Posted by TheBlackList on July 30, 2008 at 12:14pm
Congressional apology today, reparations accord tomorrow
By Minister Ari S. Merretazon, merretazon@comcast.net
Board Member, Northeast Representative
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA)
Recently, July 30, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by voice vote Congressional
Resolution 194, entitled A pologizing for the Enslavement and racial Segregation of African American .
Introduced by Congressman Steve Cohen (D.TN) introduced last year, its passing marks the first time
that the federal government has ever formally apologized for the enslavement and racial segregation of
Africans and their descendants in America. Thanks to the endless work of National Coalition of Blacks
for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) and other organizations this is a historic moment marking a
victory in the ongoing struggle for human rights, and is a sign that reparations for Blacks in America
are closer than they appear.
Words of Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s significant founding fathers, are instructive now than
ever before, “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most
unremitting despotism (tyranny) on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. Indeed I
tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” In other
words justice for Blacks and the reparations movement in America is a mission of God. This is an issue
that politicians cannot denounce or reject forever.
The task of making what Jefferson said be so is in the hands of a more enlighten generation. America is
at a time of real change where the damage done to Black life, culture and human possibilities will be
restored or the change Obama is spinning is spineless hope without audacity. Those who love America,
and are willing to show it, can do this in twelve years, along with winning the war on terror, and revive
a failing economy.
Don’t get it twisted; reparations are not about the shrinking dollar. As I have said elsewhere reparations
are 1) the cross-road solution to our human capital development, and 2) reparations are ways and
means; the really real reality of infrastructure development codified within The Reparations Accord for
Blacks in America which will coordinate the many ways and means of repairing the damage. As I have
said in previous commentary the issue is no longer should reparations be authorized to Blacks, but what
should be the elements of the reparations accord.
N’COBRA sincerely appreciate U.S. Congressman John Conyers’ efforts to stay on the front line with
this issue with his enduring leadership and congressional diplomacy over the last 20 years to awaken
the moral spirit of justice in the U.S. citizenry to repair the damage done to the enslaved ancestors of
Blacks in America. This is a good first step.
The National Coalition of Blacks in America (N’COBRA) has long stated its position on the growing
number of resolutions of profound regret and questionable apology at all levels of public government
and private corporations. These resolutions should be supported only as means to open dialog on the
elements of repair that must be included in tomorrow’s reparations accord for Blacks in America.
The resolution could have been crafted in such a way that it would lead America out of its shameful
denial and acknowledge and attribute the inordinately high levels of poverty, health related issues, poor
education, poor housing, crime, dysfunctional families, etc., existing in present day African descendant
communities which can be directly linked to the American era of enslavement.
N’COBRA position remains, notwithstanding congressional electoral politics and Obama-mania that at
least five of the lasting injury areas must be resolved and recommendations of ways and means made
for repairing the damage. The five injury areas are fatherhood/peoplehood, education, criminal
punishment, wealth/poverty, and health. Obama is talking about these areas but omits and obfuscates
the context.
As with any true apology/confession it is expected that the perpetrator(s) of the crime state as
accurately as possible what the apology is for, seek repentance, and be willing to repair the damage
done by acts of commission and omission which have lingered as vestiges of the original acts of
destruction of a civilization. An apology alone falls short, without both full acknowledgment of the
conduct that caused the injuries.
Those of us who are about true hope and real change will continue to think about tomorrow and never
forget the Holocaust of African enslavement. And, as true patriots, work for real and lasting change,
regardless who is in the White House, to assure the monstrous destruction of human life, human
culture, and human possibilities never occur again.
Moreover, Blacks, individually and united, must express disagreement with the final language of the
resolution because it fails to include the truthful portrayal of African descendants in American history
that cannot be denied. The African descendant view must be that this era in American history is more
appropriately termed a Holocaust of Enslavement of African Peoples rather that the usual acceptable
euphemisms for American terrorism and uneven emphasis placed on commerce as in “forced labor” or
trade as in “slave trade.”
Congressman Cohen should politic relentlessly for establishing a commission, as recommended by
HR40, a Bill sponsored by Congressman Conyers in 1988, to “examine the institution of slavery,
subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and
the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on
appropriate remedies.”
-asm
https://theblacklist.net/
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