Meaning Of Reparations

Blacks were not offered assistance when they arrived, they were in chains and their wages were withheld for 244 years! This prevented comprehensive action as a unit which prohibited them from establishing outlets and institutions to serve their needs. African-Americans should understand they are victims of crimes that go back for hundreds of years including spiritual and psychological abuse. These crimes left Blacks with no knowledge of themselves, no social or political coherence, no economic structure and a lack of love for one another.

There are misconceptions about Reparations because opponents of the issue have used the media and a few sellout Blacks to promote Reparations as a single issue as if it were institutional racism, aids, drugs, gang related killings, police brutality or some other matter that bears a significant impact on the Black community. Reparations is much bigger than any of these issues and any others that you can visualize because it is a tool African-Americans can use to address all of the problems they have.

Reparations is a multifaceted system that cannot be defined in singular terms. African-Americans should have a clear understanding of Reparations and its purpose, since they have been mislead in both regards. To understand Reparations we should know the word means to repair, so Blacks should identify every individual and collective problem they have with the intent of developing solutions. The 5-phase plan was designed for all community conscious people Black and White to pursue Black Reparations in this manner. To know the purpose of Reparations we should know the status of Africans prior to transgressions by the perpetrators. We should show a point in time where injuries occurred or began to occur; then we can produce programs to restore Blacks towards an equivalent status today factoring traditional values, unpaid labor, stolen contributions and restricted movement. African-Americans can use this information to determine restitution amounting to creating institutions and improving their group’s condition. Blacks believe they should have the same status and opportunity as other minorities but they should realize the arrival and conditioning of all minority groups plays a vital role in access to rights and privileges.

The difference is other minority groups come to America to take advantage of opportunities that will give them a better life. They locate areas where they can create a comfortable setting for their ethnic group, then they build their area to reflect their culture and they retain their names and language, enabling them to identify their heritage. They get credit and services that assist them with personal needs and adapting to the American system, which includes housing, educational and small business loans and grants. All of these factors come with the blessing of the government and others are encouraged to invite members of their race to join them in America so they can enjoy life in a fair and safe democratic society. When others come to America and work as a unit for 30-40 years, they are able to pool their resources to create corporations and entities that will allow them to make progress as a group.

Blacks were not offered assistance when they arrived, they were in chains and their wages were withheld for 244 years! This prevented comprehensive action as a unit which prohibited them from establishing outlets and institutions to serve their needs. African-Americans should understand they are victims of crimes that go back for hundreds of years including spiritual and psychological abuse. These crimes left Blacks with no knowledge of themselves, no social or political coherence, no economic structure and a lack of love for one another. The duration of the crimes and depths of pain and suffering Blacks experienced, in addition to slave laws and codes that were passed to exclude them from certain areas and benefits, created many serious problems for their people. Reparations is the only path African-Americans can follow that will lead them to develop solutions for all of their problems starting with the Willie Lynch driven division and inferiority complex and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS).

Blacks have gone through generations of focusing on how to solve one problem or another and it always leaves them susceptible to problems that rise in other areas, which causes great harm to their people. This is keeping them divided and the powers that be provide incentives to perpetuate divisions among their people. The powers that be have Blacks fighting among themselves over which problems to solve, and the grants and funds process available to help them, and to compound problems the process allots money to groups the system selects because they will accept the funds with strings attached.

The bottom line is African-Americans have too many serious problems to focus on one area. Blacks should have various committees and commissions to find solutions for their problems but there is a great need to operate from a strong united foundation, which should be Reparations. I believe Blacks can come closer together in order to facilitate the production of wise solutions for all of their problems and they can nurture the desire to part from divisions.

Visit Committee for African-American Reparations (CAAR)

*****
To subscribe to or advertise in The Black Star News, the world’s favorite Pan-African news weekly, please call (212) 481-7745. Contact us via
[email protected] if you have any questions or news tips.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *