ara ion : A crucial issue for
frican Americans in the 90
y D
The Soviet Union recently
dmiued that i troop were
respo ible for the laughter of
�tA
, �I
FO TH(
11�! (om v
1 S.OOO Polish Citize dwing
World War II. The Soviet Union
officially apologized to the
Poli h people and pledged to
pay REP ARA TIONS for thi
beino crime.
That ame wee the newly
formed East German Govern­
ment apoloogized to world
Jewry for the participation of
East Germans in the "program"
which resulted in the murder of
6 million Jews. The East Ger­
man Government offered to
make COMPENSA nON to the
survivors of the Jewish
Holocaust.
Reparations for genocide or
crime committed against a na­
tion or people is a well estab­
r hed principle nd prscuce in
international law.
. Indeed, after four decades of
evading the issue, the United
States Congre finally reed to
pay rep rations to Japanese­
American who were unjustly
interned in American con­
centraation camps during World
War n.
All of this leads to the ob­
vious question, when will
Africans in America be compen-
ated for the enormous crim
committed against Africans in
America during the Trans-At­
lantic Slave Trade and imposi­
tion of the American Shattel
Slave System'! Or as the stapl
Singe use to put it "when will
we get p id for the work we
have already done'!" .
Tin: AFRICAN
HOLOCAU I' was the greatest
holocaust in human history. Ac­
cording to W.E.B. Dubois, as
many as 100' million Africans
may have I t their lives in the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Even more conservative es­
timates' place the I t of life at
30-50 million.
In ddition to the staggering
lost of life, Africa nd African
people suffered crippling "un­
derdevelopment" because of the
enormo social economic and
political disruptions and disloca­
tions caused by the slave trade.
As Walter Rodne.y 0 bril­
liantly articulated it. Europe and
America grew wealthy and
developed while Africa and
African people were under­
developed.
In America it was the free
labor of captive Africans which
provided the urplus capital for
this natiom accelerated agricul­
tural, commercial and industrial
development. ..
AMERICA
PROSPERITY WAS built on
the backs of the African Slaves.
And when Africans in America
were "emancipated" we were
subjected 'to decade of racial
oppression, violence, lynching,
segregation and ruthless,
economic. subjection and ex-
ploitation. . .
We were freed and hurled
into a hostile. racist. c pitalist
SOCiety without land, capital or
compensation, not even "40
acres and a mule".
The outcom was/i predict­
able. Africans in American have
never overcome the physical,
spiritual and cultural distruction
of slavery and it aftermath.
Hence we appro h the 21st
century, mas ive numbers of
African American re till lock­
ed in povcty. victimized by
racism, unemploym nt and un­
development.
For a number of years
1 1
5, 1990 MICHIGAN �
29·
nationalist leaders from Ma
Garvey to Malcolm X to Q
. Mother Moore have argued 1
Africans in America are entitled.
to reparations because of the
centurie of free labor. which
America extracted from our
forebears, and because of the
crimes of genocide which ere
conducted against Africans in
America.
Queen Mother Moore most
notably h w ged an uncom­
promising crusade to m ke
America pay for the physical,
cultural and spiritual destruction
(genocide) of African
Americans.
Unfortunately the call for
reparations has fallen on deaf
ears, even within the African
American community. Until
recently the aculturation,.
americanization, and de-
africanization of Africans in
America rendered the idea of
reparations virtua Iy
unimaginabl . But of late,
reality of th continu d rae al
and economic exploitation f
African Americans, particular y,
the Black poor i haltering t
"ill u ion of progre "and t e
myth of the "Am rican Dream .
A BILL I TRODUCED in
the Mas achus et legi lature
by Senator Bill Owens of So -
ton dem nding reparation
provoked an av lanche of new
intere t in the reparations i u.
Now even mainstream poli ti­
cal leaders like Jesse Jac on,
and Congo John Conyers have
embraced the traditional
nationali t call or reparations.
Conyers has in roduced H.R.
3745 . which w uld create a
Presidential Commission to
study the val idit of the African
, Ron
Olnl
VANTAGE
POINT
American cI im to rep rations.
African Americans are en­
ti tied to reparations. The . u
hould not even be debatable. If
every other group can receive
reparations for crime com­
mitted against them, then
African Americans, having been
afflicted by he greater t
holocaust in human history. are
morally entitled to just ompen-
tion.
Regret bly the Unit d State
will not move imply bas d on
the righteousne and morality
of our claim.
The United State paid
reparations to Japanese
Americans beca of th grow-
ing economic and political
power of Japan.
IN TH IN AL an I y i ,
African Americans will receiv
reparations wh n we decid to
make reparation a non-n go­
tiable d mand a part of the
African Am rican agend .
Reparations will be granted
wh n we am the power to
force American to heed our
legitimat claim.
This Week In
Black History
APRIL 1 51
P ke at
woman's rights convention.
1983 - Harold Wa hington w
worn in as first Black m yor of
Chi ago.
APRIL , .1822 - Hiram
Revel • th first Black U.S.
Senator, was born. I 43 -
Blacks p rticipated in n tional
political convention for th first
tim at Buff 10, N.Y. conven­
tion .
• MAY I, 1 5 - Constance
Baker Motley fir t and only
woman elect d Borough Presi­
dent of Manhatt n. 19
Mr .. Emma Clari Clement, '
fi rst Black woman nam d
"Mother or the Year."
MA Y 2, - The last census
before the Civil War counted
3,953,760 lave. 1 3 - Elijah
McCoy, jnventor and hold r of
more than 50 pat n ,w born.
MA Y 3, 1835 and 1836 - A
Maryland slave received patents
for two com harve ters. 192 -
Sug r Ray Robinson, boxer w
born. 1933 - Jame Brown.
Inger, was born.
MA Y 4, 1984 - South
African Bi hop Desmond Tutu
won the obel Peace Prize.
1942 - Nick Ashford. com­
po er nd Inger wa born.
1 93 - Bill Pickell. Blac cow­
y, named origin tor of t r
wrestling.
MA V 5, 1853 - Fi rst Black
YMCA org nized in
Wa hington, D.C. 195
Gwendolyn Brooks won Pulitzer
Prize for poetry, Annie Allen.