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October 28th 03, 01:12 AM
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U.S. Slave Reburial Fans Question of Reparations
Per usual I was miles ahead of the curve with my posting demanding
reparations for black victims of American oppression several weeks ago. As much as you wish it to white America, this issue is NOT going to go away! I for one will fan the flames of justifiable black anger at racist America every opportunity I am given. Extremism in the defense of black justice is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of reparations for them is no virtue! Without apology I am Keke Goldfeller Mon Oct 27, 8:48 AM ET By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) - The recent reburial of the remains of hundreds of African-American slaves in New York put little to rest aside from some bones from America's darkest hour, say many who took part in the ceremonies. In fact, the historic reburial was a powerful call to action to fight for respect, resources and, most of all, reparations for black people, they said. Demands that the United States pay restitution to the descendants of slaves have long simmered, but the reburial gave fresh focus to them. "We are angry and we will be angry today, tomorrow and tomorrow. We will never cease to demand that this country 'fess up and pay up," said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a New York minister and activist, at a ceremony this month to rebury the remains of more than 400 free and enslaved blacks in a colonial-era cemetery rediscovered in lower Manhattan in 1991. "There's a day of reparation, there's a day of restitution and that day is upon us," he said. The slaves' remains were discovered 12 years ago during construction of a federal building in New York and the African Burial Ground just north of City Hall was declared a landmark. The remains and other artifacts unearthed were sent to Howard University in Washington, D.C., for study and sent back for reburial earlier this month. Reparations would pay for centuries of slavery, which ended just a few generations ago, leaving a devastated people still struggling for equal footing, some said. "Slavery still haunts America," said Raymond Winbush, a scholar and author of "Should America Pay?" "Its impact is felt in the wealth that white America, and actually the Western world has, and the poverty of black America," he said. "You can still see it today in Harlem or the south side of Chicago. I see it every time I walk the streets of big cities." Activists point out that in the United States the infant mortality rate among blacks is more than double that of whites, blacks drop out of high school at twice the rate as whites, blacks earn two-thirds of what whites earn, twice as many American blacks than whites live in poverty and blacks make up a vastly disproportionate percentage of the prison population. 40 ACRES AND A MULE They say reparations could come in many forms -- the value of the 40 acres and a mule freed blacks were promised when slavery ended, how much of white people's worth is attributable to previous generations, the value of generations of unpaid slave labor combined with a century of segregation or even the entire cost of slavery and colonialism. Estimates of the price tag run anywhere from $2 trillion to a whopping $777 trillion. While reparations would be "a very healing act for America, Dalton Conley, a sociology professor and author of "Honky," said: "It's a pipe dream." Columnist Thomas Sowell sees seeking reparations as a backward-looking mistake. In a syndicated column last year he said it would be more productive for young black people to take advantage of the "opportunities all around them that most people in the rest of the world today would die for." "The ancestors of black Americans were not taken from some Eden, and there is no Eden for black Americans to return to today. If compensation were to be paid for the difference between where they are and where their ancestors came from, they would owe money, not receive money," he wrote. At the reburial ceremony, New York City Councilman Charles Barron suggested reparations in the form of education, property or tax exemptions. "If you want to honor us, pay us our reparations," he said. RESPECT AND DIGNITY Muntu Matsimela, a local radio producer, is part of a group hoping to hold a national conference on reparations in New York next summer during the Republicans' political convention. "You're talking about 265 years of unpaid labor. You're talking about trillions of dollars," he said. Efforts on reparations have been made around the world. U.S. insurance company Aetna Inc. and railroad CSX Corp. have been sued over their activities during the years of U.S. slavery, the United States paid reparations to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II, Swiss banks agreed to pay Holocaust survivors and Japan has been the subject of reparations cases over atrocities committed during the war. Winbush is confident America will eventually pay too. "I think it's going to happen. I'm very optimistic. It's a very slow process. This country usually ultimately does do the right thing," he said. But Conley argued that even if the idea of reparations is a pipe dream, it's valuable nevertheless. "Even if it's now a pipe dream, it's still important to have that academic debate," he said. "It's a debate about what the meaning of history is, it's a debate about how history and economics intersect and it's a debate about identity." |
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#2
October 28th 03, 07:56 AM
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#3
October 28th 03, 06:42 PM
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"Keke Goldfeller" wrote in message om... Per usual I was miles ahead of the curve with my posting demanding reparations for black victims of American oppression several weeks ago. As much as you wish it to white America, this issue is NOT going to go away! I for one will fan the flames of justifiable black anger at racist America every opportunity I am given. Extremism in the defense of black justice is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of reparations for them is no virtue! Without apology I am Keke Goldfeller Race baiters like you should be killed, without apology of course. |
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#4
October 28th 03, 07:20 PM
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#5
October 29th 03, 02:25 AM
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