example: (Intended for Kindergarteners
and First Graders—Can Be Recited or Sung)
=======================
KNOW WHAT?There was a man
Who worked real hard
He got no pay
But his back got scarred
There was a young girl
With dreams and things
Did what she was told
But sold for string
There was a woman
They worked her to death
She fed their children
Hers got hung for theft
There was an owner
Had lots of farm hands
Took away our freedom
Still owes us some land
========================HIGHER EDCATION (See Youth/Students, Section A in the Plan)Community-based Organizations(1) Whatever group you are a member of, get the reparations issue on the
agenda as many times as possible. Try to get guest speakers to come
in and talk about the relevance of the reparations issue and the mission
of your group. Get the group to sponsor at least one reparations Town
Hall or to fully participate in one put on by another community group.
Pass out reparations one-sheets and other literature as often as possible.
(2) Choose a reparations project—Internal or External—that is appropriate
and relevant to your group, and drum up support within your group for
the project to be done. (For example, sponsor or sell a reparations
calendar, reparations pins, stickers, do a community debate on reparations,
coordinate a candidates’ forum that deals with the issue, etc.)
(3) We must help to complete and disseminate the results of the regional and
national survey of Black folk on what form of reparations they want.
Entertainment Industry(1) Record Industrya. Locate and support any conscious rappers, hip hop or r&b
artists who are willing to make reparations-oriented records. That
means buying the cds/dvds, attending any concerts given by them,
and helping to arrange engagements at schools, community outlets, etc.
b. Do a letter-writing campaign to Russell Simmons, Puff Daddy, and
other record moguls, requesting reparations tracks and albums from
some of their artists.
c. If talented enough, start your own reparations singing/rap group and
make the rounds of community shows, university programs, etc,
spreading the word.
d. Secure copies of Prince’s “When Will We Be Paid” (a re-make of the
Staples Singers’ 1970’s song), and any other dance-ready reparations
jam. There are several out there. Take them with you when you go
to parties and ask the DJ to play one or two of them. At any parties or
social gatherings that you host that include music, play one or more
reparations tunes.
(2.) Movies/T-V/Cablea. Locate and secure any previously produced movies, t-v shows or cable shows that deal with reparations. Get copies of them and prepare them to be shown at free public gatherings on reparations.
For any such shows that will be broadcast in the future or made into films, have someone in your organization designated to scour the entertainment trades for this information and have a mailing list/ telephone tree already prepared for quick dissemination of broadcast times, theater bills, etc.
b .Seek out one or more Hollywood celebrities who will support
the Reparations Movement and negotiate with them on how they
can best help move us forward.
c. Produce and find ways to air as many times as possible Public
Service announcements on the Reparations Movement. Do this
on radio and t-v.
d. Find a way to produce and regularly broadcast a cable t-v program
on the Reparations Movement in your local area.
e. Do as many t-v/radio/cable interviews on the Reparations Movement
as possible. Try to get on the Steve Harvey Morning Show, Tavis
Smiley, etc. Be prepared and have something cogent to say.
(3). Pro Athletesa. Locate either the agents of conscious pro athletes, or other accessible contacts and set up meetings with them to discuss the significance of the Reparations Movement. Give them tangible ways to help--- financial support, making a public service comment, underwriting
a reparations gathering, talking to their friends about the Reparations Movement, etc.---rather than have an informal chat that meanders nowhere.
b. Once a particular area or region has done an assessment of what projects can be successfully accomplished by ourselves in terms of Internal Reparations, ask for specific help from the conscious pro athlete(s) you have successfully contacted.
The Business Community(1) Articles have to be written and published making the case for the
African American business community to embrace the Reparations
Movement. One-sheets have to be prepared. The articles must
demonstrate how the achievement of African American reparations
will benefit all of us, including Black businesses. The articles must
get into the local newspapers, and businesses should be asked to allow
the reparations one-sheets to be left on their counters for clients
coming in.
(2) Reparations exhibits, including brochures, videos, one-sheets, etc.,
should be prepared and displayed at any annual Black Business
Expositions, as regularly occurs in Los Angeles and other regional cities.
(3) Lectures should be prepared on ‘Reparations and the Black Business
Community,’ for presentations at conferences, Business Roundtables,
Black Business Student Association meetings, etc.
(4) Within the next 12 months, the Black Business community should
get prepared for a series of rolling economic boycotts by Black
customers of predominately White-owned businesses in the Black
community.
The Legal Community(1) The national and regional Black attorneys interested in reparations should meet and agree on a common legal strategy for achieving reparations. Filing scattered, individual lawsuits is not working. One or more of these attorneys should take the initiative and set up the series of meetings necessary to accomplish this legal strategy goal. There law students
(BALSA students, for example) who are very interested in working along with those who pursue this approach.
(2) The regional reparations attorneys should help set up and run the Slave Reparations Remembrance and Restitution Fund. This may have to begin as a California state fund first to provide a positive model for how it can work regionally, then nationally.
(3) There should be an historical search, state-wide and regionally, for fully-supportable legal reasons to file briefs for reparations. For example, the investigation of the illegal slave trade and slave ownership in California after 1850 and its impact on unfair business practices in the state is a current issue needing focused attention in order to be completed.
(4) Conduct legal research on whether states have violated their own public education laws and their duty to educate Black citizens. That may be another grounds for legal redress. Also address the tobacco industry and its unpaid Black labor issue.
(5) Those who are expert on the issue of Black Political Prisoners should get that issue on the national legal strategies agenda for reparations so that we can continue progressive work on that issue.
The Legislative/Governmental Community(1) Work towards getting H.R. 40 passed, including passing out information sheets, and trying to get more municipal resolutions approved should be continued.
(2) We must explore the full range of governmental opportunity to get reparations more broadly on the public agenda. The local representatives on the Congressional Black Caucus should be asked to set a meeting with President Bush or one of his top advisers and request a Presidential Commission to Study the Viability of Reparations for African Americans. Presidents regularly set up such commissions. A coherent essay advocating that approach and its significance must be prepared and delivered to each such representative. These representatives will also be asked to seek federal funding for a special three-day conference on the viability of the slave reparations, inviting up to 25 Black scholars who will deliver papers on specific aspects of this large issue, e.g., the Legal Argument for Reparations, the Moral Argument for Reparations, etc. The papers presented will all be published in a booklet as a special congressional representative field study/report.
(3) The Slave Business Ordinance passed in Chicago and Los Angeles must be carefully studied as a possible model for other cities in the region. A summary of how the Chicago/Los Angeles laws were accomplished must be written, including an assessment of what each has accomplished thus far for the Reparations Movement.
The Mass Media(1) In each locale within the region, we must train at least one group of writers and researchers to keep up with all news coverage of the Reparations Movement, and to quickly respond to any negative newspaper editorials or articles anywhere in their geographical area.
(2) In each city within the region, raise the necessary funds and put up at least one, possibly two, large billboards saying REPARATIONS NOW! IN MEMORY OF OUR ANCESTORS AND FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN!! that can be seen by a large number of Black folk traveling through the community daily.
(3) We must write and keep current one-sheets, flyers and brochures on the Reparations Movement.
(4) We must write and get printed in the local media articles that will help prepare the community to participate in an economic boycott in 2005 to establish negotiating leverage in this struggle.
(5) We must adopt a particular newspaper or mass media outlet (radio or t-v) and focus a weekly letter writing campaign to that newspaper or radio/t-v station giving them a steady stream of requests to publish pro-reparations articles and commentary.
(6) We must make a list of each church bulletin, Black Greek newsletter, Masonic bulletin, publications of the Association of Black Social Workers, newsletters of predominately Black employee unions, etc. Make contact with whoever edits and produces these news sources, and consistently try and get reparations pieces in those documents.
(7) We must publish a well-edited and well-presented Reparations Newsletter at least bi-monthly for public distribution.
(8) We must produce and distribute a reparations DVD, and a reparations Power Point presentation that can be distributed throughout the region.
(9) We must produce a bevy of Reparations Now pins, caps, shirts, stickers, and other such paraphernalia and get them out to the public at every opportunity.
(10) As stated above, get on any and every radio, t-v, cable show possible and spread the reparations word.
V. BROAD TACTICS FOR LONG-TERM GOALS (To be accomplished within the 2005-2010 time period)A. Youth/Students
(1) We must study the issue of American universities possibly being responsible for some portion of reparations because in their early years, slaves built their facilities, and/or the university faculty/staff owned slaves, as in Brown University and the University of Alabama.
(2) We must identify Black youth and students with talent, and help to teach and to train them to become articulate, well-informed, responsible and ethical spokespeople for Black reparations, redemption and respect. We cannot allow these youth to grow up like weeds.
(3) We must master the computer technology that is currently available and utilize it to help us accomplish reparations. All Black youth and students should become computer experts and we all should do every thing we can to facilitate that.
(4) We must get a "We Are The World"-type song and album recorded, distributed and promoted by some conscious rappers/hip-hop and R&B artists.
(5) We must finance and establish a Black Leadership Institute somewhere in the region or in the USA in which we can train our youth on how to lead us into the future, and where we can hold seminars, working sessions and meetings to keep our current Black leadership engaged with each other and on a positive, ethical and responsible path.
(6) We must encourage our youth and students to support THE MATAH DISTRIBUTION NETWORK. Expanding, defending, and building this network to its full capacity will help the Reparations Movement tremendously.
(7) We must educate our youth and students on who Black political prisoners are, how we can network to keep each other informed about the progress or lack of progress in their situations, and the various ways we can help to support these sisters and brothers incarcerated for trying to help the Black community. Our youth and students must become more knowledgeable about using DNA sampling to force new looks at old cases and to help get some of those incarcerated out.
B. Churches /Mosques(1) We must convince from 15-25 ministers with significant congregations in the region to take on the reparations issue and to push their congregations to understand it and to get involved in it.
(2) We must construct a massive mailing list (e-mail and snail mail) and telephone tree of church and mosque members that we can regularly contact with reparations information.
(3) We must continually cultivate the reparations relationship with the Nation of Islam, to steadily improve the sharing of vital information on the progress of the Reparations Movement. There should be joint rallies, panel discussions, strategy sessions, etc., as often as possible on this issue.
(4) Eventually, we must sit down with White church allies and inform them how they can help us in this struggle.
(5) We must set up a church-by-church visitation schedule in each locale in the region to either be on the podium delivering the reparations message, or passing out leaflets and flyers to church and mosque goers (on cars, hand-to-hand, etc.). We should be able to visit every Black Church and Muslim Mosque in the entire region at least once every two years, with some visited more than once.
C. Black Fraternal and Social Organizations(1) There must be a consistent network of contacts established and maintained of Black Greek organizations and their members, the Elks, Moose Lodge, and especially the Masons and Eastern Stars. We must attend their rallies, conferences and meetings. We must make sure we are members ourselves, and we must continually push the reparations issue.
(2) There must be a regional and national petition/support drive to get as many Black organizations as possible to sign up to promote and support the Reparations Movement, including as many Black Greeks, Masons, etc.,as possible. The drive should culminate in 2006-2007.
D. EducationPublic/Charter(1) There are both informal and formal educational organizations that we need to impact in terms of the reparations struggle. In the mass-based, grass roots educational activities, we must implement specific reparations educational programs in our particular geographical areas. In the formal educational process (public school), we must have a reparations educational curriculum
a. That tells the truth about the world b. That corrects the currently taught historical record c. That will have at its center the birth of African civilization and the birth of capitalist exploitation d. That re-claims our rightful place in the history and development of science and technology e. That re-invigorates African/Africana Studies in the schools and colleges to re-claim their original purpose to empower the Black community. (2) We must infiltrate the current educational system in terms of not only curriculum content, but book purchase decisions, methods of preparing and teaching culturally relevant information, etc.
(3) We must identify currently existing programs and activities that allow us to model and share successes from other parts of the country, including: a. The L.A. Learning to Learn initiative b. The schools storytelling programs c. The Ella Baker Training Institute d. The consistent discussion of the 13th and 14th amendments regarding the need for reparations e. Providing training and extra credit through public school and college programs (African American Studies, etc.) for working with the community and pushing reparations.
(4) We must establish a Working Group on video production for Reparations Education. Through that we will prepare reparations infomercials, audio spots, 60-second public service announcements, etc.
(5) We must get testimonials from Black doctors, faculty members, star athletes, and others as spokespeople for reparations education.
(6) We must study programs like the Model U.N. in public schools and colleges as vehicles to immerse youth and students into learning about and representing African societies. That kind of training sharpens the mind and intellect to defend African contributions.
Higher Education(1) A listing of all Black-oriented academic/scholastic organizations must be compiled, including contact names. All such organizations will receive information urging them to add the reparations issue to their discussion and decision agendas. All of these organizations will be asked to sign the support letter which will come to them urging continued, written support of the Reparations Movement. A specific committee of people within each of our organizations should be assigned to focus on this project.
(2) A list of all Black Studies/Africana Studies/Pan African Studies/African and African American Studies Programs and Departments in the region and in the country must be compiled, including relevant contacts, and reparations data, including the Reparations Newsletter mentioned above, should regularly be sent to each of them. The Black Studies entities should be urged to join in and participate in the Reparations Movement in whatever ways they can.
(3) All Black Studies organizations---NCBS, Black Heritage Association, National Association for the Study of Black Life and History, etc.--- must be listed and contacted. Members of those organizations who are reparationists should get the issue on the conference and meeting agendas of those organizations on a regular basis.
E. Community-Based Organizations(1) We must get as many grass roots and community-based organizations as possible to implement this plan. Set up meetings, attend rallies, discuss the plan with organizational representatives, answer any questions participants have, etc. Pass out one-sheets and brochures to card club meetings, auto club rallies, Senior Citizens rallies and conferences, etc.
(2) It is especially important that we must explain Internal Reparations to any and all CBO and grass roots groups. Dealing with every new or continuing problem in the Black Community is not IR, but dealing with any and all of them that are about regaining the respect that is due to Black folk, and redeeming the dignity of Black people, is what Internal Reparations is about. So anything and everything that CBO members and grass roots folk are doing towards that end must be supported and encouraged as helping to move us forward towards achieving the reparations goal.
(3) We must establish and maintain book clubs and reparations discussion groups in the community to engage each other on new literature in the Movement, and to keep up with all new writing and new issues regarding the Reparations Movement. To stay informed is to stay alert.
F. Entertainment Industry (Continue the Work Described in the Short-Term
Tactics Section of this Category Above)
G. Business Community (Continue the Work Described Above for this
Category)
H. Legal Community (Continue the Work Above)
I. Legislative Community (Continue the Work Above)
J. The Mass Media (Continue the Work Above)
VII. NEEDS AND RESOURCES TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE
IMPLEMENTATION AND SUCCESS OF THIS PLANA. Essentially, this plan is founded on creative volunteerism. There will be no paid positions for getting the required work done, and, unfortunately, much of the printing costs for flyers, brochures, newsletters, one-sheets, etc., will be borne by the activists themselves unless their local organizations are adept at fundraising.
B. There are already on-going reparations activities and organizations in the region with their own body of resources. A networking list of organizations and regular reparations activities should be produced and maintained.
C. Financial sponsorship of reparations activities should be explored from Blacks who have the monetary wherewithal and the political consciousness to help. Accepting financial donations from anyone who offers is not a good idea and can bring discredit from the Black community if the funds are from a suspicious source. Whatever activists can pay for themselves, they should do.
D. The biggest asset we will have in the implementation of this plan is talented Black folk: lawyers, teachers, business men and women, politicians, regular grass roots workers, writers, students, clergy, musicians and artists, etc. Actually, that may be enough.
-----------------------------------------------------
APPENDIXI. ONE-SHEETS/FLYERS (Suitable for the General Public, High School and College Students) A. REPARATIONS STRAIGHT TALKby David L. Horne for
The Reparations United Front of Southern CaliforniaReparations is an issue that African Americans must deal with in this country. Either we deal seriously with it, or others will deal with it for us, and impose their results on us. In memory of our ancestors and the totality of the Black Experience in this country, we simply cannot allow that to happen. So, we must educate ourselves about this issue, discuss it among ourselves, decide what we want to do about it, and decide what shape or form reparations for African Americans should take when it is ultimately achieved.
Don't waste time asking whether it will or won't be accomplished. Take the high road--affirm that it will be and move assertively and progressively regarding that decision. To help clear your mind about reparations for African Americans, here is some straightforward information on the What, Why and How of the concept.
WHAT THERE IS A SERIOUS DEBT OWED BY AMERICA TO THE BLACK AMERICAN POPULATION. THAT DEBT IS CALLED REPARATIONS (APOLOGY-COMPENSATION- ATONEMENT FOR INJURY CAUSED).
WHY 1. UP TO 78% OF THE BLACK AMERICAN POPULATION WAS UNJUSTLY ENSLAVED FROM 1661-1865 IN THE U.S. (Some argue that the inclusive dates were 1619-1865, but slavery was not exclusively a Black thing in America until first Maryland, then Virginia passed legal stipulations to that effect.) EVEN IF ONE WANTS TO START WITH THE FIRST AMERICAN GOVERNMENT--AS OPPOSED TO ENGLISH COLONIAL GOVERNMENT--DECLARED IN 1775-1776 BY THE FIRST OFFICIAL AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION (THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS) UNTIL 1865 (90 YEARS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY), THE PERCENTAGE OF BLACKS ENSLAVED ONLY INCREASES TO 88%.
2. BLACK AMERICANS WERE NOT PAID FOR THEIR LABOR, YET THAT SLAVE LABOR HELPED SUBSTANTIALLY TO BUILD AND TO ENRICH THIS COUNTRY. THIS IS NOT MYTH OR HYPERBOLE, BUT PROVABLE FACT. THIS PROCESS IS LEGALLY CALLED "UNJUST ENRICHMENT."
3. EVEN "FREE" BLACK AMERICANS WERE ENSLAVED THROUGH THE 1850 FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
(Through which Any White person could accuse Any Black person of being a slave, and the accusation alone could get one arrested and sent up river, since Blacks were prohibited from testifying in court even on their own behalf), AND THE 1857 DRED SCOTT CASE (the infamous Roger Taney ruling, that Blacks were not citizens of America, and thus "...there are no rights that the colored man has in America that the white man is bound to respect...").
4. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, BLACK AMERICANS WERE LEGALLY FREED (The 13TH AMENDMENT, ratified in December, 1865 ) BUT ECONOMICALLY RE-SHACKLED AND IMPOVERISHED BY LAWS OF THE FEDERAL AND SOUTHERN STATE GOVERNMENTS, INCLUDING TENANT FARMING, SHARE CROPPING AND THE CHAIN GANG SYSTEM. THIS IS LEGALLY CALLED "RELENTLESS" OR "CONTINUING HARM."
5. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONVINCED THE MAJORITY OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK POPULATION (WHERE 89% OF THE BLACK POPULATION LIVED) TO INVEST ALL OF THEIR MEAGER SAVINGS AND ASSETS IN THE FREEDMEN'S SAVINGS BANK, THEN ALLOWED CORRUPT BANK OFFICIALS THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAD APPOINTED TO STEAL THE MONEY AND TO CLOSE THE BANK WITH OVER $4 MILLION( valued at approximately $35 million today) OF THAT MONEY UNACCOUNTED FOR. THOSE OFFICIALS WERE NOT PROSECUTED NOR THE MONEY RECOVERED.
6. AFTER GIVING AMERICA ITS LOYALTY, ITS HARD WORK, AND ITS TRUST, THE BLACK AMERICAN POPULATION WAS PUNISHED BY THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS SIMPLY FOR BEING BLACK AND POOR. THIS PUNISHMENT WAS THROUGH THE BLACK CODES, LYNCHING, JIM CROWISM, DEFICIENT EDUCATION, RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS, BLACK DISENFRANCHISEMENT, AND COVERT AND OVERT PATTERNS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION. AND THIS PERSISTENT PUNISHMENT CONTINUES TODAY THROUGH 21ST CENTURY RACISM AND UNREMITTING DISRESPECT! THIS IS ALSO KNOWN AS MORE "RELENTLESS HARM."
7. SINCE 1865, MORE THAN 50 COURT CASES HAVE BEEN FILED AGAINST THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IN U.S. DISTRICT OR U.S. CIRCUIT COURT FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN REPARATIONS. THEY WERE ALL UNSUCCESSFUL BECAUSE OF THE "SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY" ISSUE ( PLAINTIFFS' LACK OF STANDING TO FILE THE CASE). TODAY, THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE DIFFERENT GROUPS WORKING ON FILING NEW COURT CASES WHICH CAN OVERCOME THAT GREAT OBSTACLE. THE CATO VS. U.S. CASE, 1995, IS INSTRUCTIVE READING.
HOW YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE BY SPREADING THE WORD AND TAKING UP THIS CAUSE! THEY OWE US!! TALK ABOUT REPARATIONS AT YOUR CHURCH, IN YOUR SCHOOLS, AT YOUR JOB, IN THE NEWSPAPERS !! DISCUSS IT! DEBATE IT! WRITE SONGS ABOUT REPARATIONS !! (As Pop Staples of the Staples Singers did in the 1970's, and Prince re-recorded and re-issued in January, 2001, "When Will We Be Paid?" ).
JOIN A REPARATIONS GROUP! GET IN THIS MOVEMENT AND LET'S GET THIS DONE !!!THEY RIGHTEOUSLY OWE US !!!REMEMBER REPARATIONS = RESPECT OUR FREEDOM IS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT RESPECT !!!==============================
B. SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
CONCERNING REPARATIONS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS1. Q. What does Reparations for African Americans really mean? A. It means getting the American government (federal, state, county and city) which supported the institution of slavery, lynching, institutional racism and other such things, to admit that it did a great injury to black people in this country, that that injury still continues, that the government apologizes for that injury, and that the government is willing to demonstrate its good faith in that apology by compensating African Americans in some relevant form determined by African Americans.
2. Q. Is Reparations only about Black folk getting money from White folk? A. No. The forms that Reparations will take will be decided by Black people talking together about that issue. It may be a 50-year trust fund accessible to any African American who wants to start a business. It may be a guaranteed scholarship to and through college for every African American high school graduate. It may be any of those and any of various other forms that we can generally agree on. Yes, some individual money will probably be involved but that will be only a small part of a much larger equation. Reparations will come from the American government, and private corporations that profited from slavery and the domestic slave trade, not individual White people.
3. Q. Won't this Reparations issue just divide America into racial camps by opening up old wounds?A. No, it won't. America is already divided into racial antagonism that simply won't die. Why? In great part, it is because those "old wounds" never healed. America essentially does not respect Black Americans. Slavery in America left a legacy of White privilege and entitlement, and Black deficiency and disrespect. It will take Reparations to seriously begin the process of racial Healing and interracial Respect in this country.
4. Q. Isn't Welfare a kind of Reparations for African Americans? A. No. Welfare comes from the taxes all Americans pay. Most of the people on Welfare in America are White, not Black, and the Welfare System was designed to be that way. Welfare has nothing to do with Reparations.
5. Q. Can we really win this? A. Yes, we can and we will. We will win with mother wit, a lot of research and hard work, and a great deal of strategizing and persistence. We cannot give up. We owe it to our ancestors. We owe it to our history and to ourselves. It is time. It is right. It is inevitable. Our best and brightest minds are on this as we speak, and we will not be denied. Come on, people! Get on the train!! All Abooard the Reparations Express !! They owe us!!!!
6. Q. Is there a prominent role for the Black Church? A. Absolutely. The Black Church has been part and parcel of every serious movement for our racial betterment in our history in America. The Reparations Movement is a culmination of much of what our ancestors fought and died for. The Black Church must be involved in the leadership and energy of this mighty movement to restore the dignity of being Black in America, and to re-capture the respect that is due to Black folk in this country and in the world. Those in congregations should urge your particular church to get involved right now!!
7. Q. What was the role of Arabs Spaniards and Africans in the enslavement of Black people around the world? A. There has been an Arab slave trade from East Africa and from West Africa northwards since at least 200 a.d. In fact, there was an Arab enslavement and trade of Africans well before and all through the time of Muhammad's founding and establishment of Islam, and both of these activities were perpetuated after Muhammad by many of those who professed to be Muslims. From modern reports out of the African countries of Sudan, Mauritania and Morocco, vestiges of that Arab slave trade still exist in the year 2003.
Will there be a reparations reckoning with the Arabs over this issue? Yes, but not now. That issue is on the reparations agenda, but it is way down on the list.
The Portuguese and the Spanish were the first two European nations "legally" approved by the Catholic Church to capture, transport and trade Africans. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese not only took African captives to parts of Europe for sale and exhibition, the two countries brought hundreds of thousands, even millions, of African slaves into South America, the Caribbean and North America.
Thus, there were African slaves in Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Barbados, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, etc., as a direct result of Portuguese and Spanish slave trading. Some African tribal groups participated heavily in raiding, capturing and selling other Africans; some African groups initially participated in this practice, then stopped and became opponents of the process; and some African tribal groups ferociously fought the process from the outset and continued to resist it no matter what. Examples of the first group include the Kanem-Bornu "kingdom" in West Central Africa; examples of the second group include the Ashanti and portions of the Congolese; and examples of the third include segments of the Mende-Malinke, the Mossi,and the Coromantians. Read From Chains to Bonds, Doudou Diene,ed., UNESCO, 2001, for more information on this African participation and resistance to the slave trade.
8. Q. Is there a deadline period for achieving reparations? A. No, there is no deadline period for achieving reparations, either in America or elsewhere in the world. We will just keep at it until the task is accomplished, no matter how long it takes. Patience must be practiced, since strategic planning and implementation take time. Also, the reparations struggle is too deep, too wide, and too fundamentally at the core of what the U.S. really is about for there to be a fixed date set. That being said, there are various hoped- for target dates--2007-8, 2010, 2020--that several activists have mentioned, but those are just that, mobile target dates.
9. Q. How does the Reparations Movement connect to the effort to save our Black colleges and Black hospitals from closing/disaccreditation ? A. There is both an Internal Reparations Movement and an External Reparations Movement going on simultaneously. For the former, there are community strengthening, community control, and community institution building and consolidation activities that must occur. While we cannot allow ourselves to get misdirected to the point of dealing only with the everyday problems of racism, discrimination and Black disrespect, we also cannot ignore immediate and debilitating problems ongoing in our communities. Rescuing the Black colleges that are threatened with closure is one of those problems, and so is stopping the closure and disqualification of hospitals and trauma centers in the Black community. There are many other immediacies like these wherever we live. Those who have the expertise, contacts and skills should deal with those situations, including making sure there are future plans drawn up to stop this constant cycle of fiscal crisis and even fiscal mismanagement and/or constant understaffing and underfunding.. But the rest of us must keep working on the External Reparations struggle. Remember: all of our major problems as a people--the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the Black prison overpopulation, persistent school failure, etc.— are symptoms of the larger issue of persistent, pernicious Black disrespect and the relentless promotion in the U.S. of the negative value of being Black. If we spend all of our time dealing with all of the brush fires, we'll never attack and overwhelm the core forest fire from which they all emanate.
Again, good strategic planning requires a proper and timely allocation of our talents and resources to both the immediate and the long-term issues, i.e., the small picture and the big picture.
D. ONE SHEETS/FLYERS (Suitable for Middle School )R is the Respect that’s due when you worked hard rather than play
E is for the Equality you’ve earned by contributing in every way
P is for being Poor and Landless because they wouldn’t pay
A is for the Anger you felt when they chained you to make you stay
R is for Reclaiming what’s yours no matter what they say
A is for our Ancestors for whom we’ll win this come what may
T is for the Trees they used to make us swing and sway
I is for the I Won’t forget that burns in me as I lay
O is for our Origins and the story that we must convey
N is for the Never Again will we allow them to hold us at bay
S is for the Struggle we’ll wage and win for a brighter day
Inspired By Two Young Brothers(
Nigel and Kiawe)
May ‘04
==================================
A Little Rap(hasody)Reparations is the nameRespect and Freedom is our claim
In this democratic game
That stole from us but take no blame
For what they did should be ashamed
But whaddaya know, they take no blame
For what they did, should be ashamed
But in their eyes ain’t nuthin ta change.
Reparations is the nameFreedom and justice is our claim
And we learned to take dead aim
Since Willie Lynch done snitched their game
They tryin to play us all the same
But Willie Lynch done snitched their game
Yeah, we ran before when they came
But now it’s time for a rearrange
dlh ‘04
=========================================
E. ONE SHEETS (Kindergarten—3rd Grade) KNOW WHAT?There was a man Who worked real hard He got no pay But his back got scarred There was a young girl With dreams and things Did what she was told But sold for string There was a woman They worked her to death She fed their children Hers got hung for theft There was an owner Had lots of farm hands Took away our freedom Still owes us some land=================================
A Little Song (Umph Umph Umph Umph)Gonna do what’s right
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Fair wins this fight
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gonna do what’s right
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Fair’s outta sight
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gonna tell the truth
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Want a Baby Ruth
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gonna tell the truth
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Else I’ll be uncouth
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gotta be for real
Umph Umph Umph Umph
What I did revealed
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gotta be for real
Umph Umph Umph Umph
No lock and seal
Umph Umph Umph Umph
When you work a man
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Tyin him tight as you can
Umph Umph Umph Umph
When you work a man
Umph Umph Umph Umph
You can’t steal his land
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Here’s how it will go
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Gotta pay what you owe
Umph Umph Umph Umph
Here’s the way it’ll go
Umph Umph Umph Umph
You’ll reap what you sow
======================
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ cover story at The Atlantic, “The Case for Reparations,” published last night — and the subject of this week’s Moyers & Company interview
— shows how dramatically the legacy of slavery and centuries of
legalized and institutionalized racism have held back our country’s
African-American population. In 2014, there still very much exists what
in 1967 Martin Luther King described as “two Americas,”
one “overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of
opportunity,” the other tainted by “a daily ugliness … that constantly
transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.”
