When the U.S. apologized to Japanese Americans and other groups it has abused, it involved a legal apology signed off by both Houses of Congress, i.e. the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and signed off by the President of the United States and they paid reparations. That is a legal apology. We don't have that yet. What we have is a resolution, which is not a U.S. Public Law; it is just an opinion and there is no mention of payment at all.Also, there is no historical precedent for reparations having been paid by any government to any People for abuses without an effective demand for reparations by that People. Though there has been a growing number of reparations organizations, U.S. African slave descendants are yet to make an effective demand for reparations for slavery. This would seem to be a grand opportunity for so-called black leaders to galvanize Black People around a demnd for payment, in whatever forms we demand. We will work that out. The issue of what form need not be a pre debate, which often ends in being a deterrent to any form of payment and more inaction while we simply argue over the form.We have formed no legal compact amongst ourselves around slavery to say who we are and what we are demanding. This could be our golden opportunity to form a legal compact as U.S. slaves regardless of our religious or political or philosophical bent; we have U.S. slavery in common; that is the fact. So-called black leaders are in grand position to bring us together if they are willing to go forward with the compact. Apologize to who? Who are we? What is our organization? What is our address? Where is negroland and who is it president? This is an excellent time of political juggling for all manners of so-called apologies to come forth because the slaves are not organized to effectively demand reparations or to receive them in any respectable figures. Reparations should not be what they give us, but what we demand and negotiate based from a point of organization and power through demand. Most of us are looking on as spectators and they are saying anything they like, like slavery ended in 1865. Slavery will not end until the slavemaster meets with the slaves as human beings and the terms of ending the war and ending slavery are agreed upon and there is a legal settlement as we determine who we are (self determination). How can you make your slave your citizen without meeting with him or even asking him? You can do it because you are still the slave master. The 13th Amendment did end end slavery, just read it. The 13th Amendment could not have ended slavery anyway, because it did not include the input of the slaves as human beings. It is a White Unilateral Act and lacks legality since we are not party to it by mutuality. All of these standards of law are somehow waived when it comes to slave issues and even many of our Black lawyers don't seem to get this point of mutuality. So we have a so-called apology and a growing slew of them over the past couple of years that are not U.S. Public Law but are called apologies anyway and there has been no meeting of the minds (the parties)around the issue because who are they going to meet with? We don't exist as any legal entity until we compact to form one.Omowale ZaBlack Reparations Activisthttp://www.directblackaction.com
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