By Michael L. Betsch CNSNews.com Staff Writer August 18, 2002

Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) - Thousands of blacks rallied in Washington Saturday in support of reparations for past slavery, joining Nation of Islam Leader Minister Louis Farrakhan and shouting "They owe us!"

"We're not asking white people [for reparations]," said Farrakhan, who headlined the 'Millions for Reparations Mass Rally'. "We are demanding what is justly ours."

Farrakhan also urged enlisted military personnel to not fight for the U.S. should an armed strike against Iraq be initiated, and called for the ceding of land to black Americans.

The Nation of Islam minister told the predominantly black, pro-reparations crowd that "reparations is a proper theme around which all black America should and must unite."

Farrakhan believes the U.S. government should issue reparations to black Americans as compensation for past slavery in the United States, saying "our pocketbooks" need repair.

By his account, blacks need "payment for the destruction of our minds; the robbery of our language, our culture, our history, our religion, our God, our self-dignity, and our self-worth."

However, Farrakhan said, "We cannot accept a cash payment because a fool and his money will soon part." Instead, he advocated the transfer of "millions" of acres of land from the U.S. government to African Americans.

Farrakhan explained that blacks live in an America that is a "nation within a nation." The America that blacks inhabit, he said, does not enjoy "true freedom, justice and equality" from white America.

"As a nation within a nation, we need land as a basis of economic and political independence," Farrakhan said. "We cannot settle for some little jive token - we need millions of acres of land that black people can build and use for ourselves."

Farrakhan said his "just demand" for building a black nation on American soil would reward blacks for their service in the United States military.

He concluded his brief 15-minute speech urging blacks, Hispanics and "poor whites" enlisted in the military not to support or fight in any military attack that President Bush may unleash upon Iraq.

"I don't think we need to fight in the white man's army," Farrakhan said. "Our fight is in America against the recalcitrance of white supremacy, and we shall win this fight because it's a just struggle."

Socialist Agrees With Farrakhan on Reparations

"There should be restitution for the crimes of slavery," said John Coursey, a representative of Solidarity, a group that describes itself as a "revolutionary, socialist, democratic, feminist, anti-racist organization." He claimed that much of the inequalities that exist in American society today can be traced back to slavery.

Coursey acknowledges that slavery was outlawed in the U.S. more than a century ago, but laws and segregation continued to oppress blacks well into the 1970s and still do so today.

He believes corporations operating in America today should also pay reparations to blacks for the hardships of their ancestors decades and centuries ago.

"Specifically, I think the money should come from corporations that have built their power today from exploiting and oppressing black people," Coursey said. "Look at the people that have wealth who have actually exploited slavery and benefited from it."

Coursey said a reparations payout to blacks would act to balance America's "widely unequal" distribution of wealth.

Green Party Rep Compares Slavery to Holocaust

"If Germany could apologize for its crimes against gypsies and the Jews, why can't this country begin to do some apology and soul searching about what it's done to the American Indians and black people," asked David Barrows, a protestor representing the D.C. Statehood Green Party.

Slavery reparations are an official policy of the Green Party nationwide and the D.C. Statehood Green Party, Barrows said.

Barrows believes that compensating blacks is a great opportunity for the U.S. government to make a "clean break" from its oppressive past. "Reparations is a good start," he said.

"The country has to say, 'We committed crimes against humanity against a major part of our people, and we do not want to be a part of this exploitation,'" Barrows said.

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2002

Answers

The trouble with reparations

WashTimes

Balint Vazsonyi

For a number of years, it seemed reparations for slavery was something of a wild card used by the likes of Jesse Jackson if their names were absent from the papers for a few weeks. Since the proposition was devoid of moral or intellectual merit, I thought it would never be taken seriously.

But now it's upon us and a demonstration was held yesterday in the nation's capital, making the demand official. We had better take it seriously.

I respectfully make the identical recommendation to advocates of the proposition.

Whereas the rule of law outside most of the English-speaking world has been the dream of a few, the Founding Fathers made it reality in America. A major component of this success has been the vesting of rights in individuals — as opposed to groups — with corresponding individual responsibility. The ancient aspiration of equality before the law was thus placed within the grasp of all who were to come to America.

Unless I am mistaken, the thrust of the civil rights movement as articulated by Martin Luther King was a similar aspiration. Focusing on the "content of character" as opposed to "color of skin" can mean only that people of African ancestry should be treated as individuals.

A great deal of effort has gone into making the foregoing reality — effort, and money. Millions used the opportunity to get ahead. But many black leaders ignored the effort to create a truly integrated society and embarked on a never-ending litany of past and present injuries. Over the decades since passage of the civil rights legislation, they have succeeded in building great resentment of white America.

The real danger of embarking on the reparations debate in earnest is that it will put the clock back several decades. It will unavoidably pit black against white and vice versa. It will not only consolidate the influence of the enemies of integration on both sides, but drive wedges between people who today are working together in true harmony.

Early on, I mentioned the absence of any moral or intellectual merit. Though obvious, a point or two may be worth recalling. Since the past cannot be changed, there is no such thing as "righting a historic wrong." If people come to believe injustice is being committed, they can change the terms for the future. Significantly, in the present case, those who were wronged, and those who wronged them, are long dead. Consequently, extorting money from people who have done nothing wrong for people who have not been wronged is possible only by invoking collective responsibility.

Aye, there's the rub, Shakespeare would say.

Hand in hand with collective responsibility goes collective evaluation of every kind. And it's not a one-sided game, nor is wishful thinking of much practical value. Current example: The Arab/Muslim world holds America responsible for all its woes, but protests erupt when America holds the Arab/Muslim world responsible for terrorism committed by some of its members. To no avail. It's either one way or the other.

Genuine, ongoing and lasting improvement for black Americans is achievable only through individual effort, harvesting individual appreciation. The interference by those who continue trading on slavery has already slowed the benefits to all. If an additional blow is now struck through the reparations demand, it may be fatal. It took millennia to establish individual rights. It took centuries for black people to secure equal participation in that rare blessing. If it is thrown away, there may not be another chance for some time.

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2002

Sorry I still feel that if you feel so "wronged" we will gladly buy you a one way ticket back to Africa. Feel free to leave immediately.

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2002