I was assisted in the transcription and commentary of this open letter by a solid bottle of Cooper & Thief Red Blend (Aged in Bourbon Barrels) 2019 – Lodi California. A blend of Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel, Petit Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Leading in with spiced vanilla, caramel, and bourbon. Inky and rich. A sustain of black cherry, figs, and plums. Medium tannins. Moderate acidity. Ending with maple, vanilla, and sweet spice. Clean but medium finish.
“You are growing into consciousness and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.”
Ta-Nehisi Coates
“When we say that people [American Freedmen] are poor, we’re not talking about people just lacking money. We’re talking about people who are living under particular conditions that destroy values, minds, outlooks, spirits, and continue to perpetuate poverty through the types of [downtrodden] psychology that is ultimately inculcated within those people.”
Dr. Amos Wilson
Gentlemen of the Pure Reparations Movement – in this post I want to highlight the real fact of the Sister Soldiers in our movement. This powerful letter was penned by powerful Sister Morgan Malachi of the Tubman House Center For Reparative Justice (a link to their website is at the bottom of this post).
Her Twitter handle is: @Moreaga1865 – follow her.
One of the things that struck me about this letter is that it – in concrete writer-ship is showing me that the simple message and the complex implications of reparations is becoming the mentality of young American Freedmen. Right Now. At the same time – THE SISTERS have been absolutely breathtaking in their understanding, their up-front advocacy, and their steadfastness. I could find no lies in this letter. Between the lines though – that Black mama, sister, auntie, type protectiveness – Y’all know what I mean. That love. That unconditional trust. Came through.
The other reason I reposted this letter is because I was getting a little worn-out from the “advocational grind.” You Know? And getting tired of being unjustly attacked by some of the less enlightened advocates simply because I was born in 1956 (the Sisters protected me against that too – shot my opposition down). This letter (along with Sister Morgan) re-inspired and reinvigorated me to continue the work despite all the despites I could use to excuse myself from reparations justice activities.
Here It Is:
An Open Letter to American Freedmen (Otherwise Known as Black Americans) On the Issue of Lineage Based Reparations
By Tubman House Center For Reparative Justice
The growing grassroots push for reparations has been tainted by an erroneous narrative questioning who the descendants of US chattel slavery are and how this Black population can possibly be distinguished from the current Black immigrant population. This ahistorical narrative is extremely dismissive and rooted in the inherent disrespect of American Freedmen. We write this as members of the grassroots American Freedmen reparations community.
A so-called ‘legacy’ organization, the “National African American Reparations Commission” (NAARC), spoke out against lineage-based reparations in a recent press release, stating that this is the “second time” they’re addressing who qualifies for American Freedmen reparations. Did we not hear about it the first time because NAARC is only interested in maintaining their position as gatekeepers in the [reparations activist] community?
Who gave NAARC, and the affiliated organizations mentioned in the press release permission to assert themselves as the leaders in this movement? Affiliates like the “National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America” (N’COBRA), Black Lives Matter (BLM), Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), the NAACP, National Urban League, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, National Congress of Black Women, National Council of Negro Women, and the National Action Network (NAN)?
Did NAARC present their perspective to the masses of American Freedmen to obtain any consensus? No perspective given that we’ve seen. In truth, NAARC’s letter is rife with common misconceptions and obtuse questions used to muddle the righteous justice claim of American Freedmen. [See 1]
Queen Mother Moore was a leading figure in the reparations struggle of the twentieth century, she authored a pamphlet titled: “Why Reparations?” in 1963. The pamphlet is an extensive account of atrocities American Freedmen endured during slavery throughout the Reconstruction era. She also writes a timeline on direct reparation payments throughout history. Queen Mother Moore’s language and specificity of the people harmed and their descendants who demand repair was very clear. Here is a powerful passage from “Why Reparations?:” [See 2]
“Relative to members of the Black Race who boast of one white parent, and wish to identify themselves with that parent rather than identify themselves with the Black Race, the Committee follows the custom [as] established by the United States Government and rules,’ …an individual with one drop of ‘Negro’ blood in his or her veins is considered a Negro.’ However, the Committee declares that those individuals who do not wish to share in the just and fair Reparations, are not obligated to do so. They are however, obligated not to join the enemies [whites and Negro reparations oppositionists] of the American citizens of African descent to campaign against the payment of Reparations.”
N’COBRA, NAARC, and IBW are acting as reparation oppositionists; they are obligated to remember their elders’ words and not act as the enemy of reparations for the American Freedmen. Queen Mother Moore was not talking about Africans, Caribbeans, or Black Latinos. She was discussing American Freedmen that can trace their lineage to United States chattel slavery exclusively.
NAARC is an organization that has not been relevant to American Freedmen in thirty years. This organization is in total opposition to the current political moment. IBW is also in association with a known federal informant – Ronald Karenga, a convicted torturer of Black women. These are the organizations supposedly appointed to the American Freedmen struggle for reparations? This is a complete farce. The purpose of reparations is to address a specific historical “LINEAGE” that is – descendants of chattel slavery in the United States. [Insertions of] Atlantic world slavery and imperialism are out of place in this discussion. [See 3 and 4]
The “confusion” being presented by anti-lineage based organizations such as N’COBRA, NAARC, and the IBW is abhorrent. The eligibility assertion made by NAARC that the opposing organizations are promoting “genetic based lineage” is false. Lineage-based reparations is solely based on identifying American Freedmen – whom are well documented on US census records. [See 5]
The United States government has accurately documented both our enslaved ancestors as well as Black people who immigrated to the United States. Enslaved American Freedmen and their descendants will not be located on any immigration documentation. The tactics used to disrupt lineage based reparations are not going unnoticed, and will continue to be fiercely refuted. Let there be no mistake, the American Freedmen population may not [yet] have a census designation – but we know exactly who we are. We are a distinct ethnic group that will not be collapsed under a false notion of universal Blackness.
Like American Freedmen lineage, the records of formerly enslaved American Freedmen (and their descendants) demanding the United States government pay reparations is another subject well documented in US History. On March 11, 1867 H.R. 29 was introduced. This bill outlined land confiscation within the “Confederate States of America” to be distributed to former slaves. [See 6]
Our ancestor Callie House was imprisoned in 1918 for daring to fight for the type of legislation being delayed by derisive notions that enslaved American Freedmen descendants are a mystical group of hard to designate people in America. American Freedmen and their ancestors who built America deserve better. We, the descendants of the formerly enslaved American Freedmen, will be as vigilant as our ancestors in ensuring the protection of our inheritance. We will confront disrespect and demand accountability from parties convoluting our full repair. We will confront those who seek to devalue our lineage with attempts to revise the history of the American Freedmen’s reparation movements.
We are here to say you will handle our people with the utmost respect within this sacred work of repairing our ancestral harms. Do not tell us it is difficult to know whom has been fully harmed as Black people living in America. We have no qualms directing you to American cemeteries throughout the country where our ancestors have been laid to rest for hundreds of years. Some of those cemeteries have been discovered underneath American colonial city buildings. American Freedmen lineage is abundantly clear to the people and the government (because there is extensive and comprehensive documentation available). Any confused parties are implored to research the history of American Freedmen. [See 7, 8, 9]
American Freedmen created a culture in the United States which is inextricably linked to our experience as enslaved people [in America]. We ask NAARC this: “Can someone simply move to Nigeria and become a Yoruba?” Can someone just move to Ghana and become an Asante? Why are American Freedmen expected to subsume and repair the entire Diaspora? If everyone otherwise lineaged and/or recently landed here can be an American Freedman – then who are we?
In the era before the 1965 Immigration Bill the numbers of Black immigrants were minuscule compared to our current era. Today these groups are here in larger numbers and have created their own separate ethnic based communities. This is why you have places such as “Little Liberia” and “Little Haiti.” What do these communities have to do with American Freedmen culture? Kwame Ture and Shirley Chisholm worked within established American Freedmen movements for liberation (as true allies and freedom fighters). They did not make the same ethnic distinctions current Black immigrants have made.
It is outrageous that NAARC would even mention Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Colin Powell in this conversation; they are obstructionists directly involved with American Freedmen oppression. During the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois, American Freedmen Republican Alan Keyes had this to say about Obama:
“Well, frankly, I think that because of my race, race is no longer on the table. As a matter of fact, I think it’s kind of strange – it’s one of those things that shows that sometimes people don’t think things through. Barack Obama and I have the same race – that is, physical characteristics. We are not from the same heritage. And it’s about time people started to realize that there’s something racist about not looking at the specific heritage of individuals, but only looking at their skin color.”
“My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country. They were people who were directly a part of the oppression of slavery in this country. My consciousness, who I am as a person, has been deeply shaped by my struggle – deeply emotional and deeply painful – with the reality of that heritage and what it says about humanity, what it says about conscience, what it says about the terrible possibilities of human wickedness and injustice.”
“And that’s why, I believe, the slaughter of innocent life and the young is a direct challenge to me, because of my heritage – not to do, with respect to that innocent life in the womb, what others did with respect to my ancestors. That’s a burden I bear. It’s also a great challenge that I feel.”
Obama remarked:
“Well, you know, I guess Mr. Keyes started off making a point that, somehow, he is more authentically African American than I am. You know, I obviously find that offensive, but moving forward, I thought this was a question about race.”
NAARC, N’COBRA, and the IBW continue to negate Obama’s ethnicity by pushing him into this discussion. American Freedmen are an ethnic group that Barack Obama – the 44th President of the United States is simply not a part of. The ethnicity of a formerly enslaved population should be respected and protected.
Obama also clashed with American Freedmen politicians in 2015 during Baltimore’s Freddie Gray uprisings. While addressing the growing clash between American Freedmen youth in Baltimore and the Baltimore Police Department – Obama referred to our young people as a “Handful of criminals and thugs who tore up the place.” In reaction to Obama’s comment, Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes said:
“You might as well just call them [N-words] if you’re going to call the city’s youth thugs. We don’t have to call them names such as that.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield had this to say on Obama’s comment:
”These are children, high school students, you know, and I would not want to classify them as thugs. […] Certainly they are lawbreakers, but they’re still children. […] These are youth, these are teenagers who are misguided, who don’t have the same maturity that adults have, and I would not venture to call them thugs.”
Obama, Powell, and Harris have actively worked against Black liberation in America. They are also descendants of [Black] immigrants. How ironic is it that the people previously named were put in positions that American Freedmen still have not been able to access. [See 10 through 16]
NAARC mentions the murder of Amadou Diallo. Here is a perfect example of Black immigrants making distinctions based on ethnicity in America. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the late great Johnnie Cochran mobilized behind Kadiatou Diallo (Amadou Diallo’s mother). Al Sharpton was instrumental in the building of the Amadou Diallo Foundation. In return for the diligence American Freedmen activism provided, Kadi Diallo fired Johnnie Cochran and hired a white lawyer. Alton Maddox Jr., an Al Sharpton ally, was quoted saying in an op-ed article for The New York Amsterdam News:
”Make no mistake about it, […] the mother of Amadou Diallo …is no Rosa Parks. While Parks retained and stuck with an attorney of African ancestry, […] Kadiatou Diallo has suspiciously chosen to replace attorney Johnnie Cochran with a Wall Street law firm which has no history of rocking the boat or threatening the status quo.”
Alton Maddox Jr. goes on to say:
”All that the African community has done for Diallo, […] she announced (through her recently retained white attorney) …that it was time for the city to heal from the racial strife caused by the marches and demonstrations in the aftermath of her son’s death. She is either an opportunist or a fool or both. Civil disobedience did not cause this city’s racial strife.”
Kadiatou Diallo chose to side with the system of white supremacy instead of resisting it. Therefore breaking the social contract between American Freedmen and Black immigrants. Kadiatou Diallo was also able to petition the US government for repair. The descendants of US chattel slavery deserve the same redress. Diallo’s mother Kadiatou Diallo is quoted talking about the ways she’s putting the settlement money she was awarded towards her specific ethnic advocacy:
“The foundation will be working on bringing the Amadou Diallo scholarship that has been proposed to help [immigrant] students, because, you know, my son came to America for a reason. He wanted to gain higher education in an American college”
American Freedmen should have the same opportunity. [See 17, 18]
Like Amadou Diallo, the murder of Eric Garner was a tragedy. The harm his immediate family suffered in the aftermath is the type of injustice American Freedmen can never see repaired. Erica Garner (Eric’s daughter) passed away at the age of 27. Her mother Esaw Snipes was quoted as saying:
“The only thing I can say is that she was a warrior […] She fought the good fight. This is just the first fight in 27 years she lost. I warned her every day, you have to slow down, you have to relax and slow down.”
Erica Garner herself was quoted saying:
“That’s the most annoying question I get. People ask: ‘When will you stop marching? What do you want from marching?’ He was my father, […] I will always march.”
The direct result of generational harms can not be denied in the Garner family case. Even though families dealing with police violence have access to monetary redress, the lasting epigenetic effects on American Freedmen families will never compare to any other ethnicity in the US. [See 19, 20]
The wealth of America, without a shadow of a doubt, was built on the centuries of free labor from American Freedmen. Any organization representing the American Freedmen community that denies this simple fact is illegitimate. Slave labor definitively established this country as a global economic power.
Throughout history the harms of America were inflicted in overwhelming numbers to the descendants of US chattel slavery, not Black immigrants. Additionally, the decision – the choice to enter a well-known racialized society was not afforded to American Freedmen. US racism is a system of oppression. Systemic oppression was organized as a necessary mechanism of US chattel slavery, and American Freedmen were the targets of every form of racialized discrimination that was created after emancipation. Below is just a small selection of historic events. Let’s look at how many Black immigrants would have actually been affected. [See 21, 22]
The Homestead Act May 20 1862: White people were given land by the American government, leaving behind American Freedmen. The 1860 US census documents 526 African immigrants and 7,353 immigrants from the West Indies. The American Freedmen population was not documented on the US census until 1870 at which time our numbers exceeded 4 million. The outrage and injustice of 4 million people is being conflated with the experiences of a miniscule number of Black immigrants. [See 23]
Redlining 1933: In 1933, the US government started a program to segregate America’s housing market. The 1930 US census documents zero African immigrants and 23,512 West Indian immigrants. In contrast, 1.7 million Italians were the highest immigrant population at the time. The 1930 US census documents 11.9 million American Freedmen impacted by Redlining. [See 24]
War On Drugs June 1971: President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” in 1971. The 1970 US census records 61,463 Black African immigrants (once again at 1,008,533 – Italians were the highest immigrant population). The US Census shows in 1970, 22.6 million American Freedmen were about to be impacted by this war. [See 25]
Lineage based reparations is an indisputable reparative justice issue. From 1619 through the present day – American Freedmen have yet to be approached in this conversation with the honor that has been earned. These “legacy” organizations – N’COBRA, NAARC, and IBW absolutely do not speak for the American Freedmen justice claim. These organizations do not and will never have the right to obscure our struggle for reparations with shameless ethnicity erasure tactics. N’COBRA, NAARC, IBW, and all other agent provocateurs want to give American Freedmen inheritance away to ALL Black people in America. This will not happen and we are here to ensure the success of lineage based reparations. [See 26]
For truth, solidarity, and our ancestors we implore every American Freedman to make their disapproval and righteous anger known. Respectability politics will never prevent organizations like these from bastardizing our reparations claim. We will not allow respectability politics to influence the way we address N’COBRA, NAARC, IBW, and other irrelevant community leeches. We ask that the real grassroots reparations movement embody the strength of every ancestor that built America to ensure these Black gatekeepers understand fully that their time is up!
END OF LETTER
As you have read – this letter serves as an enlightenment and a warning.
There is no more important issue for American Freedmen to pursue at this time than reparations. Full Stop. This movement has no room for ambiguity or side conversations. No room for Black gatekeepers operating as proxies for white supremacy. It is time for the intelligent deployment of our anger and indignation into securing our withheld inheritance. This letter embodies that intelligence.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair Use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
I was assisted in writing this post by a wonderful bottle of Chateau Chante Alouette – Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2018. A serious red Bordeaux. I caught this one by chance. This lady usually sells for $60.00. I think the store inadvertently mispriced it (no sale was in progress – and it wasn’t on clearance). It was the only one on the shelf. So I quickly grabbed it – paid the $24.99 on the price tag and got out the store. A medium but complex body. Strong tannins, plums, ripe cherries, wood. A sweet end game of cinnamon and vanilla. Smooth – clean finish.
“No Self stands alone. Behind it stretches an immense chain of physical and – as a special class within the whole – mental events, to which it belongs as a reacting member and which it carries on. Through the condition at any moment of its somatic, especially its cerebral system, and through education, and tradition, by word, by writing, by monument, by manners, by a way of life, by a newly shaped environment… by so much that a thousand words would not exhaust it, by all that, I say, the Self is not so much linked with what happened to its ancestors, it is not so much the product, and merely the product, of all that, but rather, in the strictest sense of the word, the SAME THING as all that:
The strict, direct continuation of it, just as the Self aged fifty is the continuation of the Self aged forty.”
Erwin Schrodinger
“When we connect with our ancestors and put their wisdom into action, we are evolving our collective consciousness. We are transporting the ancient truths of our collective past and birthing them into our future. What we create out of those truths extends the wisdom of all those who have gone before us, and it provides a guide for all those who will follow.”
Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset
Before becoming an active participant in the reparations movement – I never, ever heard of Dr. Robert L. Brock. If he is still alive, as of this writing, he would be 98 years old (I could find no recent information about him on the net). I first heard his name uttered disparagingly at an N’COBRA gathering by (the now deceased) Dr. Conrad Worrill. I processed what I heard the same way I process disparaging language regarding a Black person from white people. If he/she is doing and/or saying something they don’t like – that Black person must be doing something good. Well – I decided to find out more about this guy.
So here we are.
Dr. Robert L. Brock – even though most of us have never heard of him, is quite consequential in the reparations movement. Based in Los Angeles – he regards reparations as something that is long overdue. He first became interested in reparations while attending Southwestern University School of Law during the early 1950’s. He was propelled to action after reading President Andrew Johnson’s veto of post-Civil War legislation that would have given American Freedmen 40 acres and a mule. In 1956 he and others founded the “Self-Determination Committee.” For decades he spoke on this issue in churches, community centers, and colleges. An unrelenting and sharp activist. Within the old-school reparations movement he was/is regarded as a kind of elder statesman.
He has done some activist work with the late Queen Mother Audley Moore of Los Angeles and the late Ray Jenkins (aka “Reparations Ray”) of Detroit. Dr. Brock worked with the late attorney Johnnie L. Cochran on a slavery reparations lawsuit against the United States. He also worked with Randall Robinson – author of “The Debt.” Dr. Brock filed a reparations class action suit in 1956 that went to the Supreme Court. Dr. Brock states, “The wealth of America is our legal property. But we must make our legal claims to get money.” Dr. Brock projected years ago that the price for Native Black American reparations would be quite huge, somewhere in the trillions, by his estimate. But the money, he said, can and must be found.
He felt that it was too soon to worry about the cost.
Before being limited by health problems – Dr. Brock was holding meetings across the country in support of the late Congressman John Conyers’ HR40 Bill. For almost two decades, Dr. Brock spoke at forums with Conyers endorsing the idea of a study of reparations for American Freedmen. Over time, Dr. Brock felt that Congressman Conyers was perpetrating a 25-year political charade when he asserted that he was submitting reparations legislation every year, but he “couldn’t get it out of committee.” Even though the Bill was originally introduced in 1989 and Congressman Conyers also became the House Judiciary Committee chair in 1989. Dr. Brock saw this as a yearly political “ritual” with no practical end. Amazingly, before he died, Conyers said that reparations are “too controversial to pursue at this time.” (Is that so?) Conversely – Dr. Brock forcefully retorted: “The time is ripe to move the reparations movement to the top of the American agenda.”
So – HR40 was created in bad faith? For Show? WOW…
My understanding as far as the disdain the late Dr. Conrad Worrill had for Dr. Brock was that he broke with any associations with N’COBRA because of a difference in reparations distribution philosophy. Dr. Brock was a hard-core-ist regarding distributing cash payments to individuals. N’COBRA uncompromisingly wanted control of all reparations policy, resources, and distributions through a “reparations trust authority.” Dr. Brock couldn’t accept the N’COBRA position. He eventually cut them off. And there has been bad blood between them ever since.
The undated memo below was written between 1963 – 1965.
This work was never under copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former owner.
Here It Is:
REPARATIONS AS DEFINED BY ATTORNEY DR. ROBERT L. BROCK
From the Desk of Attorney Dr. Robert L. Brock on Reparations:
Reparations is the value in payment for slave labor that Black People never received for 400 years of slave labor that should have accrued to the present U.S. Slaves Descendants as their inheritance. Reparations is also the “40 acres and a mule” that Black People of [American] slave and slave descent never received. Reparations is Money (gold), Goods and Services due Slave Descendants. Reparations is an Economic Emancipation that is long overdue Black People. The Indians received Reparations from the United States and the Jews received Reparations from Germany and presently the United States is paying damages to the Japanese (see note below), not Reparations. Reparations is payment made outside of the law. The Japanese are citizens and their legal Constitutional rights were violated.
Germany paid Reparations as a war demand to the Allied Powers. This is the kind of Reparations should be paid to U.S. Slaves and Slaves’ Descendants since U.S. Negroes do not come under U.S. Constitutional provisions but come under a DEMAND FOR REPARATION for Enslavement in an Act of War (undeclared) until a treaty or Article 73 a,b,c,d,e of The Charter of the United Nations as Non‐Self‐Governing People. The Japanese were interned in concentration camps with armed guards for 5 years (under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066), whereas, the Black American slaves and their descendants are in slavery and captivity for 400 years without any pay for labor and the fruits of their labor.
It is the slave labor of Negroes, and not the free labor of Whites and it is the uncompensated slave labor plundered by White People for more than 300 years that have made the United States the richest nation in the world, and we Black People are now in the process of demanding the value of our ancestors and antecedents before them’s [sic] plundered labor back and its value in money as our inheritance which is in the Trillions of dollars, money, goods, services and land.
Wars are fought for the taking of resources such as land, oil, gold, raw materials, violation of duty or rights, etc., but the war against Africans by the White Europeans was a war for the capture of the body and its use ONLY, and through the slave and triangular slave “trade” was as acts of enslavement continued for 300 years, and as long as the Africans (now called negro, black, American, colored, etc.) are in captivity, the war of enslavement continues, even to the present date hereof.
By warrant, authority and declaration in the year 1562, of Queen Elizabeth, a White English woman, war and African (negro) enslavement as acts of war began, an undeclared war without provocation or aggression by the Africans when Sir John Hawkins, who was the first Englishman, invaded the Continent of Africa and committed acts of war against African persons‐women‐men‐children after which, through plunder and pillage, the physical bodies of Africans were captured as enslavement as acts of war, as distinguished from the bodies of soldiers are captured as acts of war but not as acts of enslavement as war.
Reconstruction historians have generally agreed that one of the great tragedies of emancipation and Reconstruction was the failure of the United States and the Congress to provide economic security for the former chattel slaves principally by failing to provide them, over 4 million of them, with land. This was a deliberate act to deny Negro slaves any land for the purpose of forcing them to stay on the same plantation, and this fact is proven when one sees that cotton production reached the same level as when the Negroes were chattels. To this add Jim Crow, the Black Codes, lynching, etc.
Negro slave laborers (not the Industrial Revolution) provided the muscle, labor and scientific innovations without pay for three centuries, clearing the wilderness in the United States and making the land productive (the Whites and Indians did not do it). Who got the three hundred years of slave labor, money, goods, profits from scientific inventions, and services that Black People created from slave labor?
It is the Government of the United States and individual White men, White women and White children and others of the free structure and their heirs following in interest in a consecutive, successive succession of [the possession of] the Negro slaves’ labor and value to the present.
END OF MEMO
WOW – some of our elders were killers. Don’t you agree Family? The only solid ought that I personally have with Dr. Brock’s overall reparations philosophy is his taste for repatriation to Africa. Not focused on that. At the same time – even though Dr. Brock seems to be a Pan African leaning repatriationist, he speaks in specificity regarding the historic injuries and potential compensations to American Freedmen. I also like his vociferously uncompromising position on cash payments.
Dr. Brock said to a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1990: “This is my life.” Dr. Brock was a former seaman in the merchant marine who never married, has no children, and he sustained(s) himself through lecture honorariums and donations to him and his organization. Dr. Brock contends that groups like the NAACP won’t deal with the issue of reparations because they are afraid of offending politically moderate Blacks and supporters in the white community. Dr. Brock remarked: “I don’t know if I’ll live to see reparations for Black people… but I’ve been laying the foundation. Sooner or later we are going to get what this country owes us.”
We must learn more about our 20th Century Reparationist elders.
A Note On Japanese Reparations: Most of us at this writing are only familiar with reparations paid to formerly interned Japanese Americans and their descendants via the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. What he is referring to is the Japanese-American Claims Act of 1948. This allowed Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses. By the time the Act was passed, the Internal Revenue Service had destroyed most of the internees 1939 – 1942 tax records. It was difficult for claimants to establish that their claims were valid. Under the Act – Japanese American families filed 26,568 claims totaling $148 million in requests. Only $37 million was approved and disbursed.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair Use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
Don’t Judge – Don’t Judge. Yeah. I was drinking wine early in the morning in the place of coffee. Yes. Those NAARC and N’COBRA people get on my damned nerves. Wine is the cure. Anyway!!! I was assisted in making those remarks by a bottle of Chateau Buena Vista Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2018. Leading with oak and ripe fruit. Full bodied structure – soft acidity. A medium sustain of blackberries, plums, and vanilla. Ending with raspberries. Long – complex finish.
“My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.”
Christopher Hitchens
“Hypocrites get offended by the truth.”
Jess C. Scott – Bad Romance: Seven Deadly Sins Anthology
Here It Is:
Good Morning Task Force:
I’ll make this QUICK.
I get tired of others, including our Black elected representatives always pushing hard to make the descendants of American slaves the “MULES” for all other groups. Including Black immigrants. This is ridiculous. My lineage does all the work – absorbs all the pain – suffers through all the deprivation. But when it comes to some kind of justice – some kind of recompense. We are supposed to step to the back of the line and allow Caribbeans and Africans to be prioritized?
Taking this long to decide on something that should not be a question in the first place is an insult.
Now that I see how Pan Africanism works – I am against Pan Africanism.
If a correction is for the descendants of American slaves – why does it always have to be “Inclusive?” Correction is too good for just Native Black Americans. Right? Even though the slavery and abuse and Reconstructional failure was Exclusively targeted to us. Not targeted to Black folks that landed here voluntarily after the smoke cleared. Tired of this. Gotta include Eskimos, Martians, bluebirds, and any African that just flew in yesterday and got his feelings hurt by a random policeman.
Really?
And he then somehow deserves slavery reparations HERE? No he doesn’t. Anyone that thinks that he does is WRONG. Everyone on this panel understands that a race-based bill at this point is morally, legally, and constitutionally improper.
If this were a Jewish American issue – there would be no question as to eligibility. There would not be this level of open disrespect. Everybody would respect the legalities and sensitivities involved. Everybody on this panel would stay on subject. As the special and designated group of people that BUILT this country – WE exclusively deserve that special respect. AND we should not have to demand this.
This time – I hope that this panel will stay on subject – do the proper thing – and vote in favor of lineage-based reparations. – Hey NAARC and N’COBRA! – The people are not having your overscholarized nonsense.
END OF STATEMENT
This statement is self-explanatory. Share. Comment…
I was assisted in writing this post by a grand bottle of Luigi Bosca Terroir Los Miradores Malbec 2018. An Argentinian (Tunuyan Region) standout carefully aged for twelve months in French oak barrels. Fine structure. Leading in with plums, ripe orange, vanilla, and oak. Complex tannins. A sustain and ending of chocolate, expresso, and black cherries. Balanced acidity. Long – clean finish.
“Those who seek temporary security rather than basic liberty deserve neither… We began to talk about wanting to be first class citizens. We didn’t want to be second class citizens. You would have sworn that second class was in the Constitution. Also that citizens have to fight for rights. Imagine a citizen having to fight for civil rights! The very thought of it is repulsive. And I resent it and I reject this citizenship that was imposed on me. From the bottom of my heart I reject it. This is the thing that motivates me and keeps me going.”
“It’s past due. The United States will never be able to pay us all they owe us. They don’t have the money. But they’ll owe it.”
Audley (Queen Mother) Moore
After four years of looking, searching, phone calls, and starting over three times over again – I finally found something monumental. Something that was written in Queen Mother Audley Moore’s own hand. A very rare twelve page pamphlet entitled: “Why Reparations? Money For Negroes.” A revealing publication that should really be supremely interesting to soldiers working out here in these reparationist streets. Especially those soldiers that are hard core about the correct answer to the clear question of recipient specificity. The CORRECT Answer.
Yep. There is no question that Queen Mother Moore is the Pan African’s – Pan African. So much so that she, along with Callie House has been turned into a Pan African mascot. Good Pan African marketing, with nothing revealed regarding her actual philosophy regarding Reparations. The well-educated – well-informed NAARC (National African-American Reparations Commission) has a whole page on their website regarding Queen Mother Moore. But this pamphlet is strangely not included, even though this work exclusively focuses on Reparations.
But! Even though this well-educated – well-informed commission [NAARC] is sharply aware of its existence.Sharply.After reading this work, now I see (you will too) why The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis never speaks on the substance of the true nature of Queen Mother Moore’s ultimate Reparations energy and position.
Her position aligns with ours. At this point, read this post for yourself and judge on how much her well-reasoned position matches The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis’ non-specific Black universalist reparations position. And let us not forget that Queen Mother Moore was (Born July 27, 1898 – Died May 2, 1997) a Foundational Black American at her core Family. She was still connected reparationally to her American Freedman genesis. A great Foundational. Not a traitor in the least.
I will have further thoughts at the end of this post.
This work was never under copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former owner. I have reproduced all twelve pages (typos corrected) in their entirety so that you may see for yourself.
Here It Is:
SEMIHARDCOVER
REPARATIONS:For African Americans
Why Reparations?
MONEY FOR NEGROES
—vvvvvvvvvvv—
REPARATIONS IS THE BATTLE CRY FOR THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FREEDOM OF MORE THAN 25 MILLION DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES
By
Mrs. Audley A. Moore
PRESIDENT – FOUNDER
THE REPARATIONS COMMITTEE FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES
PRICE $1.00
______________________________________________
_________________________
PAGE ONE– FORWARD AND ADDRESS PAGE
Forward
This work is dedicated to the HERALD-DISPATCH newspaper and the REPARATIONS COMMITTEE Inc., for their unselfish, uncompromising determination to contribute toward peaceful solution of the Reparations problem, which will undoubtedly become a social battle cry, in the immediate future, the likes of which this country has never heard heretofore.
Audley M. Moore
REPARATIONS COMMITTEE INC.
1431 West Jefferson Boulevard
Los Angeles 7, California
PAGE TWO
Why Reparations?
After 244 years of free slave labor and the most inhuman, sinister, and barbaric atrocities which pass in magnitude any savagery perpetrated against human beings in the history of the planet earth, and an additional one hundred years of so-called freedom accompanied by terror, the Committee seeking Reparations for the descendants of America’s Slaves, concludes that the payment of Reparations is an absolute necessity if the Government of the United States is ever to wipe the slate clean, redeem herself, and pay for the damages she has inflicted upon more than 25 million American citizens, who are members of the Black Race. The payment of Reparations is the only position America can take in the interest of justice and make an effort to restore the dignity to 13.1 percent of her citizenry.
THEREFORE, WE, The Committee For The Securing of Reparations For The Descendants of men and women brought from the continent of Africa, and enslaved in the United States of America for more than 244 years, and are now commonly referred to as “Negroes,” do now make formal request of the Government of the United States, for fair and just compensation for the loss of the property rights in the labor of our foreparents. For which no payment of any kind has ever been made. The loss of so great a value in labor and skills, by which means [certain] citizens of this nation, whom as a class called themselves “slave owners,” over a period of 244 years became unjustly enriched, thereby making possible the development of so many of the vast and numberless fortunes [possessed by them] – which even today accounts for a very considerable portion of this nation’s wealth, is now due and payable to us as victims of this loss.
WHEREAS, the original drafters of the Constitution of this nation recognized the property rights in a man’s labor, they recognized [the] members of the Black Race only as chattels or animals. Consequently, Black people were never thought of as attaining the status of [white] men and women, and thus no consideration had to be given to their labor and skills, nor [were] any rights extended whatsoever to them, either legal or human.
The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, belatedly bestowed the legal rights of ex-slaves, and provided that they be “classified” as human beings, [as] men and women. The Proclamation also made it unlawful to continue to force ex-slaves to contribute their labor and skills without “fair” compensation.
PAGE THREE
The Supreme Court of the United States has now established that members of the Black Race in America, no matter how they came, nor the circumstances of their existence, are now, and retroactively have been human beings. And as human beings, these men and women, members of the Black Race, are logically and legally entitled to all of the rights and benefits accorded to Caucasian men and women, including the right of inheritance and property rights, which are also retroactive.
Many years ago the Courts of the United States ruled that a man or woman has a property right in labor and skills, and that such [a] right is subject to [all] the laws governing inheritance. Hence, under the Inheritance Law, [American] members of the Black Race, as human beings and citizens, despite national (or regional) customs and practices, should be governed and protected [equally].
The fact, that no consideration was ever accorded members of the Black Race, who as a class were called “slaves” and whose descendants, as a class, are now called “Negroes” has compounded the original injury to those now called “Negroes.” This injury ranges all the way from chronic and extensive poverty – [this] causing suffering and emotional distress resulting from:
a – Lynching b – Jim Crow – Segregation c – Disfranchisement d – Raping e – Denial of the Right to Vote in Southern States f – Police Brutality g – Use of Dogs and Water Hoses h – Use of Electric Cattle Prods i – Use of Horses and Billy Clubs
And, the widespread contempt and disdain which we receive from our fellow citizens, [that are themselves] not relegated to such [a low] class. Being subject to [white] mental mayhem, a condition that will inevitably culminate into Genocide, unless stopped.
We – in the name of humanity created by God to seek a full life while in this earthly domain; for the cause of justice for which mankind craves; for the sake of dignity which all men strive; we,
PAGE FOUR
the people of African origin enclosed [and formerly enslaved] within the boundaries of the United States of America do declare that:
We do not now, nor have we ever had equal protection under the laws of this country which by various customs are not enforced, when we are involved.
We have, since 1863 been the victims of mob violence, lynching and systematized atrocities, to a far greater extent than any other citizens, or residents of this country.
We charge that: our language, culture and original heritage were [over time] methodically and deliberately destroyed.
Our names and geographical identity were systematically obliterated.
We are denied the legal right to shelter by discrimination, custom, overt de jure segregation, and subtle de facto segregation.
The Reparations Committee, is seeking relief in money damages for the victims of these injustices with which to begin a program of rehabilitation. It is, further, the desire of this Committee that every well-meaning and patriotic American, whatever his position in life, do his utmost by word as well as deed, to help this long overdue and just effort to erase the blot and stigma from the unfortunate past of America’s history – by public and official expiration for the wrongs heaped in multiplicity upon a large mass of [formerly enslaved] American Citizens whom have contributed so richly to America’s culture, welfare, and safety.
THE REPARATIONS COMMITTEE FOR UNITED STATES SLAVES DESCENDANTS INC:
(s) S. Alexander, Chairman of Board of Directors (s) Audley A. Moore, President and Founder (s) Charles H. Davis, National Chairman (s) Berta Forrest, National Recording Secretary (s) Stacey Adams, State Chairman, California
PAGE FIVE
Poverty, The Result of Chattel Slavery
The contents of this booklet are addressed not only to our people in particular, whom are [the] victims of oppression, but also to the white people of the United States who need this great opportunity to cleanse themselves of wrongs done to our people by their cruel ancestors.
By way of preface there is little to say since the character of this work is embodied in this booklet, which is the fruit of untiring effort, research and investigation into the phenomenon of our special oppression. [From] which [certain] effects stem from the anti-social nature of the slave system in this country, with its reprehensible acts of barbarism, which violated all natural laws of human aspirations and justice. The atrocious deeds done to our ancestors by the legions of white fiends rise before us in new and irresistible horror. It is intended to meet the need of bringing to the people of this country a great principal of restitution by those of us who desire to raise our people from the degradation of national poverty resulting from the effects of chattel slavery, which has left us without [access to] national resources.
The fact that Reparations has not yet been included along with the integrationist leaders’ demands is because they underestimated the depth and the bitterness of our suffering and the intelligence of our people. In spite of our indomitable will to die for our rights like men and women on our feet rather than live on our knees. This was demonstrated by our unquenchable revolutionary fervor at the United Nations when the Honorable Patrice Lumumba of The Congo, Africa was murdered, and on the picket lines and demonstrations throughout this country. Where our people in their massive efforts to become citizens endured the foul onslaught of tear gas, fire hoses, police dogs, police brutality, and arrest to secure those rights denied us by the oppressive villains.
Without Reparations our people can never be on equal terms with the white sons [and daughters] of our former slavemasters who continue to reap the abundant benefits of the wealth created by our foreparents through their centuries of unrequited labor. The unpaid labor of African slaves [chattelized in America] laid the foundation for the accumulation of the wealth that ultimately made the U.S.A. the richest country in the world. During the period of slavery millions of our people died while being transported under conditions of indescribable horror while crossing the “middle passage.” Our roots and culture were
PAGE SIX
ruthlessly destroyed. We were deprived of human status, with families broken and fragmented and family ties eliminated, our women were raped and abused, our men were placed in chains. Bred like animals our children were taken from us and given over to owners and slavemasters to be sold on the auction block. Today our [Black] youth are taught false history, theories and principles to prevent race pride.
The Reparations Committee will present the evidence of the lawless vendors in human flesh in all its sickening and horrible details.
Through the signing of Emancipation Proclamation we were ostensibly granted freedom and full citizenship, [along] with the ensuing amendments to the Constitution – but these [citizenship rights] were then, and continue to be, withheld from us. Therefore, our suit demanding payment of a debt long overdue is justified. Although no amount of Reparations could adequately repay us for the cruelty we suffered. Still, there must be a recognition of the crimes committed against us and a just settlement before the issue can be considered closed.
The two major political parties of our oppressors (Democrats and Republicans) have consistently tried to keep this issue of slavery and Reparations hidden, but [the act of] suppressing it has caused one of the greatest socio-economic problems of this age. This [reparations] issue is clear. No civilized human society would contest, and no democratic state would neglect, or in this case shun its [ultimate] responsibility to adequately recompense those from whom such sacrifices were extracted. Besides our unrequited labor we have given genius to America – the genius of Benjamin Banneker, Harriet Tubman, Crispus Attucks, and Dorie Miller. African-Americans have given their very lives to preserve the American Dream, [of] which they have not [as yet] shared in.
The 100th year since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which was to free our people from chattel slavery, finds us suffering economic and political oppression in the U.S.A. Therefore, the question of the continued subjugation of an entire people, landless and disenfranchised, deprived of equal status with the rest of the general populace, deprived of recognition of our contribution to the culture and enrichment of the [United States] economy – remains.
PAGE SEVEN
Therefore, considering our present intolerable status here [in the United States] – the future, if there is to be one, rests on the solution presented. The demand for Reparations must become the first goal of every African American.
History substantiates the justness of our claim. However, of all the people who have received Reparations for wrongs committed against them, none of their claims are as historically or morally compelling as the demand for Reparations for the descendants of American Slaves.
In view of the foregoing, we the descendants of those Africans, uprooted from our [original] homeland, transported to this alien land, and once here – forcibly made to labor without pay for centuries, through the sponsorship of the U.S.A. – do hereby set forth the following claims and demands, as embodied herein.
Claim for Reparations Filed
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which became effective January 1, 1863, The Reparations Committee for United States Slaves Descendants Inc., a non-profit corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of California, filed a claim for Reparations and money damages with the United States Government on December 20, 1962 – for more than 25 million American [slave descendant] Citizens.
Members of the Black Race.
THE FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION as filed, sets forth, and proceeds, and sues on behalf of and for the benefit of a class consisting of approximately 25 million Americans of African descent, whose antecedents and ancestors before them, until 1863, were held in cruel and inhuman slavery. The claimants [justifiably] ask for Reparations in the form of money damages, for the loss of their ancestors’ fair share of property which accrued by reason of their skills and labors to the use and benefit of those persons, citizens of the United States of America, whom as a class, called themselves “slaveowners,” and who did, with the sanction, approval and protection of the United States Government, became unjustly enriched by the use of such forced human labor.
PAGE EIGHT
THE SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION calls attention to “THE UNJUST ENRICHMENT of and to said ‘OWNERS’ by such wrongful claims of the ownership of human beings as property, and by the wrongful use of such forced human labor, which continued for a period of more than two hundred years, until 1863. Those of the class for whose benefit complaint sues herein, and by such wrongful taking without their consent.”
THE THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION calls attention to the fact that the United States of America and all free nations and societies, whereby [white] individuals enjoy property ownership and its attendant benefits, such as inheritance and descent. The descendants of America’s slaves were denied this right.
This brilliantly prepared Claim calls attention to the fact that Slaves and their descendants have contributed to the wealth of the United States and at the same time remained impoverished economically, weakened culturally, and demeaned socially. Referring to the fact that the United States is a signatory to the International Organization of the United Nations, whose charter and conventions prohibit the cruel and oppressive treatment of any racial or ethnic group. The Claim sets forth that various states within the domain and under the central power control of the United States Government, since the Emancipation Proclamation, have violated and continue to violate the express provisions of the Federal Constitution and supreme laws of the land including the charter of the United Nations which is otherwise known and recognized as the crime of “GENOCIDE.”
Under the provisions of the aforementioned Constitution of the United States of America, the Claim states, as explicitly enunciated by the Supreme Court of the United States of America in its now legendary school desegregation decision, and in subsequent decisions, unqualified recognition is accorded to the constitutional guarantees and limitations concerning Human Rights.
Article XI Offers Precedents. It states:
“Strong and compelling as may be the merits of this Claim for Reparations on its face alone, it is not without apt precedents in the field of law of nations. Particular references here are made in regards to the payment of Reparations by West Germany, under a Treaty
PAGE NINE
signed in 1952, to the new nation of Israel and, quite significantly, to a separate private body known as the ‘Conference of Jewish Organizations on behalf of Jews.’ Details will be developed subsequently in legal proceedings.” Other and similar precedents on Reparation payments by the United States Government are as follows:
The Definition of Reparations:
Amends or compensation for loss or damage.
The action of repairing or keeping in a repaired state – Webster’s Dictionary.
The Precedents:
A. Germany paid reparations to the allies under the [1919] Versailles Treaty of World War I. Germany was considered the aggressor nation [in this case].
B. Finland paid [substantial] reparations to Russia – Concluding its last payment on September 18, 1944.
C. United States paid and continues to pay reparations to American Indians, for the denial of citizenship rights and the loss of personal property. And, at the end of almost five centuries, the United States is still negotiating with American Indians regarding the payment for the recent seizure of property to the tune of 29 million dollars.
D. United States paid reparations to the Philippines in September, 1962 – for damages to that country and the use of that nation during World War I.
E. United States paid reparations to Japanese Americans – for the denial of rights, the seizure of property, and confinement in concentration camps during World War II. Reparations were paid to individual Nisei and was deemed tax free (see note below).
F. Germany, under a Treaty signed in 1952 – paid reparations to the Jews and to Israel.
Examples:
Finland Reference: World Today – Page 307 – July, 1952. The Finland Treaty was signed on February, 1947.
PAGE TEN
On September 18, 1944 Finland paid its last installment on Reparations resulting from the Russo-Finnish Armistice of 1944 and an amendment to the agreement of December, 1944-45 – in the amount of 300 million dollars:
R. F. Harrod – said in an article on German Reparations: “…we lack experience of what civilized white men will do under the lash. Well now we have some experience, and it may be an edifying story.”
German Reparations to Israel: The 1952 Treaty and its effects.
German Reparations to Israel Reference: International World Today – Vol. 10 – June, 1954 – Page 258.
Relative to members of the Black Race who boast of one white parent, and wish to identify themselves with that parent rather than identify themselves with the Black Race, the Committee follows the custom [as] established by the United States Government and rules, ” …an individual with one drop of ‘Negro’ blood in his or her veins is considered a Negro.” However, the Committee declares that those individuals who do not wish to share in the just and fair Reparations, are not obligated to do so. They are however, obligated not to join the enemies [whites and Negro reparations oppositionists] of the American citizens of African descent to campaign against the payment of Reparations.
The Committee views seriously the fact that the United States Government gives, [that which is] extracted from all citizens including American citizens of African descent, and without our consent, billions of dollars to India to fight China, spends more than one million dollars daily in Laos, and sends millions to South Vietnam.
Under our present law the Internal Revenue Service each year makes a large cash contribution to Israel’s welfare, despite the fact that Israel is a sovereign state. Furthermore, more than 200 million dollars was spent to rescue the “Pigs” from Cuba, captured during the ill-fated mission of aggression on a sovereign nation by refugees stationed in this country. Also, Americans of African descent are asked to pay taxes equally with [white] others to provide “foreign aid” to Communist Poland, Communist Hungary, and Yugoslavia.
And England, France, Canada, and other countries whose citizens, if they wish – may become first-class citizens of this nation and [will] discriminate against African-Americans, whom are [de facto] treated as step-citizens.
PAGE ELEVEN
In view of the foregoing, it is the studied opinion of The Reparations Committee, that there can be no argument against the just Claim for Reparations for the American Citizens of African descent. The Reparations payment will be used to rehabilitate and elevate [out of] the national poverty which the American citizens of African descent suffer as a result of chattel slavery.
Preferential Treatment . . . YES
The Reparations Committee takes the position that the descendants of American Slaves must be given preferential treatment – NOW – with immediate hiring on a quota basis in every level of our industry, implemented with an intensified on the job training program. The program must be instituted and financed by the Federal Government – NOW.
It is the contention of the Reparations Committee that the descendants of American Slaves are entitled to 13.1 percent of all jobs in America. The job quota therefore, is the first step toward repairing the damages inflicted upon the slaves and their descendants, commonly known as Negroes.
Preferential treatment and hiring on a job quota basis will further serve to balance the mal-treatment of which the Negro has been a victim in this country for over 344 years.
The Negro Revolution of 1963 with its anti-climax, the March on Washington occurring August 28, 1963, resulted in little or no gains for the Negro masses. The Negro leaders’ demands are limited: Integration, and Freedom Now. The Reparations Committee argues that these are empty [non-productive] slogans, and that integration is possible only among equals.
It is the studied opinion of the Reparations Committee that the Negro masses are unable to compete with the white masses at present, because they have been deprived of equal status, denied equal education, denied economic and political opportunities. And, for a century, have lived on the outskirts of America’s society. Thus, the preferential treatment will raise the Negro to the academic, economic, and cultural level of the white citizens. Or, the government could, which would not be practicable – disenfranchise white citizens, deprive them of their citizenship rights, deprive them of education – or generally reduce them to the level of the Negro masses to equalize our citizenship. The Reparations Committee
PAGE TWELVE
believes this is not sound, that the Negro should be, via the preferential treatment option, given an on the job training program, being raised to the level of the white citizen – equalizing our citizenship, and preparing for an integrated society.
Unless steps are taken in this direction immediately – America cannot be classified as a civilized nation.
To those including – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, who say they are opposed to preferential treatment and hiring of the Negro on a quota basis, obviously wish to maintain the Negro on status quo. Those who oppose quota hiring on the one hand and say they support the Civil Rights fight on the other, are double talking and actually wish to subvert the revolution and deny the payments for damages inflicted by the United States Government upon the descendants of American Slaves. The power structure, by refusing to agree to hire Negroes on a quota basis are refusing to admit their responsibility for the plight of the Negroes.
Without preferential treatment, the Negro will never be on equal terms with white America. The white American has a 344 year head start on the descendants of American slaves. They must, therefore, have special or preferential treatment to catch up.
History substantiates the African American’s Claim for cash payment of Reparations from the United States. Thus, the Reparations Committee calls upon African American leadership to make the demand for cash payments of Reparations, “THE BATTLE CRY FOR FREEDOM IN 1963,” which would include 25 million step-citizens in the American Dream.
END OF PAMPHLET
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Arthur Ward’sCommentary:
Thank You Great Ancestor!!!
Ahh… No wonder the Pannies have never taken pains to publish anything written by Queen Mother Moore. And I mean – Anything. Why? Because as we can see, her actual Reparations philosophy, her actual words are problematic to present-day Pan African reparations marketing. The Axis will consistently trot out the IMAGES of Queen Mother Moore and Callie House. This without lessons or depth. Nothing.
We understand that Callie House’s mission was regarding pensions for Freedmen. We know that Queen Mother Moore was a solid Pan African. Question: “What else do we know about her in contrast to the marketing expended to us by The Axis?” Well now that we can read her own thoughts in her own hand – let us see:
ONE – she thinks that Reparations eligibility should be limited to the descendants of the American Slaves – Of America. (Oops!) Not Pan African universalized to any Black person that just happens to fly in. Only to be inherited by the descendants of the people that were enslaved in the United States of America. Just to be clear in an unambiguous Foundational Black American / Freedmen / American Negro sense:
The cover of her pamphlet says: “MONEY FOR NEGROES.” – OK?
In contrast to the official NAARC/N’COBRA position (before a website revision):
“We strongly affirm the right of all people of African descent in the U.S. to receive reparations, irrespective of when they arrived here or their country of origin.”
“It would be the height of hypocrisy to limit reparations to only those who can prove a direct lineage as victims of the enslavement era. For these and other reasons we believe that any effort to restrict discussion of reparations to those who can trace a direct line to slavery is not only a misreading of history, but falls prey to a peculiar form of “Black nativism” that identifies more with the nation-state known as the United States of America, rather than to our commonality with the rest of the African World. NAARC firmly asserts that reparations should not be restricted to people of African descent who can prove their lineage to what is being termed ‘American’ enslavement.”
This is a 180 degree difference from Queen Mother isn’t it? Is Queen Mother Moore a hypocrite? Is Queen Mother wrong about lineage-based justice? Looks like we’ve been lied to by Pan African omission. That’s what it looks like to me. OK. I am still trying to figure out where Diasporans got an “affirmed right” to our Reparations?
Still looking.
Check This: The Axis emphatically states that immigrant Diasporans have some kind of “affirmed right” to our Reparations right off the rip. Notice the priority.
But when it comes to the question of eligibility for actual 1865 United States citizen-type Foundational Black Americans? Eligibility regarding our own Reparations? Listen Family: The Axis saysour eligibilityis something that needs to be discussed. Imagine that. (!?) The question of American Freedmen being eligible for their own Reparations hasn’t been figured out by these motherfuckers yet. Unbelievable. How long have they been at this? Maybe thirty-plus years? Really? Now Family: Understanding how some Pan African mental processes deploy – if some of them dangerously get installed on a Federal Reparations committee? Let’s say?
Foundational Black Americans may be declared ineligible!
Responding to the accusation of “Black Nativism?” I [me] accept the accusation. Foundational Black Americans have made a 400 plus year forced investment into the formation, culturization, capitalization, and direct physical building of this country. By 1860 we were already six generations invested in this land. We are no longer “Africans.” Even though the largest part of our genetic makeup is African.
But a contained ethnogenesis occurred Here that cannot be genetically reversed nor retro-culturized. Therefore, we do completely identify with the nation-state known as the United States of America. Yep. We built it. – We are inextricably PRESENT – enmeshed to and into and throughout this very soil. All 3,796,742 square miles of it. Right Here. Why wouldn’t we? Why shouldn’t we? We have to fully celebrate the same Black American Freedman Nativism our Frederick Douglass sustained after he himself – released himself – Him-Self from slavery. And Foundational Black Natives should practice Nativism. Understand? – In these United States, a justified Black Nativist culture don’t make us no CIA, FBI, nor a fucking COINTELPRO.
None of that shit.
Because, along with the Mayflower White Americans (those Caucasians whose antecedents arrived on this land between 1619 and 1865), WE – the Foundational Black Americans Right Here are THE ACTUAL CO-OWNERS of this Mother. OK?
We’ve earned the RIGHT more than anyone else to call this OUR COUNTRY. Even after 400 plus years of unrecompensed hard laboring, unjustified marginalization, wholesale asset subtraction, the most deprivatory policies, laws, codes, AND the worst treatment ever experienced by human beings in the history of civilization. That peculiar investment – along with being actively and tribalistically partitioned from citizenship (single or dual) in most African countries. The same stupidly tribalistic countries we were sold away from, locked out of, and disparaged in (!).
We have to do – what we have to do – and better do – Right Here In America.
“What else are we going to identify with?” Tell us that Dr. Ron Daniels. To what country(s) are we repatriating to? Whom is accepting us? Which ones? Show Me Sir. Why would we repatriate from something that we substantially helped to build? “Build then leave?” Really? Ahh… NO. We are going to identify with the same RED– WHITE – AND BLUE super-rich country that every Pan African we know still comfortably wipes his ass at – pisses on – and makes residence in.
Pan Africans still Here? Yep. They do a continuing American residency done with no repatriation plans whatsoever. “Ahh – no repatriation plans?” Right. And there are no repatriation plans being made because the Pan Africans are not stupid. True Pan Africans have no crazy repatriation plans whatsoever. No motherfucker. Pan Africans are NOT moving to Africa. And those that tell you they are repatriating are telling YOU a motherfucking lie. Please. When was the last time a Pan African spoke to you on ZOOM from the comfort of his home IN AFRICA? Pan Africans don’t have no motherfucking homes in Africa. None. No African wives in Africa.
Not even a goddamned dog.
When I visited Africa? Fourteen countries over time, in total. Everybody was cool. But! A majority of folks I spoke to wanted to move here or Europe. Why should any thinking person want to move to a place where the folks that already live there are trying to leave? And the folks that have already left are telling you don’t go. And 95% of the Pan Africans I know have never been to Africa. And 100% of the 5% that did visit – OK – for some reason haven’t chosen to move there. At least not yet. So when does “yet” happen Man? – That includes the infamous Dr. Umar Johnson.
So much for “repatriation.”
TWO – she believes that Reparations should be expended in the form of cash payments to individuals. Now, was this a Pan African saying “Cut The Check?”
Sounds like it to me.
In contrast to the official NAARC/N’COBRA position:
” . . . it is critical to recognize that direct benefits are insufficient to repair the underdevelopment and destruction of communities.”
” . . . we renew the call for a National Reparations Trust Authority to be the repository, custodian and administrative body to receive monetary and material resources, allocated by offending parties, as restitution to repair the damages inflicted on the sons and daughters of Africans in America during centuries of oppression and exploitation.”
Do you remember hearing a “call” from anybody? Now, it’s possible that the original “call” has to be renewed because the first one wasn’t loud enough.
Could Be.
But those on the specificity side of the Reparations fence critically and correctly recognize that cash recompense is an essential and foremost part of any repair and rebuild program in a capitalist – asset oriented society. Does that make sense as an American? It’s just like MacArthur Foundation grants (that’s a form of direct cash benefits) are sufficient to support the political misinformation operations of The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis. Any non-governmental “authority” established to be a repository for YOUR MONEY is a guarantee that our very due Reparations will be compensation in name only. Don’t let this happen. It’s a recipe for theft.
THREE – Queen Mother Audley Moore believed that the payment of direct cash Reparations would be directly right, repairing, and empowering to the American Freedmen community. Never making a call to create an interposing commission to come between Foundational Black Americans to Ahh… “receive,” “manage,” and “administer” our Reparations money for a large operations cost. That cost being added to and grand theft compounded at the federal, state, and local levels. I call it “slickology.” The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis, along with their co-caballists from the Small Hat Community – does not want us to see a dime of our Reparations.
The “payouts” that you may see happening in Evanston, Illinois are really not “Reparations.” What you are witnessing is public relations and marketing through payouts. These are designed to deflect Reparational demand energies away from the Federal Government. Optics – to slowly wind-down the Federal Reparations movement and demand through diversion and distraction. Heads Up. Eyes Open.
Another Thing:
Pay attention to the African Union’s crooked plan to hijack our Reparations. OK? We don’t want be in this “Region Six” nonsense. Dr. Ron Daniels, Kamm Howard, and Robin Rue Simmons – we are checking this potential theft. And we reject this. The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is directly involved with resourcing and setting up this anti-Freedmen bullshit. Family! Beware of any attempts to “Africanize” or “internationalize” this exceptionally domestic issue. It’s a grift-filled trickbag. Why would we allow the grandchildren of the same dirty motherfuckers that sold our antecedents into slavery, to run, or advise on, or do anything Reparational for us? You tell me how that makes any sense. How? Do we look THAT stupid?
It seems like Queen Mother Moore trusted the financial judgment and constructive abilities of Foundational Black Americans more than The Axis does. She is quite clear. And if the elders of NAARC and N’COBRA were mentored at the knee of the great and knowing Queen Mother Moore like they keep claiming ad nauseum – where did they get this weird “National Reparations Trust Authority” bullshit from? Who conceived this nonsense? That proposal seems so out of her character.
In contrast to the official NAARC/N’COBRA position:
“This Authority would be comprised of a cross-section of credible representatives of reparations, civil rights, human rights, labor, faith, education, civil and fraternal organizations and institutions. It would be empowered to establish subsidiary Trust Funds to administer projects and initiatives in the areas of culture, economic development, education, health and other fields as deemed appropriate based on the demands in the Reparations program.”
So, Ron Daniels had to tell us that proposed cross-section of representatives will be “credible?” That’s like you dealing financially with someone that has totell you that they’re “honest.” Time to run. Notice that this “Authority” looks like a redo of the tired-assed, do-nothing NAACP. One of the standards that I apply to discern whether an individual is a sincere soldier operating in this Reparations space is if that person supports direct cash payments. If they don’t – they’re on some trick shit. Full Stop. (Cough) “Subsidiary Trust Funds?” – “Ahh… What’s That?”
Sounds like something that a pimp with an MBA would come up with. OK. “Other fields?” What “other fields” Sir? And then – what are the judgment parameters and the “whos and whoms” that will give the final – the binding word in this “deeming something appropriate?” What are the penalties if somebody fucks up? Where are the rules and limits? Who decides those? And to whom are they accountable to?
Here’s A Call: “This is our money Dr. Daniels – HANDS OFF!!!”
Now ask yourself a question. Give yourself an honest answer. Let’s say the first installment or action of a Reparations program is an immediate closing of the wealth gap. Would you prefer that beautiful, juicy, tax-exempt CHECK drawn on the United States Treasury in an estimated amount of say $450,000 or possibly more going to YOU–OR “The Reparations Trust Authority?” Run by Dr. Ron Daniels. And possibly felonious Pan Africans. And pimp preachers. Your Choice.
I thought so. . .
So does Queen Mother Moore’s view of Reparations distribution align with yours? Does it? The other little thing that bothers me about The Axis’ position that Queen Mother Moore doesn’t demand is the inclusion of preachers in an “Authority” to manage your money. OK? Absorb That Family – preachers managing your money.
Now – all of us are familiar with media reports of financial malfeasance and a plethora of sexual and other scandals, all committed by an unregulated and unsupervised clergy. Especially financial crimes. Right? Everyday. Those reports are common. So, Think Family: “The Axis” is gonna put real Black preachers into real contact with Not Millions. Not Billions. But Trillions of dollars of our money. Do we really want to do that? OK Now! All those “unregulated – spirit guided – unsupervised hands?” Really? Queen Mother Moore’s Reparational view is real simple: Just put the money directly into the hands of the eligible recipients.
That’s It.
In the 1980s, Queen Mother Moore joined forces with N’COBRA and began a campaign to educate the public about Reparations through town hall meetings and conferences. She also, at the time, supported Representative John Conyers’s 1989 bill, HR 40. But she never wavered from her position that the primary and most necessary part of a Reparations program is to expend cash payments to eligible individuals. That, meaning – Foundational Black American individuals.
That’s It – Again…
Family!!! Now that you have a little more ammunition to counter the bullshit emanating from The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis? Please Use It. This is profoundly damaging to Axis propaganda. They are not gonna talk about this. Even though this pamphlet is extremely rare – I’ll bet some of the old heads in the movement have at least one copy of this document in their personal libraries. They’ll talk about (!?) Queen Mother Moore. They won’t talk about this. But We Can. . .
A Note On Japanese Reparations: Most of us at this writing are only familiar with reparations paid to formerly interned Japanese Americans and their descendants via the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. What she is referring to is the Japanese-American Claims Act of 1948. This allowed Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses. By the time the Act was passed, the Internal Revenue Service had destroyed most of the internees 1939 – 1942 tax records. It was difficult for claimants to establish that their claims were valid. Under the Act – Japanese American families filed 26,568 claims totaling $148 million in requests. Only $37 million was approved and disbursed.
A Note On Executive Notification: A copy of this pamphlet was scheduled to be sent to the White House specifically for President John F. Kennedy. Unfortunately he was assassinated before his copy was shipped.
A Note On “Nationalist” Claims: Noun: A person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. That’s the dictionary definition.
Lately (2025) you will hear certain elders within the Pan African community eschewing the ideological identifier of “Pan African.” Strategically replacing it with “Nationalist.” Why So? At this time – the “Pan African” moniker and ideology is losing favor in the Foundational Black American community. It’s now bad optics.
We have Diasporans both domestic and foreign insulting and showing their asses to Foundational Black Americans. Diasporans in positions of political power and influential right-wing political commentary emphatically stating that we should not get Reparations. Well known Pan Africans disparage Freedmen efforts to delineate for reparational purposes and others, and that disparagement is chafing to the community. More and more Freedmen are peeping and deconstructing the destructive “local reparations” endeavors of The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis (they tout Pan Africanism as their guiding ideology). And certain celebrities that present as “Pan Africans” are proving to be unashamed grifters and frauds. Pan Africans are generally in full opposition to Foundational Black Americans and their goals.
People are realizing that Pan Africanism is a failed ideology. And they are asking questions as to why Africa is not Pan African. Which is a good question. There has never been any global Black unity. There isn’t any now. And there will not be ever. Extreme tribalism has destroyed Africa. Caribbeans beef with each other – to no end. The injection of Pan Africanism into Freedmen Reparations became a terrible interposing development. As far as the nationalist converted former Pan Africans are concerned: “I’d like to know to what nation are they attached to? And to what nation do they strongly identify with and support its interests? Does their found ‘Nationalism’ apply to the great nation called United States? Is ‘Nationalist’ just a placeholding beard for a continuing but strategically silent Pan African ideology?”
Don’t be fooled.
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I was assisted in writing this post by a bottle of El Enemigo Malbec 2017. A good traditional Argentinian from the Mendoza Province. Inky – but medium-bodied. Dry. Leading in with dark fruits. A bold sustain of oak, vanilla, and chocolate. Ending with strong black cherries, plums, and blackberries. Beautiful structure. Smooth, complex tannins. Low to medium acidity. Long – sweet, clean finish.
“For – in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’ – every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We – the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”
John F. Kennedy
Below is a letter written by a “complete citizen.” A Freedmen descendant and Chicago resident that is a 78 year old Black soldier. First – let’s read her bio:
She was born into a military family in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1944 – then raised in Jackson, Mississippi by a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and a true Freedman village. It was in this community and environment that she received the foundation that gives her the courage and philosophy that she holds today.
Her first career interest was to become a lawyer. This interest developed after observing a brilliant presentation by the late Judge Constance Baker Motley, who represented James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). However, after graduating from high school, she chose instead to pursue a career in education, and went on to receive a B.A. degree in education from Tougaloo College (an HBCU established in Jackson, Mississippi) and an M.A. degree in Guidance and Counseling from Jackson State University.
During her twenty-seven years in education, Ms. Lewis took on issues that affected Black children in particular, and Black people in general. She suffered twice being fired as a teacher in Mississippi because she sternly challenged the cruelty of white supremacy once schools were integrated by law in 1969. She left Mississippi in 1973 to accept a high school counseling position in Racine, Wisconsin. After spending two years in the predominantly white Wisconsin school system – she concluded that white children did not need her service and subsequently moved to Chicago.
Her first awareness of racism – white supremacy and the devastating effects that it has on Black people, was at the age of eleven when Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Her desire to challenge this evil system began at the age of fourteen when she joined the N.A.A.C.P. West Jackson Youth Council under the tutelage of Medgar Evers. Her first demonstration occurred in 1960 when her Youth Council members protested a white store owner in her community, who had kicked a pregnant Black woman out of the door of his store. She was also active in testing the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts by riding the segregated transportation systems of Jackson, Mississippi, making sure the laws were upheld and enforced.
Her yearning for justice for her people had led her to fighting on all fronts: She became one of the founding members of the Committee to Free Mumia (unjustly imprisoned political activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal). She unrelentingly advocated for the release of Aaron Patterson (falsely imprisoned for murder – later exonerated then gubernatorily pardoned) – which culminated into passing the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. The creation of this commission came about as a direct response to the twenty-year period of Chicago Police torture of Black men under Commander Jon Burge. She was also a founding member of the Black Mobilization Committee Against the War in Iraq to educate our people about how money was being siphoned from our communities to support an unjust war in another part of the world. A former member of N’COBRA – she is now a proud Chicago Freedman advocating for Native Black American reparations.
With This – I am grateful to know her.
Now the Letter:
Alderman Jason Ervin,
What the hell are you talking about compromising? What are Mexican aldermen compromising on? Are the Asians compromising anything? What is this talk about giving up a Ward for Asians? Are they not part of the fifty Wards, in some way or another, that we all comprise here in Chicago already? Are they not citizens of one or another of our fifty Wards now? This talk is downright unintelligent and stupid.
The Asians, Mexicans, Arabs, and other immigrants are economically established throughout our [Black] communities. They are sucking out all of the money and resources that Black people should be getting from their community. So – what the hell are you talking about? I will answer that for you: “You don’t give a damn.” Researching your Ward, I have been able to determine that the businesses in your Ward are owned mostly by everyone but Black people. There is no indication that you have been assisting Black men and women to open more businesses in the 28th Ward. Now that you feel threatened about losing your position as alderman, you came up with this map at the last minute – hoping that Black people will support you. This kind of nonsense is what happens when Black politicians have no vision for their people. You and other Black aldermen should have been on top of this.
The Mexicans and other aldermen who speak Spanish are holding firm. I say “who speak Spanish” – because the definition of Hispanic is a person of Latin American descent. Especially those of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin living in the continental United States, and relating to the people, speech, or culture of Spain. Spain – a white European country, conquered what is now called Mexico and Puerto Rico, and these people identify themselves as white until it is advantageous for them to say they are a minority. What they have in common is the language.
However, historically speaking, Mexicans are descendants of the Aztecs, Olmecs, and the Mayans, who were Black. And Puerto Ricans are descendants of the Taino people whom are also of African ancestry. Some of them are ignorant of these facts, and some do know – but will not acknowledge it. Anthropologically, there are three classifications of humankind: Negroid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid. Due to their own willful ignorance and emulated white supremacy mindsets, they don’t want to acknowledge their true Negroid ancestry. So – to hell with them!
What role do white aldermen play in this? Tell the white aldermen who speak Spanish or don’t speak the language to give away their Wards from under the white people they represent. Will they? No! They are not going to challenge other white people. All these damned immigrants come to this country and take on the attitudes of white people when it comes to us. They do it because we will not unify ethnically and politically like everybody else. This is about power! And they will run over us like an eighteen-wheeler truck if we don’t get ourselves together.
Why don’t you offer them Chinatown instead?
How dare you talk about compromising! Don’t you compromise on a damned thing! You stand on the shoulders of Black men and women who challenged the system so that we can be in the political arena that we are in today. Good or bad. You don’t have the knowledge or courage to make a decision of this magnitude that materially involves Black people, and a Black community. This is not just about one individual alderman. This is about power! This is about the Black community holding on to what WE have fought for. It is time for you Black aldermen to stop being individualistic in your thinking and approach to serving your people. The [Black] people elected you to serve them, and not just one person (yourself). Black people elected you to represent and execute the agenda of BLACK people. Not women, not minorities, not LGBTQ, not people of color, but BLACK people.
It is time for Black politicians to collectively say to everybody else in America that you are benefitting from the struggle of Black people. The Mexicans and others are at this juncture in politics in Chicago because of Black politicians. Especially our distinguished Brother Harold Washington (first Black Mayor of Chicago). Had it not been for him and our fight for an equitable political, educational, and economic justice for all, those Mexicans and Puerto Ricans would not today be where they are politically. And they [Hispanics] don’t have the human and political decency to acknowledge the significant role our Black community has contributed to their rise.
So now they have the audacity to make demands of us?
Having expressed an analysis of where we are, it is time for Black politicians to unite and engage the Black community to protect the gains and interests of our people. Not the interests of one individual alderman, and not the interests of other groups. We must speak with one voice and say to everyone who continues to disrespect and deliberately deny what we have given to the world and made it what it is today. We must send a message to them that we will fight them like a rattlesnake if they try to rob us today like their white racist ancestors did in the past. And that includes everybody, even the Africans and Caribbeans who come to this country and join the white supremacists against American BLACK people.
We must remind them [Black politicians] that many of these people are not legal citizens of the United States. And should have no political say regarding us.
Lastly, with the exception of maybe one or two, Black aldermen who are members of the Chicago City Council are not worth supporting or fighting for. Too many of you Black politicians have sided with the white power structure to the detriment of the Black community. The majority of you allowed [former Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel to close almost a hundred schools in the Black community. And that led to the exodus of many Black families out of Chicago. The majority of you have been silent about the lack of economic and educational equity for our people.
You have allowed Arabs, East Indians, and Asians to detrimentally bombard our communities economically – and they will not hire our young people. People who take the money out and give not one dime back. We cannot ever set up businesses in their communities! You support Chicago being a Sanctuary City for Hispanics while your own American citizen Black people are sleeping under viaducts and in parks. This is what you Black aldermen of the Chicago City Council have done.
But as previously stated, it is not about any one individual – it is about the Black community holding on to what we have fought for by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. The Black community must wake up and organize to stop this carnage against us!
Doris Lewis
Black Citizenship in spirit and action. Why can’t all our elders roll like this?
I was assisted in writing this post by a bottle of Dolum Estates Cask 28 Cabernet Sauvignon 2018. A Stags Leap District – Napa Valley extroadinarist. Dry and very drinkable. Leading with strawberry preserves, smoky wood, and minerals. A quiet sustain of oak, chocolate, and cigar. Ending decisively in blackberries and ripe plums. Opulent body. Moderate acidity. High tannins. Medium finish.
“Falsehood flies, and and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”
Jonathan Swift
Let us start with the CARICOM Platform: “The CARICOM Reparations Commission is a regional body created to Establish the moral, ethical, and legal case for the payment of Reparations by the Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions of those countries, to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialized system of chattel Slavery.”
CARICOM does not in any way allow us in their shit.
Damn Family. Can we have and/or do anything regarding us, with us, for us, about us, or due to us, without white, Hispanic, Asian, or Black alien inputs? Straight Question without adieu: “Why are Green Carders, non-eligible citizen descendants of immigrants, recently naturalized immigrants, and motherfuckers that are solid citizens of other countries that only visit here – having more say and influence over American Freedmen reparations than American Freedmen do?” Folks Like:
NAARC Commissioner – Adjo Amouzou (Born in Togo – Africa)
NAARC Commissioner – Lionel Jean Baptiste (Born in Haiti – Caribbean)
NAARC Commissioner – Yvette Modestin (Born in Panama – Central America)
NAARC Administrator – Don Rojas (Born in Saint Vincent – Caribbean)
And NAARC is not the only set-up with individuals possessing names that make you unsure of their provenance. The N’COBRA list goes like:
Kalonji Olusegun
Hannibal Tirus Afrik
Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at
Ari Merettazon
Jumoke Ifetayo
Adjoa Aiyetoro
Johnita Scott-Obadele
Dorothy Aurevoche
Kibibi Tyehimba
Njere Alghanee
No wonder HR40 is fucked up. It’s a Pan African bill. That’s why it needs the Darity edits. To stop the bullshit. Now – look at the N’COBRA list. Are any of these people American-born Black Americans? Or Not? Sounds like somebody needs to do some sorting-out and making things Clear to motherfuckers. American Slavery Lineage – Or Not? Can’t tell by the names. But every one of those folks on both lists are shaping reparations policy in meetings that readily recognizable – ordinarily named Jones and Robinson-ed American Freedmen are locked out of.
We need to ask NAARC:
“How a possibly Green Carded, drum-beating, Togolesian interloper like Adjo Amouzou has more say in our reparations than we do?”
Is that a good question?
And Lionel Jean Baptiste – who is a judge for the Ninth Subcircuit of the Cook County Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois. So What! How in the fuck does he have anything to say – about this? He’s Haitian! Last I checked – Haitians are from Haiti. Right? Not America. He is also a past – past president of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois. Haitian American Lawyers. You Know?
Ahh… For Haitians only. But he’s consequential in our space as well? Did he bring any coconuts? I don’t understand how a Haitian from Haiti even thinks that he has one fucking word to say into, over, or about this issue. Do WE have a say in Haitian affairs? I don’t remember ANY Haitian EVER asking us shit – about THEIR shit.
Do you?
Remember Family: No Native Black Americans. No American Freedmen. No American descendants of chattel slavery are on the commissions of CARICOM or any other reparations entities representing the justice claims of other groups anywhere in the world. None. Nowhere. And Family – sharply remember that ALL commissioners and administrators belonging to NAARC have a hand in shaping OUR reparations policy. I repeat: “All of them.” And some of the individuals listed above in a properly constructed American reparations program – that are now shaping OUR program would not be eligible(!). So why and how are those foreign born – very ineligible people all the way up in our reparations business?
Black immigrants may be at each other’s throats in other political areas – but they are unified and On Code when it comes to controlling our reparations.
Again – not eligible. Whatever they do in Togo – have you ever heard of any Native Black American running, shaping, deciding, or influencing anything in Togo or any other African or Caribbean country? But a fucking Togolesian can boat, fly, or swim in, and shape OUR reparations? Without our permission? WOW! That’s some mind boggling shit. All of the people on the above lists can sit in the very same meetings regarding reparations that NAARC and N’COBRA will lock you and me out of. Sir Hilary Beckles (Chairman of CARICOM) and his entourage, inappropriately took up seats at the first HR40 House Judiciary Hearing held on June 13, 2019.
Those seats should have gone to American Freedmen.
Family – no motherfuckers from other countries should have more influence over our affairs than we do. OK? Diasporans in other countries would never allow American Freedmen into their domestic affairs like this. None of them – and that includes CARICOM. Think about that shit. Motherfuckers from Togo, Panama, Saint Vincent, and Haiti are able to lock us American Freedmen out of meetings that are regarding reparations for American Freedmen? Facts. If any American Freedman even THOUGHT about doing some shit like that in a Caribbean or African country? Man. Everybody reading this post KNOWS they would get FUCKED UP. Meaning fined, politically detained, imprisoned, tortured, maimed, or executed. They know how to acquaint a motherfucker with a machete.
They don’t play that kind of shit in those places.
We shouldn’t either. Let’s learn how to handle political interlopers from THEM.
Family – it is time to directly address NAARC and N’COBRA. The same folks that have a provision in HR40 to literally carry out reparations deliberations in secret. No reporting to us. With Green Carded Niggers from other countries deciding on our money. Our shit. The NAARC – N’COBRA Axis has literally invited the Diaspora to ride our naked Foundational Black American backs and greedily collect on our grandparents pain, deprivation, and dehumanization – flying in with griftitious “knowledge” and “expertise,” after the police dogs and Jim Crow smoke have cleared. A bunch of intrusive – inappropriate, motherfuckers…
Family. It is good to form cause-based coalitions and associations. But NAARC and N’COBRA have so many strategic white, Hispanic, and Asian contributors to their organizations that they are slowly universalizing our justice claim to everyone. And fuck us. Do those contributions have “Brown” agendas attached to the checks? Yes. Everyone needs to pay their good attention to NAARC and N’COBRA’s fluid reparations politics. Otherwise – the Mexicans will be getting our reparations.
From the NAARC website:
“America owes an historical debt to Black and Brown people, and reparations means repaying that debt…”
“Black and Brown?” What happened? I thought this was the “National African-American Reparations Commission.” Right? Maybe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dropped some of that “Brown” money over there. Who Knows? There’s a lot of things that could influence a man’s mind. Especially the mind of Dr. Ron Daniels.
You Know?
Check this shit Family: If Black immigrants have a racial abuse claim against the United States – they have the right to handle that shit. But American Freedmen should not – do not – and will not work for them. OK? And all of the visiting, green carded, naturalized, or first-generation inborn aliens made light of in this post – definitely do not work for us. All of the motherfuckers listed in this article need to get up and off our reparations shit. And that includes Jamaican descended inborn alien – The Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Yep – her ass too. And remember – this is the same Democratic Party Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee that turns her behind up at – and ignores her local Black Reparationist constituents.
Slavery-lineaged Black Americans – those welcoming, accommodating, American Freedmen, have never exercised xenophobia or nativism. Especially towards those within and from the Diaspora. Black people. But Family – there are instances where the applications of xenophobia and nativism are appropriate, intelligent, and just. No – lets go further: The conscious and intelligent cultivation of xenophobia and American Freedman nativism is at this time necessary for our survival bodily, politically, and otherwise. Understand – this is a pressing necessity Family. Especially when aliens of any ilk are going deep into certain business where they don’t belong – and attempting to criminally redirect a 400 years due inheritance.
At this point – certain officials of CARICOM have become so entitled that some of them on public platforms will deign to “instruct” at and “insist” (finger pointing) to American Freedmen on what they think IS ENTITLED to Caribbeans. OK?
Watch This:
Verene A. Shepherd, whom is a Social Historian (!?) AND – check this: A fucking Vice Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. She actually said this arrogant shit (with a Jamaican/British accent) on a recent YouTube post:
“The impression down here [in the Caribbean] is that Caribbean people who live in the United States – Black People would not be entitled to any reparations paid by the United States Government. What we are saying is that’s not right – we are saying that’s divisive of the Black population in the United States. We are saying that Caribbean immigrants have been harmed by that system through racial profiling and discrimination [and therefore should be entitled to reparations]…”
Like We [American Freedmen] answer – To Her (boy – watch your blood pressure).
Now – you can’t say that Caribbean people did not get the correct impression.
“Divisive?” Damned Right It Is Sweetheart…
The majority of American Freedmen feel that Caribbean folks that live in the United States would not – and should not be entitled to any reparations paid by the United States Government. Why? Because that makes sense to common thinking people that are not stupid. Yep. For example: Jewish people that have been harmed by anti-Semitism – but were not direct victims of, nor are descendants of victims of the Holocaust – are not – and should not be entitled to Holocaust Reparations. And they ARE NOT. Ask any astute Jewish person. Valid complaints of discrimination and profiling are what courts are for. Lots of Caribbean immigrants are lawyers – go ahead and file!!! We also have some Caribbean immigrants and first generation folks that are legislators at all levels of government. Ya’ll got skills – Right?
Craft and Present your own Bill: Call it “HR-Coconut.” I don’t know…
Being harmed by profiling and other forms of discrimination are separate issues that have nothing to do with our reparations claim. OK? That would be between Caribbean immigrants and the Government. Not us. And not with us. With all of the well-educated, well-compensated, and well-accomplished people that reside in the Caribbean immigrant community – if that community truly found this to be pressing, they would seriously pursue this as a separate issue themselves. Not to be conflated or joined in any way with our stuff. And not needing our help.
I suggest they have at it.
We’ve already been moved aside by immigrants in all kinds of major ways. The first “Black” president is a first-generation Kenyan. The first “Black” attorney general is a first-generation Barbadian. The first “Black” vice president is a first-generation Jamaican. Peter Braithwaite, an Alderman in Evanston Illinois – a Jamaican – (as of this writing) runs the reparations program there. The lead congressional sponsor of HR40 is a first-generation Jamaican. Moved Aside. Etcetera.
We fight – They sit. We advocate – They eat.
We are not going to be moved aside this time.
The NAARC – N’COBRA Axis should potentially be found guilty of Reparations Conspiracy and Theft. And CARICOM could potentially be looked upon as an international fence for American Freedmen Reparations Resources. Guilty…
Now Family – Africans and Caribbeans have always told us American Freedmen how much better they are than us. This is their chance to prove it. They need to handle their business – and get the fuck up and out of ours. Point Blank.
We must seize ownership of this reparations issue from Dr. Ron Daniels (NAARC). This is not his personal property. He strongly considers it to be his – but this issue belongs TO YOU. And strong political participation along with the narrowing and exclusivication of our issues is a necessary survival mechanism. I hope you understand this right now Family. Our survival as a people depends on it. Improperly practiced Pan Africanism is a resource-threatening fantasy:
For us – As it is – Pan Africanism Equals Death.From this point on –Black immigrants must hold their own nuts.
Oh – and another thing: Never trust any Black-run organization that accepts a MacArthur Foundation grant. This is “controlled opposition” money. There is such a thing as “good money” and “bad money” Family. Especially when it comes to this reparations space. Would you allow your child to accept money from a known pedophile? No? Ya Sure? OK. Beware family – Beware…
We were assisted in composing this post by a bottle of Marchesi Sierra Foothills Zinfandel 2019. Bold with medium tannins. Foreground of plums, blueberries, blackberries, and vanilla. An abiding concert of cherries, raspberries, and muted strawberries. Soft acidity. Long but elegant finish of black pepper and cinnamon.
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ‘The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others…
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
Matthew 23:1-7 and 27 NIV
A bad rebuttal deserves a great counter-rebuttal.
Nkechi Taifa Esq. is the President and CEO of The Taifa Group LLC, she is also an Advocacy Director for Criminal Justice & Convener for the Justice Roundtable Coalition, a Commissioner with the National African American Reparations Commission [NAARC], and the latest author of misrepresentative arguments concerning reparations specificity and what forms reparations should take.
An up-to-date contributor to the disingenuous fallacy pool.
She decided to write an open letter to Rolling Stone Magazine through the post-site Medium.com. We suggest everyone read it. This open letter (published July 15, 2021) was regarding her disappointment with Rolling Stone’s publishing of A. Kirsten Mullin’s and Dr. William A. Darity Jr’s. article “10 Things We Get Wrong About Reparations” (published June 19, 2021). She focuses on three things that she feels are wrong with their article. But we found several things in error with hers.
Let’s take a look.
Opening Section – Third Paragraph
“I was disappointed, then, to see that your magazine ran’10 Things We Get Wrong About Reparations,’ written by Kirsten Mullen and William Darity Jr. PhD., the co-authors of ‘From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.’ The book and the authors have gotten much ink and electricity for their so-categorized pro-reparations arguments. But for many of us movement veterans they are beginning to sound more like detractors than allies.”
Before we go into the “meat” of Counselor Taifa’s article, we would like to first focus on an interesting paragraph that is the third one of her opening statement. Here, Counselor Taifa implores an argument from authority when making her juxtaposing statement regarding “veterans in the movement.” Yep. What she intentionally does not mention is that Dr. Darity and A. Kirsten Mullin are no neophytes to this work. She clearly knows this, believe us.
As of this writing, Dr. Darity has published thirteen books that we know of. These writings, along with countless articles, papers, reports, posts, tweets, lectures, and interviews on the subject of reparations. He has been a staunch advocate regarding reparations policy for over thirty years. Dr. Darity has spoken on several occasions at NAARC and N’COBRA events about this very topic (remember?).
A. Kirsten Mullen, in her own right, has been active in social justice and race issues through her work as a folklorist and historian. She was a member of the Freelon Adjaye Bond team that was awarded the commission to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
As a faculty member with the Community Folklife Documentation Institute, she trained students to research and document North Carolina’s African American musical heritage. A. Kirsten Mullen was a consultant on the North Carolina Museum of History’s “North Carolina Legends” and Civil Rights exhibition projects. Her writing can be found in a plethora of museum catalogs, journals, and commercial media. This includes the article: “Black Culture and History Matter.” Published February 2016 in “The American Prospect” magazine. The article examines the politics and dynamics of funding Black cultural institutions.
A sentence in the last paragraph of her opening statement reads: “Mullen and Darity are gifted with academic pedigrees and intellectual sweat on the issue of reparations.” OK. For the sake of brevity, let us focus on Dr. Darity’s academic pedigrees for now:
B.A. – Brown University (1974)
Ph.D – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978)
Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award (2002)
Fellow – Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (2011)
Samuel Z. Westerfield Award – National Economic Association (2012)
The aforementioned academic and professional achievements of Dr. Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen were not “gifted.” What you see are the results of hard study, hard work, and a well-developed intentional expertise on the subject of reparations. No institution “gifted” them anything. At the same time, judging from the obvious lack of research, logic, and general intellectual rigor displayed by Counselor Taifa in the writing of her “open letter” rebuttal – we could seriously speculate that herJuris Doctor was possibly “gifted” in some kind of way. We would suggest that The George Washington University Law School, Howard University, and whatever Bar Association(s) she may be a member of, to take another look.
As far as Darity and Mullen “sounding more like detractors than allies.” Yes, of course. They are allies of Pure Reparations. At the same time – they are detractors (rightly) of the aims and practices of The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis. Understand Family: That is the correct and righteous distinction between Darity and Mullen’s appropriately targeted detraction, and superlative ally-ship.
Onwards to the “meat” of her article:
First Example – First Paragraph
“Mullen and Darity are leading a superfluous crusade bordering on a bullying campaign to ‘Fix HR40,’ the impact of which distracts from hard, decades-long work. They continue to insist that the bill is limited to a study commission; that its substance and structure is weak; and that it fails to establish specific directives to Congress – such as directing the commission to identify ‘Black American descendants of U.S. slavery’ as the eligible recipients; directing the commission to develop plans that set elimination of the racial wealth gap as a core target; and ensuring the prioritization of cash payments. These charges are either misleading or redundant to what the bill already does.”
OK. Now what Counselor Taifa labels a “bullying campaign” to correct HR40 raises her usage of the word “superfluous” to inflammatory on her part. We didn’t know that could be done. But she did it. The citizen-initiated and sustained “Fix HR40” campaign was done without inducement by Darity or Mullen to draw general public awareness to the details of a bill to create a commission to study reparations. HR40 as presently composed misses the mark on what that bill “should” do.
Just because the bill, first introduced in 1989 by the late U.S. Congressman John Conyers, had decades-long work behind it to get it out of committee (which hasn’t happened yet) and put towards a House Floor vote – does not mean that the bill itself is appropriately structured for us, ultimately beneficial to us, or above intelligent scrutiny by the affected people themselves. “Decades-long work” doesn’t mean anything when that work is expended on things that logically and potentially won’t work.
Doesn’t matter if that work is expended Behind or in Front of it.
Legitimate scrutiny and correction is what the “Fix HR40” campaign was set to accomplish. Not to “bully.” We would like to ask Counselor Taifa: “When is it ‘bullying’ to engage in political advocacy regarding an issue that directly and materially affects you?” Aren’t citizens supposedto engage in the political process ESPECIALLY when there is a bill percolating on Capitol Hill that can directly impact one’s future? One’s children’s future? Justice for one’s parents and grandparents? What is she saying? Is she saying that Black citizens should not read bills and question possible errors or aspects of certain bills – errors or aspects that may be ineffective, non-existent, or detrimental? To not be politically engaged?
Is that what she is saying?
We think she should respect and engage The People.
For Example: Every single Black American Freedman that we have talked to about this issue thinks that clearly identifying “Black American descendants of United States chattel slavery” as the only eligible recipients is a good idea. They also think that the elimination of the racial wealth gap as a core target is a good idea. They [the people] definitely think that the prioritization of cash payments is a good idea. Yep. And ninety five percent of those same people are vehemently opposed to Black immigrants or immigrant citizen descendants receiving the benefits of – or possibly shaping, managing, or administering any part of an American Freedmen reparations program (“How does that happen?” They ask.).
And specificity is not xenophobic or nativist. Specificity is a necessary component in any justice demand. Ask CARICOM (we will get into that later). Ask any decent class-action specialist attorney. Ask ANY licensed attorney. Let’s make sense. We do not see anything unreasonable or out of place regarding legitimate inputs from those who are directly supposed to benefit from this bill. Those are the affected. Those are the specifically injured – deprived and uniquely rightful citizens.
The other thing: “If The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is composed of folks that are such ‘experts’ on reparations – why is this issue taking so ‘decades long’ for these so ‘long-standing’ organizations to so accomplish? If ever? What is taking so long?”
First Example – Second Paragraph
“Despite constant correction to the false impressions they continue to sow, the bill is already tasked with no longer merely studying, but also developing proposals for the Congress to consider. Moreover, HR40 does, in fact, address the Black-white wealth gap, even if the article’s authors deny it. As the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America [N’COBRA] has written in its critique of the authors: “…the legislation points out in specificity the wealth gap as a lingering effect of the crimes of enslavement, Jim Crow (apartheid) and post Jim Crow harms. And determines the duty to remedy and reverse the situation (wealth disparity) with appropriate policies, programs, and projects.”
That is what she wrote. So – let’s explore HR40 itself to see if it is actually addressing the Black-White wealth gap. Section 2 – Paragraph 6 reads as follows:
“(6) as a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 Black people incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current White employment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of White families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.”
This (the underlined part) is the only sentence that even alludes to the income and wealth gap between Black and white families. This is cursory at best. A legislative language drive-by. It is noteworthy that this language was added to HR40 after the “Fix HR40” campaign started its political marketing efforts, and not before when this bill was reintroduced in 2019. If “bullying” can definitively address the Black-White wealth gap, then; we think we should “bully” more.
Dr. Darity has been on the crusade that a reparations program’s first effective accomplishment is to close the wealth gap between white and Black families. According to an article posted by the Brookings Institute: “The Black-white wealth gap left Black households more vulnerable” – by Emily Moss, Kriston McIntosh, Wendy Edelberg, and Kristen Broady (December 8, 2020):
“In the second quarter of 2020, white households – who account for sixty percent of the U.S. population – held eighty four percent ($94 trillion) of total household wealth in the United States. Comparatively, Black households – who account for thirteen point four percent of the U.S. population – held just four percent ($4.6 trillion) of total household wealth.”
In a bill that is supposed to “study” and “propose” resolutions to this problem, a mere allusion to the wealth gap is not enough. An “address” in this case (Kamm Howard of N’COBRA) must mean more than just saying: “Hello!” We are not convinced that Counselor Taifa has actually read A. Kirsten Mullen and Dr. Darity’s book (at least not seriously), because if she did, she would know that the book makes a quite detailed case for reparations that not only covers slavery but all the inequalities and adverse policies suffered by Foundational Black Americans as a result of Jim Crow and post-Jim Crow harms. And Why are we not convinced?
Because in Part 5 – Chapter 11 of “From Here to Equality,” the authors write:
“The message of the Black Lives Matter movement encapsulates the racialized injuries of the 150 years since the end of legal American slavery. The movement’s message alerts us to the many ways in which Black life has been devalued and unprotected so thoroughly in the United States. The discount rate on Black humanity has been enormous. A variety of metrics indicate that, even after the end of Jim Crow, Black lives are routinely assigned a worth approximately thirty percent that of white lives.”
You Know – of all the major professions (ahem…). Lawyers, as a matter of day to day professional proficiency are required to be the most literate of the literate. It is possible that Counselor Taifa may be suffering from a mild form of dyslexia. And that could be impacting her comprehension. Totally understandable. Or, could she possibly have a severe form of just not reading the book? Which is it?
First Example – Third Paragraph
“In fact, HR40 gives the commission the power to examine all of the institutions of American society and create proposals for repair in not only the wealth gap but also housing, education, and social welfare, including the criminal punishment system. Indeed, fixing a wealth gap alone – with politically juvenile calls to simply “cut the check!” – won’t stop mass incarceration and other forms of discrimination. As any Black professional athlete, popular entertainer, or successful entrepreneur can tell you, middle and upper-class Blacks get physically harassed and shot at by police too.”
Incredible statement conflating several unrelated issues. Ahh – Reparations is about filling and levelling the wealth gap First (she’s supposed to be a “reparations expert”). Establishing Ongoing and continuous repair Second (she’s a “veteran” of the movement). And the assured installation of Specific policies and protections Third (not sure what NAARC “veterans” do). See? No one except Counselor Taifa said anything about “fixing a wealth gap alone.”
Those “politically juvenile” (as she describes) calls to “cut the check” are just a creative construction from the young people in the streets further popularizing the issue of reparations into an encapsulated, quick to convey form. That’s what young Black people do. Can’t stop that Folks. That popularization came about as a result of the work of the previous incarnation of the ADOS movement. Done in less than three years. This “word on the street” establishment and promotion was something that The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis was not able to do in thirty plus years. If that “cut the check” popularization came about as a result of NAARC and N’COBRA activism – Counselor Taifa wouldn’t have a damned thing to say about it.
And this one: “…’cut the check!’ – won’t stop mass incarceration and other forms of discrimination. As any Black professional athlete, popular entertainer, or successful entrepreneur can tell you, middle and upper-class Blacks get physically harassed and shot at by police too.” Huh??? What has that got to do with anything reparational? OK? Did Jewish Holocaust reparations stop anti-Semitism? No? Was it supposed to? Did the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 stop Asian hate? Was it supposed to? Because it didn’t. And it didn’t – because it wasn’t supposed to.
Second Example
“The authors grumble about the salaries and structure of the proposed commission. What they are actually upset about is that the membership of the commission to be formed by HR40 includes six members ‘selected from major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice.’ Not sure why that should be an issue of contention, as it is a positive departure from the norm of not centering perspectives of advocates who are actually doing the work.”
Quote: “The authors grumble about the salaries and structure of the proposed commission.” Yep. Not just the authors Darity and Mullen. But myself, Arthur Ward, my co-author on this post Cynthia McDonald, and anyone with an IQ above that of a Pan African coconut that took the time to independently read the actual HR40 text itself would have critical things to say as well. There are thousands of us out there. Not hard to find at all. Some are legally trained and some are otherwise educated (but commensurately literate) that have came to the same conclusion:
“We know Counselor. We’re all stupid.”
Counselor Taifa’s statement about the authors’ grumblings is amusing. She prefers to feign ignorance as to why there is an issue of contention concerning the salaries of the proposed commission members and “the six seats selected from major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice.” Let us visit why this is a point of dissention:
A. Most commissioners that are selected by Congress are not salaried. They receive compensation for their travel and other expenses incurred while doing the work. The salaries proposed in HR40 for the commissioners and their staffs are GS-18 which are in excess of $200K per year. See the excerpted text of HR40 below:
(a) Staff. – The Commission may, without regard to section 5311(b) of title 5, United States Code, appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as the Commission considers appropriate.
(b) Applicability Of Certain Civil Service Laws. – The staff of the Commission may be appointed without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates, except that the compensation of any employee of the Commission may not exceed a rate equal to the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS-18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code.
You See? They are making sure to stack that money – aren’t they? Advocacy is expensive. Isn’t it? To the tune of $200K plus – a year! OK? To “study” stuff that has already been studied. OK? And to MAYBE come to a productive conclusion? OK? This is what you pick up when you READ STUFF and tread heavily through the high thickets of Pan African-rendered legislative English. The next time we ourselves need expert help in putting together a self-serving bill – we will definitely enlist the professional services of The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis.
They are just good at this.
B. The original bill did not have an ending date for the Commission. That time containment would not have happened without the “bullying” efforts of the “Fix HR40” campaign. The “commission” could have met in perpetuity without creating or committing to a single reparations proposal. How Long?
C. Watch This: The six seats selected from major civil society and reparations organizations that have historically championed the cause of reparatory justice is literally The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis writing themselves into the bill to make sure their people are selected to be a part of the commission. We understand after all the years put in advocating for reparations why certain folks would want to sit their fatbehinds in those seats. To do all the reparational talking. You Know?
But let us look at that – like this: “If a child needs a transplant, and his parent has advocated for an inordinate amount of time to get that operation done for that child – (and that parent is not a transplant specialist) does that parent’s advocacy simultaneously allow them the qualifications to do the surgery itself?”
Just a question.
We don’t believe Counselor Taifa or anyone involved in The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis have the qualifications nor the proper intent. They are potentially involved with negotiating the outcome of a bill THAT WILL materially affect some thirty-six to forty plus millions of us. In Now And In Justice. As the solely affected group, American Freedmen have a fundamental right to not only know everything about this issue – and to have an effective say regarding whom will be speaking for us. We should also have an effective say in what they will be doing as well.
That should be understandable.
D. It is noteworthy that both organizations working closely with one another have reparations proposals that no doubt they will try to force into the official proposals created by the HR40 commission. Some of the proposals they champion on their websites (their true goals) are highly problematic. Such as:
The Repatriation Program Part One – “Africans in America who choose to exercise the right to return will be provided with sufficient monetary resources to become productive citizens in their new home and shall be aided in their resettlement by a Black controlled agency funded by the federal government to perform this function.” OK. One thing we’d like to know: “If this aspect of their proposal is accomplished – will or can NAARC and N’COBRA secure working agreements from African governments to make repatriation a seamless process on the other end for American Freedmen?” That would be nice. African Americans and others from the Diaspora are not recognized as eligible Africans by African governments. No visa or visitation considerations. No nothing.
The Repatriation Program Part Two – We only ask because we’ve noticed that the most vocal Pan-Africans themselves have not repatriated to Africa. Have you seen any? We also do not know of any Pan-Africans that at least hold dual-citizenships. We think? No – we know by sight that Pan-Africans do not want to live in Africa. They still live here. No ownership of a second home. No business ties. Not even a dog. If any are found – let us know. Acquiring citizenship in any African country is a Herculean effort for most members of the Diaspora. It is also not worth it. There are no special person or property protections for Diasporans that move to Africa. I’m sure at least some of you have read stories of American Freedmen that have been murdered by Afican continenetals for their properties and businesses? A risky and irresponsible proposition. American Freedmen that want to live in Africa should go of their own volition and dime. Want Citizenship? Are you kidding? African embassies and consulates will laugh your Black self right out the door. Understand that repatriation is nothing but unserious Pan African babble.
Reparations Being Expended to Persons that are not Descendants of American Slavery – From the NAARC website: “NAARC firmly asserts that reparations should not be restricted to people of African descent who can prove their lineage to what is termed ‘American’ enslavement.” AND: “We strongly affirm the right of all people of African descent in the U.S. to receive reparations, irrespective of when they arrived here or their country of origin.” Freely giving the recompense from the struggle of our grandparents and parents to any Black person like Halloween candy. “Just show up!” This would be the world’s first fly-in reparations program. A NAARC and N’COBRA production. WOW. American Freedmen should gratefully accept their $3.64 reparations check.
Reparations Functioning as a Source of attached Grants and Loans for Persons Seeking Affordable Housing. Ahh Family. The word “loan” or any association with a “loan” should NEVER be part of a reparations program. Anything you have to pay back is NOT reparations. As an aside, American Freedmen are even locked out by The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis from running a fake reparations program. Fake! The Chairman (as of this writing) of this fraudulent reparations program in Evanston Illinois is Peter Braithwaite – a Jamaican(!?). How?
Land Transfers and Management to be controlled by The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis – “Substantial tracts of government/public land in the South and other regions of the country be transferred to the National Reparations Trust Authority with full autonomy in terms equivalent to the sovereignty granted to Native people over reservations awarded to them. These lands are to be utilized for major educational, commercial, industrial, economic/business and health/wellness institutions and enterprises to benefit people of African descent.” Really? A “National Reparations Trust Authority?” OK.
Now who is gonna be running this? The Pan-Africans? This “National Reparations Trust Authority” was mentioned four times in separate sections of NAARC and N’COBRA’s proposals. Who are these “people of African descent?” Anybody Black from anywhere? We thought any reparations dispersals would specifically be for “American Freedmen.” This so-called “Trust Authority” is intended to operate outside of the Federal Government. Outside of American Freedmen oversight and advisement. We have serious reservations regarding an autonomous authority managing any aspect of Foundational Black American reparations. If land is given – direct transfers should be made after individual plans are shown, and land-management qualifications are acquired. This being done by an embedded federal agency – like a “Freedman’s Bureau.” That is the way to go for those that want land.
We do not need or want Pan-African management of any American Freedmen reparations resources. Period.
Third Example – First Paragraph
“Finally, an upfront requirement that the commission focus reparations efforts only on ‘Black American descendants of U.S. slavery,’ a misnomer in and of itself, is not only premature, but defeatist, if not cynical. (Note: the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade was a global event that dispersed enslaved Africans in the American Continent and the Caribbean, and Blacks are demanding reparations not just from America but from the United Kingdom as well.)”
“Whom is the commission supposed to focus reparation efforts on Counselor?”
With this – Counselor Taifa of NAARC is again engaging in fallacious arguments which we’d conjecture that she ought to know better. She is occasionally a lawyer. “Black American Descendants of U.S. Slavery” is no more a misnomer than “Enslaved African Descendants in America.” No More. OK? It is well known that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was a global event. Yes. But the question is how the institution of slavery was handled in a disaggregated sense here, here, and here at each sovereign termination of the Atlantic transit. Every time. The question is always: “Where did individuals ultimately land?” Those landings were accepted by traders here, here, and here under different, separate – autonomous governments. Separate. Those governments had and have their own constitutions, laws, policies, structures, imposed slave cultures – and abolition timelines.
And those other operations had Nothing to do with the United States.
HR40 is (or should be) a bill regarding only the United States. Now: “Get this Pan-Africans. HR40 should not be a bill to address other countries that practiced slavery!”
Those other countries should deal with their own issues, deal with their own people, address the correct perpetrators, and pay their own bills. The United States should not be pinned as the world’s default paymaster to compensate for the criminal activities of other countries. Any particular robber is not responsible for all robberies. A justice claim has to equally provide justice for both the victim and the accused. Justice for both the potentially compensating government – and the potentially compensated group. This should be a justice-grounded bill and commission that in finality – exclusively addresses the historic ills of the descendants of United States Chattel Slavery and the exclusively domestic post-slavery aftermaths that only the American Freedmen and their descendants have suffered. Full Stop.
There ARE NO operating reparations commissions outside of the United States that include even the possibility of Foundational Black Americans being included in their justice claims. None. They make our exclusion quite clear on their websites – like CARICOM. The Caribbean Commission has fifteen countries organized in the Caribbean archipelago and one continental country in South America (Guyana). And Again – the United States is definitely not one of those countries.
As of this writing – Jamaica’s GOVERNMENT was recently in the news petitioning reparations from the British Government. We took a look at various media platforms reporting this – and American Freedmen were nowhere in there nowhere. And nowhere else. You See? When NAARC and N’COBRA were asked if they would petition the Jamaican Government for Foundational Black Americans to be included in this claim, the N’COBRA twitter person replied:
“No. And it is still a stupid question based on brainwashing & programming from a social media hashtag phenomenon. So you are asking if we as citizens of the USA are going to get in on reparations of a sovereign country & government without being citizens nor residents of that country? These questions are mostly emotional without much thought huh?”
Counselor Taifa’s own organizational affiliation is recognizing a claim that is specific to the people that was harmed by a particular sovereign entity – to the particular citizens of said country (ahem). Notice how in other countries that when it comes to matters of potential reparational distributions, their money is never “Pan Africanized.” Even the N’COBRA Twitter person is aware of that. See? And how American-lineaged specificity is conflated with nativism is lost to us.
More on that at the bottom of this post.
Third Example – Second Paragraph
“Using Mullen’s and Darity’s ‘native only’ Black folk schematic route, the genealogy companies would get rich researching an estimated 47 million Black folk, creating a process that combats unreliable record-keeping, name and identity changes due to both self-determination and escaping from Klan violence, which will likely span a decade if not more. And with the infamous one-drop rule still part of American life, there could likely be many white people demanding to be proven Black – particularly if there is a check to be cut linked to traces of melanin.”
Counselor Taifa followed her previous utterance with this statement. So here we have an indirect admission that she has never read “From Here To Equality,” let alone the article she is rebutting – OR she is an incredibly unashamable liar. In the article “Ten Things We Get Wrong About Reparations” the authors state:
“Actually, it is straightforward for claimants for Black reparations to establish eligibility under the following criteria: Eligible recipients should be Black Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the US who were denied the promised 40 acres. They also must have self-identified as Black, African American, Afro-American, or Negro for twelve years prior to the enactment of a reparations program or commission, whichever comes first.
A Black forebear who was at least ten years old in 1870 and appears in the Census by name but did not appear in the 1860 records, quite likely was born enslaved. To meet the identity standard, an individual can make public their response to the self-reported race question on the Census.
In From Here To Equality, we recommend a reparations study commission authorize an agency staffed with professional genealogists across the country to assist individuals with establishing their claims at no charge.”
To further illuminate such issues away from Counselor Taifa’s straw man argument. The authors write in “From Here To Equality” Part 6 – Chapter 13:
“We advance two criteria to determine eligibility for a Black reparations program. First, U.S. citizens would need to establish that they had at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the United States after the formation of the republic. Second, they would have to prove that they self-identified as ‘Black,’ ‘Negro,’ or ‘Afro-American’ at least 12 years before the enactments of the reparations program or the establishment of a congressional or presidential commission ‘to study and develop reparations for African Americans’ – whichever comes first. The first criterion, of course, could produce lucrative opportunities for private genealogists, but these investigations also could be facilitated by an arm of the professional (civil service) staff specializing in genealogical research for the agency that administers the reparations program.”
Is that clear enough Family? Now, the Smithsonian Institution notes that before 1965, Black people of foreign birth residing in the United States were nearly invisible. According to the 1960 Census, their percentage of the population was to the right of the decimal point. But after 1965, men and women of African descent entered the United States in ever-increasing numbers. So this straw man argument of unobtainable factors to determine eligibility is groundless and inaccurate.
To personally note the co-author of this post Cynthia McDonald, she was able to trace her lineage back to slavery in less than thirty minutes using the U.S. Census. Also, in “From Here To Equality,” the authors speak of other ways outside of genealogy companies to determine eligibility like the census and also slave schedules which are more accurate than Counselor Taifa states. In many families a careful organization of successive birth and death certificates would be good enough. Without genealogical research! Non-professional! Cheap!
In the case of the other co-author of this post (Arthur Ward) – his great-great grandmother was born in 1864 (one year before the Emancipation Proclamation). In America! She died in 1962 at the age of ninety-eight. Arthur Ward was six years old in 1962. Maybe a death certificate? So, we are not sure of what Counselor Taifa is getting at. Perhaps Counselor Taifa may want to re-examine her statements. Because with little effort, one can see that they don’t hold water.
Third Example – Third Paragraph
“Mullen’s and Darity’s narrow nativism and demand for scientific categorization, backed up by old and probably unreliable U.S. Census data, is a significant step back from the Black united front that Black reparations advocates have been advocating since the days of Queen Mother Audley Moore, the Harlem activist who promoted reparations from the 1930’s until her 1997 death. It can’t be coincidental that at the very moment organized and researched Black reparations efforts for Black communities are happening simultaneously around the Western World, elite scholarship emerges that challenges clear perspectives and promotes economic individualism. HR40 requires complex conversations, but not ones that propagate confusion and disunity.”
Everyone that is astutely aware of the history of Black liberation movements in America is certainly aware of the Honorable Queen Mother Audley Moore. She was most definitely the Pan African’s – Pan African to be sure. She was also a fierce advocate of reparations. This same woman on the one hand was a founder of “The Universal Association Of Ethiopian Women.” And on the separate other hand founded “The Committee For Reparations For Descendants Of U.S. Slaves.”
We understand Queen Mother Moore to be staunchly Pan African. Got that. But why would she specify “descendants of U.S. slaves” in this instance? Was she practicing “narrow nativism” as well? “Xenophobia?” Does “Pan-Africanism” as a retort apply in every instance of contention American Freedmen may have with their government? We don’t think so. Do you?
The quality – the usefulness of a book cannot be judged by its cover. But most of the time we can understand a book’s particular concentration – its precise topic as indicated by what is written on the cover. Is that not true? Right? If Queen Mother Moore called her other organization precisely: “The Committee For Reparations For Descendants Of U.S. Slaves” – could that be what she meant and intended?
What does the “cover” say?
The main issue with The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is having and maintaining an African Diasporan sensibility for reparations versus those who may be oriented as ADOS, FBA, Freedmen, et cetera – that are grounded in American specificity. Let us get with the facts. The United States has always practiced specificity grounded reparations in the form of compensative legislation or Civil Suit since 1789.
No reparations legislation or the like has ever been “pan” anything. Reparations has ALWAYS been narrow, specific, and targeted. That is not nativist or xenophobic. How? That is just the way legitimate reparations programs that are actually reparations programs are structured and deployed. Another useless straw man argument. We don’t understand why Counselor Taifa and her Pan African associates would like to try something new (and stupid) – now that our reparational turn looks to be on the horizon. And they are supposed to be the “experts?”
We love this quote: “… elite scholarship emerges that challenges clear perspectives and promotes economic individualism. HR40 requires complex conversations, but not ones that propagate confusion and disunity.” Oh. OK.
The main thing that The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis has been doing over the past thirty plus years has been to intentionally scramble and obfuscate clear and correct perspectives regarding reparations. Consequently promoting confusion and disunity. Kinda like what we see now. The Counselor says that HR40 requires “complex conversations.” “Complex conversations” in what? Chinese? Ahh – NO Sweetheart. Reparations, despite the various required components that must be stated and worked out to make a complete reparations program, is simple, easily reasoned, concrete, and straightforward. Added and unnecessary complexity is not required. And anyone that tells you that “complex conversations” are needed – is trying to get something over on you through complex conversations.
Counselor Taifa rounds her rebuttal with an appeal to emotion and personal credulity as she recounts standing at a Washington D.C. press conference listening, “surrounded by a rainbow of interracial faith-based activism.” “Now that’s —- So Spiritual!” Of course, we take nothing away from her inspiring experience, but we do have severe oughts with her analysis of Dr. Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen’s article and overall ideology concerning Foundational Black American reparations.
No rainbows needed.
We take umbrage that Counselor Taifa seems to think that average American Freedman should not take interest in this issue and demand that it be treated correctly so that the maximum benefit to the right people could be garnered. A Repeat: “Reparations for the descendants of American Freedmen is NOT for every member of the African Diaspora NOR every Black United States citizen. Only those who absorbed and inherited the accrued disadvantages of slavery, Jim Crow, and beyond. Counselor Taifa is well aware that is Not or should be all Black people.
What is the good Counselor trying to pull?
While We Are On The Subject Of HR40
At this point – we would like to do a small HR40 focus. There is one thing that we want all forty millions plus Foundational Black Americans to understand. The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis regard HR40 and the reparations issue itself to be their personal property. We are not being facetious. They actually believe this. We want everyone to notice how petulant and aggressively defensive they get when contrary views are expressed or precise questions are asked. Especially Dr. Ron Daniels of NAARC. They have perfected their usage of nonproductive conversational devices like evasion, fake indignation, adding complexities where none are needed, deflection, arguments from authority, and a nearly imperceptible but elegant ability to change the subject. And we have no idea what they are doing – what the conversational flow is behind closed congressional doors.
Questions. We can’t prove it. But we wonder if The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is an undermining agent – a contractor with and for the Democratic Party. (?) Whose purpose is in actuality – to destroy reparations. (Nancy Pelosi?). OR – if reparations are accomplished, is their intent – that those resources will be converted and redirected to purposes, places and people that they should not be intended for and excluding American Freedmen from their own reparations? This being done through questionable constructions like the NAARC proposed “National Reparations Trust Authority.” Along with newly created consultancies and “expert” organizations like “FirstRepair” of Evanston. You See?
We can’t definitively say this is true. We do not have direct, demonstrable proof of the inside conversations. No proof of the content of electronic communications or with whom those communications are with. Or why. Sir Hilary Beckles of CARICOM? What about him? Why is he – a Caribbean, consequential in HERE? In THIS reparational space? No access to the inner thoughts of the conveners nor the commissioners of these organizations. But we outside observers cannot help what things “look like” to us. Because that’s what they “Look Like.” Mentalities, attitudes, and intentions do have a natural, non-proactive, osmotic, and unconscious tendency to “surface” to a degree.
Then!!! To be observed and discerned.
That is nature. You know? And – we are open to correction.
Question: “Why bring this up?” We bring this up because the disturbing “Look Like” is embodied in three things we can see. Like:
The Current Text of HR40 itself – specifically Section Six.
The People Actually Shaping American Freedmen Reparations.
Open Non-Specificity.
One – The Current HR40 Text– Section Six
Reading and re-reading the current text of HR40 made us focus on Section Six – which covers “Administrative Provisions.” Remember that the main unelected and unsupervised editor of HR40 is Kamm Howard (Male Co-Chair of N’COBRA). Also remember that the actual (not stated) mission of The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is to not accomplish reparations. But to use the (continuing) reparations issue for the personal enrichment of the commissioners and conveners. A hustle. Section Six is the “money shot” of HR40. Especially subsections (c), (d), and (e) specifically.
Read This:
(c) Experts And Consultants. – The Commission may procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates for individuals not to exceed the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable under section 5332 of such title.
Even though N’COBRA has not accomplished reparations at no time anywhere – even after more than thirty years in operation, they put themselves and their associates out in front of everything and everyone as the “experts” of reparations. This subsection opens the door for individual members of NAARC and N’COBRA to establish consultancies, research concerns, and advising “non-profits” to non-productively “assist” in developing reparations policies and programs. They also use long-standing organizations like certain chapters of the NAACP as “fronts” to advance their agenda. If this commission convenes in the way that the Axis wants it to – expect to see that list of “experts and consultants” to only be slick Caribbeans and grifting Pan Africans.
Just watching!!! – As we write – consultancies are being created like the newly established “FirstRepair” founded by Robin Rue Simmons. For those that don’t know – she is the one along with N’COBRA that did a failed “Local Reparations” effort when she was an alderman in Evanston Illinois (she is now closely associated with NAARC). The Evanston program (as of this writing) is literally falling apart. Evanstonians are seeing this program for the scam that it is. Remember – this program was conceived and structured by “reparations experts.” OK?
“FirstRepair” is supposed to be an organization that is “Advocating For Local Reparations Nationally.” Just another way to exploit the reparations issue gravy-train. Expect to see more of these in the near future.
(d) Administrative Support Services. – The Commission may enter into agreements with the Administrator of General Services for procurement of financial and administrative services necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission. Payment for such services shall be made by reimbursement from funds of the Commission in such amounts as may be agreed upon by the Chairman of the Commission and the Administrator.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produced a cost estimate for: “HR40, Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act” on May 17, 2021. The estimated spending subject to appropriation for the 2021-2026 Fiscal Year came to $20 million. The HR40 bill after mark-up still reads $12 million – but the CBO office’s estimate of $20 million is the real deal. The actual potential expenditure. Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply to this potential appropriation. These are excerpts from that cost estimate:
“HR40 would establish a 15-member commission to study the effects of slavery and discriminatory policies on African Americans and recommend appropriate remedies, including reparations. The commission would report its findings and recommendations to the Congress 18 months after its first meeting and terminate 90 days after the support is submitted.
HR40 would authorize the appropriation of $20 million for expenses of the commission, including payroll and support costs for members and support staff. Assuming appropriation of the authorized amount, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $20 million over the 2021-2026 period.
CBO assumes that the bill will be enacted late in fiscal year 2021. Because of the lag between enactment and appointing members to the commission, CBO does not expect there would be any budgetary effects in 2021.
Finally, HR40 would authorize the commission to accept monetary gifts (which are recorded as reductions in direct spending) that could be subsequently spent without further appropriation action. CBO estimates this provision would have a negligible effect on direct spending because any gifts would likely be spent soon after being received.”
WOW. This subsection (d) – along with the language contained in the cost estimate, opens the door for NAARC and N’COBRA’s African and Caribbean professional allies to collect through retained consultancies, contracts with Pan African run non-profits, and the production of “scholarly” research and reports by “credentialed” or “recognized” individuals. They plan to extract every penny of that appropriation. With no reparations happening as a result. Reparations is not a priority.
(e) Contracts. – The Commission may – (1) procure supplies, services, and property by contract in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts; and (2) enter into contracts with departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Federal Government, State agencies, and private firms, institutions, and agencies, for the conduct of research or surveys, the preparation of reports, and other activities necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission, to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts.
More of the same as spelled out in subsection (d). Just more egregiously worded and expanded. I would guess this version of “cut the check” is not so juvenile. We just could not muster up the cojones to grift so shamelessly. Kudos to The Axis…
Family – This is Super-Important:
One last but important thing about the current version of HR40. The current version deems the Federal Advisory Committee Act inapplicable. Closed Doors. This means that the commission can do anything and everything it wants without making its deliberations or directions public. No progress reporting to the affected. Everything blocked and locked. Let us call it – “Reparational Opacity.” Our reparations is None of our damned business. Family – for something as important as reparations for the whole forty plus millions of us. This is a problem.
Two And Three –The People Shaping OUR Reparationsand Non-Specificity
Family. We are about to be royally hustled if we do not wake up and handle OUR business. One of the things that we want you to notice about other reparations committees, commissions, and programs worldwide is that folks outside of the specific affected communities are not running their stuff. Absolutely Not. Chinese folks ain’t running Japanese folks stuff or vice versa. They both Asians. Right?
So How – in our case, are African and Caribbean immigrant citizens, Green Carders, and visiting non-citizens having more say in how our American Freedmen reparations are being shaped and potentially expended than we do?
How?
We need to DIRECTLY address NAARC and N’COBRA regarding this.
Why haven’t we questioned the nature of the so-called collaboration between CARICOM and The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis? We ask – because when you read the aims and study the structures of other reparations commissions – No One allows Foundational Black Americans to enter or benefit. Only the leaders of NAARC and N’COBRA want to (supposedly) feed the entire African Diaspora using reparations that should rightly go exclusively to American Freedmen. NAARC and N’COBRA try their best to partition American Freedmen from any useful information regarding their own reparations. An injustice on top of an injustice.
This is why Counselor Taifa is so irritated at Mullen and Darity. Because they provide proper information. That, in addition to clarifying bad information and correcting misinformation. They fortunately (for us) go against their program.
They don’t want anyone outside of The NAARC/N’COBRA/CARICOM cabal to question or examine anything they do. Dr. Ron Daniels of NAARC carries himself as the “Absolute Monarch of Reparations.” Don’t forget to kiss the ring.
Another person to look at hard is Sir Hilary Beckles. He is the chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. He is in the United States quite often. “Collaborating” with NAARC and N’COBRA. We don’t understand what they are “collaborating” on. Seeing that the CARICOM commission’s reparations platform absolutely closes the door to Foundational Black Americans. Whereas the platform stated by The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is: “Anybody, everybody that is Black, citizen or non-citizen can get it here as long as you can get here – it’s OK – Just Fly In!”
This Is Crazy!!!
When collaborations happen, there is a coordination, a balancing, a relating, or some kind of duplication going on. That is not what is happening here at all. Just speculation Family: There could be a one-way reparations cash “pipeline” set-up being planned by The NAARC/N’COBRA/CARICOM cabal going from the United States – to the Caribbean, if reparations are accomplished – that’s what we think. No Proof! OK? Just what we think. We from Chicago. Who knows what Dr. Ron Daniels plans are? Slick people do all kinds of stuff. You Know?
A Pan Caribbean organization collaborating with a Pan African organization. OK? To talk about what? Curiously – Sir Hilary Beckles was present at the HR40 United States House Hearings held on June 19, 2019. (Domestic issue!) Sir Hilary Beckles and his visiting non-citizen associates were intrusively taking up seats that should have went to American Freedmen descendants. You Know?
Hey Everybody!!!
Watch Sir Hilary Beckles!!!
Watch Lionel Jean Baptiste!!!
Watch Kamm Howard!!!
Now what is going on here? Let’s see the platforms:
NAARC – N’COBRA Platform:“We strongly affirm the right of all people of African descent in the U.S. to receive reparations, irrespective of when they arrived here or their country of origin.”
CARICOM Platform: “The CARICOM Reparations Commission is a regional body created to Establish the moral, ethical, and legal case for the payment of Reparations by the Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions of those countries, to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialized system of chattel Slavery.”
One platform is reparationally open – the other is reparationally closed. So what is that “collaboration” accomplishing here? With CARICOM, “Pan Africanism” goes out the window when it comes to the money. Remember, that the CARICOM organization is Pan Caribbean – not Pan African. Meaning – never for us. Is this a set up? With American Freedmen the ones being “got over” on? Family, this is the question that needs to be asked – pressed, to the right people repeatedly and consistently until the right answer is given. Or the wrong answer is extracted. But we have to ask. Don’t forget to press Kamm Howard of N’COBRA on this question as well. If you don’t know him, he’s easy to spot – he uses the word “international” a lot.
Remember Family – no American Freedmen are on the commissions of CARICOM or any other reparations entities representing the justice claims of other groups anywhere in the world. None. And Family, sharply remember that ALL commissioners and administrators belonging to NAARC have a hand in shaping OUR reparations policy. We repeat: “All of them.” And the individuals listed below in a properly constructed American reparations program – that are now shaping OUR program would not be eligible(!). So why and how are these foreign born – very ineligible people all the way up in our reparations business?
People like these chiselers:
NAARC Commissioner – Adjo Amouzou (Born in Togo – Africa)
NAARC Commissioner – Lionel Jean Baptiste (Born in Haiti – Caribbean)
NAARC Commissioner – Yvette Modestin (Born in Panama – Central America)
NAARC Administrator – Don Rojas (Born in Saint Vincent – Caribbean)
Not Eligible. – Whatever they do in Togo – have you EVER heard of any Black American running, shaping, deciding, or influencing anything in Togo? No? But a Togolesian can boat, fly, or swim in and shape OUR reparations?
That is Mind Boggling.
And The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis have a whole lot of folks running around with names like – Mashariki Jywanza, Subabu Shabaka, Jumoke Ifetayo, Kibibi Tyehimba, and Njere Alghanee. Are these people Americans? Because we hear drums. Do these names sound like folks you would seriously trust to shape Foundational Black American reparations policy? Would you? Where is Laquisha Thompson, Tyrone Washington, and Shaquanna Brown? We want our folks on this. OK?
We would trust “Laquisha” to craft a proper reparations program with more confidence than the insertive foreigners and “Shabaka” types of questionable provenance listed above. There were no people with non-American birthplaces or “Shabaka” type surnames facing Bull Connor’s dogs and fire hoses. Where? Folks with “Jywanza” type surnames were nowhere to be found in the middle of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Nowhere. And still looking.
They were not enslaved Here. They were not Reconstructively reneged Here. They did not absorb Jim Crow Here. Never got Redlined Here. Never denied rightful access to their GI Bill Here. Never got brutalized in a sundown town Here. Never raped by racists Here. Never suffered a community burndown Here. Never lived through a government-abetted massacre Here. Never lynched Here.
Let us clarify that push: This statement was not meant to be xenophobic or to be disparaging towards those that were not born here or lineaged from chattel slavery in the United States. But like others would want for themselves – reparations is regarding a just recompense towards a specific group that was specifically harmed. And the descendants of the specifically harmed would like to take care of their own business (a totally domestic issue) without uninvited or alien inputs. Period…
No matter what “color” they are. No matter where they came from.
And REMEMBER Family – that no serious reparations commissions or programs established worldwide, including CARICOM, have no Black people lineaged from American chattel slavery serving in any managerial, administrative, or consultative capacity in any of these foreign structures. They don’t allow us in their business.
How do we allow them in ours?
Foundational Black Americans must INSIST on the Removal of Diasporan immigrants from our reparations issue. They don’t belong IN there. That includes removing Sheila Jackson Lee (a child of a Caribbean immigrant – her other parent is FBA) as the main sponsor and Congressional shepherd of HR40. We Mean Removed. And Dr. Hilary Beckles, along with his CARICOM associates should be barred from visiting this country.
This is a set-up.
If an HR40 Commission does convene – without our interference, without our participation, without our critical oversight, and without our reparational vision, – you will see several Black immigrants on that panel. Deciding on your FAMILY STUFF(!). In Secret. We are Not kidding. And we are saying this with teeth and claws bared. Listen. They don’t belong there. If we stay complacent – we will be JACKED – In Secret. We’ll be DONE, open-mouthed – watching our inheritance flowing into Africa and the Caribbean through remittances and transfers.
Again – we are not kidding.This is a set-up Family.
Counselor Taifa is a part of that set-up. No number of deflective articles filled with disingenuous criticism will stop us from examining and calling this set-up out. This is our money that The NAARC/N’COBRA Axis is attempting to use to finance some crazy Wakandan fantasy that resides within the psychotic spaces of Dr. Ron Daniels mind. Let him and his associates use their own money for that. Reparations? Not to be purposed for fulfilling Pan African aspirations.
We just want our reparations In Cash – policies – protections – and set-asides with no complications. And no sharing with undeserving interlopers, predators, and parasites directlyFrom – or lineagedFrom other countries.
Do youUnderstand?
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I was assisted in writing this post by a bottle of Penfolds RWT Bin 798 Shiraz 2017. A Barossa Shiraz from Australia. $150 a hit. But this shit here is definitely ass-kicking. Blackberries, plums, blueberries, dark cherries. Rich background of oak, vanilla, and chocolate. Balanced tannins. Fine mouthfeel. Sweet finish.
“The great enemy of the truth is often not the lie. Deliberate. Contrived. And Dishonest. But the myth. Persistent. Persuasive. And Unrealistic…”
John F. Kennedy
This is one small example.
The whole of a mechanical watch. You know – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, etc. These watches cannot operate without their regulated pulse. A cooperative – coordinated, locked-in, ticking pace, intricately composed of between 130 to 1700 tiny, tiny, parts. Smoothly and synchronously linked. Functioning. This distant aggregation variance – necessarily depending upon the kind of and multi-purposed complexity of the particular watch.
Understand?
Racism-White Supremacy’s parts intricately function as the overt and covert operationality of accrued disadvantage. And that requires the conscious – proactive small and large actions of white individuals. In white-controlled institutions. Circumscribing Policies, Negro-targeted Laws, and opportunistically coded Ordinances enacted and applicated by white-powered governments. And those individual points of micro and macro racist proactivity producing the overall and never-ending storm of racism-white supremacy that we Native Black Americans experience every second of every day. A dark Imprisonment within Emancipation. The small ticking mechanisms of pure disadvantage quietly working together.
Working in the past Then – and the racist arc bends solidly into the present Now.
This is as the letter below gives evidence.
A researcher doing his due diligence in the course of writing a book found this letter at the “Briscoe Center’s Chancellor’s Office Records (University Of Texas)” – Box 85, Folder “Desegregation 09/01/1960 – 08/31/1962.” ThisExists. The Louisiana State University (a Black and white taxpayer supported entity) president wrote this letter to the chancellor of The University Of Texas. Take note of the date: 10/27/1961. Past the middle of the Twentieth Century. OK? Not 1861. Not ancient history.
This letter is an example of coldblooded “Official Institutional Racism.” I can understand why millions of good white people Do Not want ANYBODY – not just schoolchildren. NOT paying any real attention to “Critical Race Theory” stuff. Why would white people want their children to be taught how fucked-up they are?
Hell No…
Read This Shit Family:
October 27, 1961
Office Of The President
Dear Harry:
I have your inquiry of October 25th pertaining to integration on the L.S.U. campus.
Though we did not like it, we accepted Negroes as students; therefore, they are permitted to occupy rooms in dormitories and take their meals in University dining halls. We have had a limited number occupy rooms. At no time has a Negro occupied a room with a white student. We keep them in a given area and do not permit indiscriminate occupancy. Thus far we have had no problems.
Our Negro students have made no attempt to attend social functions, participate in athletic contests, go in the swimming pool, etc. If they did, we would, for example, discontinue the operation of the swimming pool.
Since we have not had a Negro request that he be permitted to participate in athletics, we, of course, have not had to make a decision. If one should apply between now and February 1, 1962 (date for my retirement), I think I could find a good excuse why he would not participate. To be specific — L.S.U. does not favor whites and Negroes participating together on athletic teams.
Best Wishes
Nice letter. Right Fam? This hot piece was written by a motherfucker named Troy H. Middleton – President of L.S.U. at the time. I sometimes wonder what goes through the minds of white people that have no particular racial animus when they read material like this. This letter represents a small example of how one cog within the racism-white supremacy machine operates. There it is. Millions of other cogs exactly like it. Everywhere. White. Unrelated. Unacquainted. On Code.
Grinding and shifting in unity – thousands of times per day overall on group-wise deprivation. Grinding to a point anectdotally on individual-wise hurt. Trillions of documented and undocumented white-entitlement-based microaggressions done every hour. Giving Native Black Americans that uber-distressive white-work.
Race? History? Right? Can a correction be made?
This kind of greasy, calculated, callousness normally dispensed by whites towards Black Americans and sometimes others – is just so normal to American normalcy.
Proximity to whiteness equals death. History of the United States.
If “systemic racism” does exist. If It Does Exist? Well – it does exist. Think about this Family. Racism’s unseen disparate elements would certainly plan, connect, and deploy like the example here. Right? The white-codified aim and end always is to control or destroy the lives of non-white human beings. Especially Blacks.
In parallel existence – you got many people out here that don’t want any critical examination or discussion of this. There needs to be a serious challenge regarding American approaches to accomplishing racial justice. With serious examining to seriously eliminate racial injustice. To actually consummate – not just to sell books. Critical Race Theory may be a path to accomplishing that positive end. Now.
Abidingly – racism-white supremacy remains steadfastly On Code.
I do not think this study should occupy space in elementary or junior high schools. Too many of our children don’t even have the basics down. Basics. You know – like reading, writing, and arithmetic. They need to spend a little more time there. There. I do believe this should be an elective in high school and college though. And adult individuals should take up their own study of this – on their own.
Critical Race Theory in its best forms – inform us of the naked racial truth of the history of this country. To some white folks “racism” materially equals an honest, unvarnished telling of history. Certain retellings told correctly might make certain people look bad. Some folks think that CRT might make Black children “hate white people.” OH NO. Can’t have that. But – Critical Race Theory may assist some Black people into a workable understanding as to WHY they may hate white people.
Because some of us do. We just don’t talk about it. Got Children to feed.
I could see CRT actually saving some white people. A “why” understanding may prevent certain Black people from doing racially-motivated retaliatory outbursts like a Colin Ferguson (the 1993 Long Island Rail shooting – look it up). It is possible he could have benefitted from CRT and refrained. Took a breath. You Know?
OR – maybe not. Recollections are a Bitch…
The best means to teach a Black person to hate white people is to just have that person interact with them on a daily basis. That’s it. No classes are needed. “Karens” and white policemen are particularly good at this kind of instruction. Members of the alt-Right can teach Black folks a thing or two. Take a listen. A quiet reading of cold unmanipulated American History. Absorbing That Reality as it is. Then confirming That History with Daily Black experience will do it too. Yep. Black hate towards whites cannot be pedagogically taught or manufactured. Maybe CRT will help us to understand what makes a “Karen” behave the way she does. And our dear white conservatives are tired of racial grievance.
Because they don’t wanna do shit about it.
Thinking through this is better than shots being fired. Talking through this may help some people both white and Black to de-internalize white supremacy. But talking must lead to solution. That solution must be actionable. The action decided on must be decisively completed. Racism-white supremacy itself is THE existential threat to the United States. It consistently ruins our global competitiveness and relations. It keeps us internally divided and limited. We will end-up behind India and China in economics and diplomacy – IF we do not get an in-the-truth handle on this understanding. If Native Black Americans are destroyed – the United States itself will be destroyed. Bet That. The Law of Reaping and Sowing is very real and relentless. White People. The Law does not pick and choose – it just Does.
It could be to some people that preserving this racial caste system and the white lies associated with it are more important than our prosperity and competitiveness. Maybe even more important than our continued existence as a country.
This CRITICAL RACE discussion needs to be truthfully had. But Can We?
I was assisted in writing this post by a beautifully delicious bottle of Bread & Butter Cabernet Sauvignon 2018. Bold and silky. Balanced structure. High Napa Valley class at a decent price. Dried cherries, lychee juice, blueberries, chocolate, vanilla, tobacco. Medium acidity. Soft tannins. Medium but slightly dry finish.
The ineradicable ethno-continental severance was established in 1619.
“The native land of the American Negro is America. His bones, his muscles, his sinews, are all American. His ancestors for two hundred and seventy years have lived and labored and died, on American soil, and millions of his posterity have inherited Caucasian blood. It is pertinent, therefore, to ask, in view of this admixture, as well as in view of other facts, where the people of this mixed race are to go, for their ancestors are white and Black, and it will be difficult to find their native land anywhere outside of the United States.”
Frederick Douglass
I was prompted to write this post in response to a Facebook post neatly and logically laid out in ten paragraphs, that was published on October 8, 2020 by esteemed Chicago resident Salim Muwakkil.
This post was originally written priorto the ADOS schism.My responses have been updated by replacing “ADOS” with “Freedmen.”I did not change Mr. Muwakkil’s statements or questions.
For those that do not know who Mr. Muwakkil is – he is an American journalist based in Chicago. He is a senior editor of a magazine called “In These Times”, and an op-ed columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Muwakkil writes on Black issues, Chicago politics, Middle East politics, and United States foreign policy.
He is a popular commentator and interviewer in Chicago radio. Currently a Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute, he also teaches a seminar on race, media, and politics for the Urban Studies Program of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. For many years Mr. Muwakkil has been (and still is) a cultural, political, philosophical, and journalistic asset to Chicago.
And he loves jazz.
I do want to establish at this point, that yes the gentleman’s name is “Salim Muwakkil” – but lineage-wise, he is a Freedman on both sides of his descendancy. He is also thoughtful, fair, logical, and open-minded to the extreme. Therefore, I want to use this post as a respectful and slightly corrective response to his post.
OK?
Let’s get started:
Paragraph I
“The ADOS (American Descendants Of Slavery) movement has caught on like wildfire in recent months. The brainchild of Antonio Moore and Yvette Carnell, two kindred spirits who connected via the internet, the movement seeks to specify the identity of those victimized by United States chattel slavery and its legacy, and to push for the specific solution of reparations.”
Entirely Correct. No rebuttals or clarifications needed here.
Paragraph II
“However, it seems a contentious relationship has developed between ADOS acolytes and Pan-African enthusiasts. The bone of contention seems to be the role of the African continent and Diasporan Africans in the ADOS struggle. Observe our traditions, the Pan-Africanists say: Blyden, Garvey, Padmore, Carmichael, Malcolm, Farrakhan, Chisholm, and countless other non-ADOS were crucial to ADOS progress. Our struggle is one: the liberation of African people wherever they’ve dispersed.”
In actuality, the contention began with the Pan-Africans. They had and have a problem with our self-directed ethnic carve-out. The gate was closed and locked. Done without the permission of the rest of the Diaspora. Our self-identification as Americans was particularly galling. And then the last straw was our declaration that American reparations should not be universalized.
So – they came after us. Their only argument is that they are “long-standing” organizations. And in their view, their “long-standing-ness” automatically confers upon them being the only “legitimate” voices regarding reparations, with no other qualifications that could be deemed reparationally productive. That shit.
I have yet to find out exactly who and where this accrediting organization or group is that issues stamps or certificates of legitimacy to reparations groups. Or do you have to just be “long-standing” for “legitimacy” to be automatically conferred? How long? The majority of active Freedmen members are between the ages of 19 to 35. They did not know who the Pan-Africans of NAARC and N’COBRA were.
Thirty years ago, the core Freedmen activist demographic were either not born or still in infancy. Additionally, and ironically, this “new breed” are the same ages that the present day Pan-Africans were when they joined or founded their particular organizations. Disingenuous Bullshit? But! That answers the strange but common Pan-African question:
“Where were you thirty years ago?”
The older Freedmen boomers in our group had to explain to the youngbloods who these folks were. So, as they came at us – the young ones came back at them. The young ones started doing exhaustive research on Pan-African-centered reparations organizations, and they did not like what they saw. This quote from the NAARC (headed by Dr. Ron Daniels) website is one example of what they didn’t like:
“We strongly affirm the right of all people of African descent in the United States to receive reparations, irrespective of when they arrived here or their country of origin.”
No differentiation? Everybody? Just show up and show up “Black?” Respectfully Sir – this is some of the most monkey-minded shit I have ever heard inside the conversation of reparations. And the youngbloods thought so too. The Diaspora is just gonna come here and have a party on the Freedmen dime? On the backs of OUR grandparent’s suffering and deprivations? That’s what we’re doing? Where did this “right” come from? What is the basis for that “affirmation?” Then we have an “irrespective of when they arrived here” thing going on. I think I get it. WOW.
I could imagine that NAARC and N’COBRA are gonna set up nice little kiosks in the international terminals of airports. That way, the moment a member of the Diaspora deplanes he can apply at the kiosk and get his first reparations check cut before he leaves the airport. I can see travel agencies specializing in “reparations tours” – enabling thousands from the Continent and the Caribbean to “fly-in” daily and get that “affirmed right” converted into a nice, crisp, cashable check.
A lot of those agencies will open in Evanston, Illinois.
Below is another quote that bothered the young folks that are Freedmen activists. This next quote bothered them because we as an organization believe that direct payments from the United States Treasury to the descendants of American slavery, is the best primary course for the distribution of reparations – not some “authority” deciding on macro plans and doing micromanagement of dollars on our behalf.
Here’s the quote:
“Therefore, we renew the call for a National Reparations Trust Authority to be the repository, custodian and administrative body to receive monetary and material resources, allocated by offending parties, as restitution to repair the damages inflicted on the sons and daughters of Africans in America during centuries of oppression and exploitation.”
Huh??? Us Freedmen can individually handle as the rightful inheritors, our own money and resources. Trust me. A “Trust Authority” can’t be trusted. You’d better understand where they’re going with this. Not good. I never made any “call” for this. Did You Sir? We don’t want or need Pan-African style resource paternalism, oversight, administration, programs, initiatives, advice, allocating, none of that. “We ain’t doing ‘Wakanda’ motherfuckers.” We are not gonna be revisiting “The Book of Madoff” Sir. Not Here.
A “council of NAARC elders” (!?) is not gonna be tricking with the money. This will open up a repeat of the “Freedman’s Savings Bank” debacle (look it up – it’s teachable). If we allow it this time, it will be Black folks stealing from us in the trillions instead of white men stealing from us in the millions.
We are not going for that Shit. Nope.
I think that the “National Reparations Trust Authority” is intended to be used by Dr. Ron Daniels (NAARC) and Kamm Howard (N’COBRA) as a conduit to ship Freedmen reparations resources to the Caribbean and Africa. And CARICOM – led by Dr. Hilary Beckles, is a participating part of the set-up. Criminal. Any probable distributions to Freedmen will be diverted and tied-up in NAARC and N’COBRA run reparations “programs.” Those individual “programs” will be managerially pimped by hand-picked Caribbean, American-lineaged Pan African, and Continental African immigrated and lineaged “professionals” and “experts.”
They will be doing “studies” and “reports” while being highly compensated with YOUR money. YOUR reparations resources. Freedmen type folks won’t get a dime. Reparations will managerially and administratively be given to every Diasporan – But Us. This is just a reasonable speculation based on their [CARICOM] stated collaborations with NAARC. And myself just adding up an obvious two and two.
Can we see what that equals?
What is the goal of their collaborations? That is what we all need to ask Them. I also speculate in this way because of my observations of the careful evasiveness of NAARC and N’COBRA officials to offers of participation in open dialogue with people that may have different or opposing views. We’ll see.
We must always remember that anything is legislatively possible. As an example – look at all the resources and special considerations that are being received by DACA. Given to them via Executive Orders, and will eventually be legislatively locked-in by our government. And they are not citizens. This terrible platform can possibly be written into a reparations law via HR40.
NAARC and N’COBRA, as “long-standing” organizations have many connections and associates in government that they have cultivated over the years, connections that Freedmen organizations as yet does not have. And the Congressional Black Caucus at this time represents and advocates exclusively for the Latino community, Asians, and illegal immigrants. Gone. So we can’t work with them. Therefore, we shall always remain vigilant for our people.
We will keep being the loud voice in the room.
I am glad the question of “roles” was brought up. African Continentals or Caribbean Green Carders have no business being involved in this Freedmen to American government demand for reparations. No “role” or “say” whatsoever. How? Africa has no more of a role in this issue – than they had a role in stopping Bull Connor and his police dogs. Than they had a role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. African Motherfuckers were nowhere to be found Then. I don’t remember any “role” that Africans played when lynchings needed to be stopped. Couldn’t be found. But now that the question of money is on the horizon, Africans need to step into the Freedmen’s negotiating room and play a “role?” What “role?”
Get the fuck outta here.
This is a completely domestic economics and justice issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the Diaspora. I don’t understand why the Pan-Africans are trying to shoehorn the Diaspora into this. Is there a plan? The Diaspora certainly does not (rightly) allow Freedmen to meddle, advise, or assist in their internal domestic affairs. We can’t even try it. They are grown folks with their own issues. And so are we. – So are we.
The quote below is from Dr. Hilary Brown – he is the Program Manager of Culture and Community Development for the CARICOM (Caribbean Reparations Commission) Secretariat, which is located in Turkeyen, Guyana. Ahh… That’s in South America. The quote below is an e-mail response to an e-mail that was sent to him by then ADOS Chicago Chapter President, Marlon Watson on September 17, 2020. That e-mail was regarding the possibility of reparations reciprocity between the Caribbean and Freedmen branches of the Diaspora.
This is how Dr. Brown responded:
“The CARICOM Reparations Commission is advancing the case for reparations for its Member States in the Caribbean. We do not cover persons in the United States directly. However, I’m not sure if you are aware that a National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) was established in 2015 and they are very active working on reparations claims for African Americans, including putting through a reparations bill in Congress, hopefully this year.
We are in touch with and collaborate with them. You can get more information on this initiative by googling the name of the Commission or going on the website: ibw21.org.”
Well, glad to know these guys collaborate. I’m asking again: “What are they ‘collaborating’ on?” What? NAARC wants reparations from America to be open to all members of the Diaspora. Even going so far as to “affirm a right” to reparations to all folks of African descent that come to the United States. At the same time, CARICOM is making it clear that their reparations program is exclusively for those Diasporans that have a lineage of enslavement within their Member States in the Caribbean. Notice. They do not “affirm a right” to reparations to all folks of African descent that come to the Caribbean. There’s a “collaboration” here Sir. OK? To do what? One program is open-ended. One program is closed-ended. Remember: There’s a “collaboration” here. And that’s what he said.
No “affirmed rights” for Freedmen type folks as far as CARICOM is concerned?
Does CARICOM practice Pan-Africanism? Doesn’t look like they do. Especially when it comes to their potential reparations. Now – this might not be Sir – but it looks like a set-up. Until I get more direct information and good understanding – that’s how it looks to me. I always see CARICOM folks in the states, running with NAARC and N’COBRA folks whenever they have events or hearings, large or small, from California to New York, regarding reparations.
Sir Hilary Beckles (Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Committee) and his folks were at the United States House Hearing On Reparations on June 19, 2019. Insertively taking up a bunch of seats that should have gone to Freedmen type folks. “Collaboration?”
Well, that is what some collaborations do – they set up “set-ups.”
To reiterate the point. The NAARC and N’COBRA plan opens reparations resources to ANY member of the Diaspora that arrives in the United States as an immigrant or as a visitor. The CARICOM plan is closed – PERIOD – to Freedmen. Limited to those that have citizenship and a slavery lineage that occurred within the Caribbean. And they collaborate. How does that look? What is going on here?
Next point:
The great liberation soldiers that were mentioned in the article? Yes! Those Diasporan Africans involved with the Freedmen struggle are undisputed heroes of mine. Any of these guys would have had a place in my home if they needed it. Let’s get that straight. OK? At the same time, we must understand two things, along with one exception. One of the reasons that the folks on this list are heroes of mine is that they VOLUNTARILY came Here. Re-aligned their minds Here. They joined their passions and energies with us. They then indisputably did the work.
Voluntarily Sir. Their lineage was not injured Here.
And the countries they originated from rejected their political ideas.
Anyone that came here on a regular boat after 1865 – during Reconstruction, during Jim Crow, during the Civil Rights Era – and I don’t want to sound cold or insensitive. But Here, I will necessarily be coldly objective: If something happened to them, after coming here, that’s on them. — That’s Their Responsibility.
Anyone VOLUNTARILY coming here during any of those periods, knew they were coming into a racial shithole before they got off the boat. Full Knowledge. They were not chained and dragged Here. Their antecedents were not the victims of a 400-years-long wealth transfer Here. They had and have an escape in reserve to repatriate to if things got or get too hot Here. And those good folks in many cases coming from African and Caribbean countries that have not – and will never offer dual citizenship for Freedmen.
None.
They or their lineages should not get reparations from America. Period. Dr. Ron Daniels should use his own money for that. Every person or their subsequent descendants that were mentioned (with the exception of one) would be properly covered by the CARICOM program. Unfortunately, (because the CARICOM program is fucked up) eligibility through the CARICOM program does not travel with those persons and their descendants, no matter where in the world they may be at present. No portability. So, they would have to go home.
Sounds fair to me.
Here are their lineages:
Edward Wilmot Blyden (at birth: Danish St. Thomas – now U.S. Virgin Islands)
Marcus Garvey (Jamaica)
George Padmore (Trinidad and Tobago)
Stokely Carmichael (Trinidad)
Louis Farrakhan (St. Kitts and Jamaica)
Shirley Chisholm (British Guyana and Barbados)
The exception to this list is Malcolm X. He actually falls under the Freedmen eligibility standard. His mother, Louise Helen Little (nee Norton) has a Grenadan lineage. His father, Earl Little is a Freedman, being descended from the institution of slavery in the State of Georgia. You only need one line of descendancy from American slavery.
While we are on the subject of Malcolm X – CARICOM is not the only instance of Diasporan closed-gate policy when it comes to Freedmen. Africa is just as bad. In the summer of 1964, didn’t Malcolm X go to Cairo to meet with thirty-three heads of African states regarding raising the question of the persecution of American Black folks to the United Nations? His intention was to add an international dimension to our domestic struggle in the United States. He presented an eight-page memorandum to the heads of state at the Cairo conference requesting their support. Malcolm encountered cold resistance from those officials to his request.
Malcolm wrote:
“Some African leaders at this conference, have implied that they have enough problems here on the mother continent without adding the Afro-American problem…”
Oh. OK. In the broadest sense, isn’t that the same “closed-door” bullshit that we get from our Caribbean “Brothers and Sisters?” Huh?
And lastly. American domestic reparations advocacy and Pan-Africanism are CLEARLY two different things. To be discussed inside two different rooms. Located in two different buildings. Situated within two different countries. On two different planets. Whenever you attempt to bring the two together – you will find yourself dealing with a muddled, undifferentiated, toxic, mess. Confusion.
Kinda like what you see right now.
Paragraph III
“ADOS advocates might respond: ‘but non-ADOS Black folks have also managed to extract a disproportionate advantage from the changes some have helped wrought.’ For example, Affirmative Action benefits designed for the victims of slavery’s legacy in this country have been disproportionately awarded better positioned non-ADOS Black folks while the designated beneficiaries go wanting. The ADOS iteration of the Black Diaspora has distinct grievances related to the specific conditions of enslavement and the consequent Jim Crow institutions. Other Diasporan Africans incurred injuries specific to their conditions.”
Correct. That is consistently our response. But to be fair, access to certain benefits and set-asides that should be exclusively for Freedmen are not the fault of Black immigrants. If the door is opened – hungry people are gonna get what they can get. Always. That is human nature. This is the fault of the United States Government in general and our Black elected representatives specifically.
This is racism-white supremacy at work. The “keep those [Freedmen] niggers on the bottom project.” How? By putting Black immigrants over us as a strategic preference. To lock out Black people through not discriminating against Black people. But just use the “right kind” of Black people to accomplish certain primary, secondary, and tertiary racist goals. We do not have to reiterate what those racist goals are. They are well known to those of us that pay attention.
Racism-white supremacy knows that there has never been Diasporan unity. And probably never will be. Look at Africa – it’s a mess. That mess was mostly created by five main things: Corrupt African governments, the vestiges of colonialism and post-colonialism, centuries-old inter-tribal conflicts, current neo-colonial Euro-fuckery, and centuries-old inter-religious conflicts. “Pan” with what my Brother? Now we’ve got Chinese money and plans in the mix. And none of that is gonna end anytime soon. There has never been any true operational unity on the African continent. Racism-white supremacy only and easily makes use of the universal Black inter-ethnic disunity that has existed for centuries. Continental African disunity is partly what caused our antecedents to be enslaved in the first place.
It is not the “Pan-African” job of Freedmen to fix this shit. And fuck repatriation.
Before we go to the next paragraph – I do want to say that there is an emotional and inter-ethnic component to this statement as well. The great majority of Black immigrants do not identify with, relate to, or connect in any way to Native Black Americans (Jamaicans and Ghanaians are the exceptions). Most of the millions of African Diasporans In America stay separate from us. When Black-targeted opportunities make themselves apparent, they [Black immigrants] practice what I call – “the Blackness of convenience.” A type of code switching, if you will.
An intentionally deprivatory practice towards and against Freedmen.
When it is time to participate in benefits that are specifically offered to Black Americans, they queue up in the “Black” line, not the “immigrant” line. They are “Black” at the moment they make out the application, they remain “Black” through the processing process, and will remain “Black” up until they receive the check.
After they get that check and “level up” – they then consistently revert to being “Nigerian” for example. And will switch back to the same noxious attitudes, speech, and actions towards Freedmen that the white supremacists have. Here. In some obvious cases, they have no problems with assisting the supremacists in burying us (literally). No operational “brothers” and “sisters” can be found Here. No more than inter-tribal “brother and sister” relationships can be found in Africa. They want nothing operational or relational to do with us. Nothing.
But they should get American reparations?
“Akata” martini anyone?
Paragraph IV
“Tit-for-tat it goes. But this is really a case of what psychologists call ‘the narcissism of minor differences.’ By that, I mean that the ADOS movement is, in many ways, a natural extension of the Pan-Africanist impulse – part of which was to connect to an ancestral identity that had been severed by the Trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans.”
The re-connection to a severed ancestral identity is a perpetual Pan-African enterprise. That is where their energy is directed. And that attempted re-connection is what shapes their worldview. Their reparations philosophy and policy is an extension of their Pan-African ideals of flat-Blackness. But shaping a domestic legal-legislative justice claim and nurturing Pan-African collectivist impulses are two different things. And those two unrelated things in no way can be brought together and be operational. At this point – please don’t get me wrong Sir. I fundamentally love the IDEA of Pan-Africanism. I wish it were operational at all possible levels. And I am, at least intellectually, still a hopeful Pan-Africanist. Yep.
At this time, though, Pan-Africanism is not operational. And if Pan-Africanism is not for-real operational and reciprocal for Freedmen in the seven areas of:
Business
Education
Economics
Politics
Logistics
Systems
and Security
I don’t know what we are “Pan-Africaning” about Sir. I ain’t doing no fu-fu with anybody. I gave all my daishikis and kufis to Goodwill. It would give the Diaspora and myself, true confidence and a visible basis to work from, to see a general Pan-Africanism go operational in Africa first. Starting with African governments.
Right now – the most anti-Pan-African location on earth is Africa.
We have issues to deal with, and goals to accomplish Right Here. And any energies or attentions towards Africa and the Diaspora at this time are essentially wasted. What for? Accomplishing actual American – domestic reparations is So full-time – Freedmen do not have time to connect with and participate in Diasporan dynamics or attempted Continental re-connections. That, right now, is just unneeded stuff that it makes no practical sense for Freedmen to take on.
Perhaps that is where NAARC and N’COBRA made their mistake. Spending too much time in South Africa, instead of spending that same time on South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. That time, would have more productively been used to enlighten the man in the street to their right to reparations, and how to advocate for it. We going to the “World Court?” For What? Plenty of stuff to do Right Here.
Look at what is on the Freedmen plate:
Political Education
Voter Registration
Reparations Education
Freedmen Membership Drives
Economics And Stratification Education
Freedmen-Produced Weekly YouTube Shows on Politics
Engagement With Legislators
Freedmen-Produced Podcasts
Administration Of Chapters
Monitoring of NAARC and N’COBRA Activities
Correcting The Results of NAARC and N’COBRA Activities
Doing a Freedmen Book Of The Month Assignment
Improving And Expanding Our Computer and Communications Technology
Containing “Local Reparations” Fuck-Ups
Collaborations With Churches
Encouraging People To Participate In The Census
Engagements With Political Parties
Getting Freedmen Identity Bills Passed At The State Level
Collaborations With Legacy Civil Rights Organizations
Self-Directed Political Education
Grooming And Running Our Own Candidates
Engagements With Domestic Media
Talking To The Man In The Street About Their Right To Reparations – And How To Advocate For It
We be busy. No time for trips to Durban, South Africa. For What? What can I take from Durban that I can reparationally use here? In these United States? Whom are we talking to from there – that the United States Congress is bound to respect?
No stomach for trips to The Hague, Netherlands, to accomplish domestically useless judgements affirming reparations from the World Court. “We in New York?” Well, we can skip a stop and have lunch instead of wasting hope at the United Nations. When was the last time the United States heeded anything from the United Nations? Please. What they gonna do? Make Us? And then we must go to our jobs, and feed our children, and wash the dishes, and, and, and.
You See?
Another thing about the United Nations. All of the countries that are members of the United Nations are more or less controlled by the United States. And that reparational can of worms cannot in substance be opened there. All of the nations involved in that body are against Freedmen-type African Americans, including the governments of Black African and Caribbean countries. A waste of time.
So, as a realistic and practical Freedmen organization, our time is most productively spent domestically. Our Blood and Bones and Pain are Here Sir.
No time for Pan-Africanism. No time for Africa. And as far as the NAARC and N’COBRA suggestion of re-connection through repatriation – I would suggest that they tell the two point one million African immigrants that live in the United States to go home First. Really. If Africa is so great – what the fuck are two point one million of those motherfuckers doing Here? And millions more trying to get Here.
I don’t see or know of any Africans cancelling their Green Card applications. Or renouncing their cards if they already have them. And I don’t think I will. Why would I relocate to a place where the folks that already live there are trying to leave? I also notice that the Pan-Africans that propagate this bullshit are all still living comfortably in the United States (with 24 hour running water – consistent electricity – good internet – and white women). When are they repatriating?
I can only believe that there would be a benefit to relocation when I see with plane tickets, those all-knowing and vociferous Pan-Africans repatriating by example.
The four point five million Caribbeans living in the United States that may be in opposition to Freedmen goals can go as well. We can help them pack. Drive them to the airport. Don’t like the attitude? Get the fuck out of our business.
The “tit-for-tat” that was mentioned is really the energy and pugilisticness of youth. Amplified by the accessibility and reach of social media. I understand what is meant. But that is going to change quite soon. We are about to shift gears.
Paragraph V
“The ADOS movement acknowledge that severance. But rather than attempt an awkward re-connection to Africa – awkward, because we’ve become culturally estranged – they’ve concluded that we’re a separate iteration of that Diaspora and should proudly affirm our specificity instead of shamefully rejecting it.“
There is nothing wrong (or against anyone else) with exercising the right to name and define oneself. Trinidadians and Senegalese can wave their flags and affirm their national origins all day. I never see any Pan-African pushback when others in the Diaspora affirm themselves. But we Freedmen cannot affirm our self-established identity? Cannot be “cultural nationals” in the land we shaped and enriched? We have built the foundation of the greatest country of the millennium. If there is a problem – that problem needs to be explained. By the Pan Africans. Why shouldn’t we affirm our specificity? (Oh – that was not rhetorical).
“Specificity?”
Yes – we are: ASeparate Ethnic Entity.
Because that is the truth.
Africa is the entity that is responsible for that “severance.” They Did Sell us. So that makes an African re-connection a little complicated. You Know? Subsequently – we built the economic and cultural foundation of the greatest country in the world. Now, we are finally and rightly proud of what our forced investment Here has created. Finally embracing our Heritage, our Lineage. Our American Truth. And now, we are rightly demanding a return on our extraordinary economic, cultural, and lineage investment. Like Americans In Truth are supposed to do.
It is now Business at this point.
And there is nothing about or in us to “shamefully reject.”
Paragraph VI
“This is not an unreasonable conclusion. I’ve made similar arguments pushing the notion that African-Americans are in fact a new people; a product of ethnogenesis with a specificity that distinguishes us not only from the European-derived majority but also from other Diasporan Africans.”
I agree. A new people. And a New culture. African culture did not protect us. African culture captured and sold us. Remember?
Paragraph VII
“The brutal institution of chattel slavery and the indignity of plantation culture was, for generations, the cauldron of our ethnic formation. White supremacy was conventional wisdom and our cultural preferences and aversions were shaped to accommodate that racist status quo. It was a peculiar history that produced a specific people who were conditioned (and injured) by an inheritance of generational depredation and flagrant cultural insult.”
I agree here as well. And now we must be insulted by Pan-Africanism.
Paragraph VIII
“Only a massive compensatory effort can address the myriad injuries inflicted by that history and only a program of reparations can encompass the necessary scope for that effort. On this issue of reparations, ADOS folks and Pan-Africanists concur. Where they part is whether the specific injuries of our accrued disadvantages demands a reparations claim distinct from other Diasporan Africans. On this, both sides should pull back a bit from the rhetorical battleground and cool their hostilities in an analytical chill.”
“… a massive compensatory effort?” Absolutely. “… whether the specific injuries of our accrued disadvantages demands a reparations claim distinct from other Diasporan Africans.” With all of the Ph.D’s and Master’s degrees running around in Pan-African circles – it would seem to me that the necessity for separate and distinct claims would be a no-brainer.
Or – they may be too inappropriately educated to understand.
Or – they do understand and something else is going on.
Look. Just an example: If a single individual was robbed by five different and unrelated robbers at five different times and places – would it be justice if the judge decided to consolidate all the robberies and then lay all the penalties that must be served on one single robber? And then allowing the others (like Portugal, France, and Britain) to be let go? How does this make sense?????
All robbers are not responsible for all robberies. Justice must be equally dispensed to the victim AND the perpetrator. Making America responsible (!?) to pay for the entirety of Diasporan enslavement and subsequent racist deprivation is not justice. America cannot be the default resource to repair all Diasporan injuries from slavery worldwide. America’s money – is also my money. I don’t owe Jamaica. Why should I or we pay Jamaica? And eventually, when this issue is congressionally hammered out – now this is legislatively possible to be sure – but this would not be a good look politically for any Congress. And the American people won’t go for it.
At the same time, I again recognize that: “Anything is legislatively possible.” The reality is that a Diasporan reparations program demand would never be taken seriously by the United States Congress. Especially by the Republicans. And by making a serious demand for reparations in that way, pushing this idea to thinking white legislators, would seriously kill reparations. HR40 seems like it is designed to kill reparations. The United States will not obligate to pay Jamaicans Here or There. This is something the Pan-Africans don’t seem to understand. OR – they do, and something else is going on. I think the Democrats are involved with this nonsense.
All reparations claims per injured group should be respectfully distinct and unique. Reparations demands are distinct and unique for every other group. How is our reparations situation any different? And why should it be any different?
A reparations program for Freedmen would have to be massive and vast. But, potential reparational resources are still and will be finite. Yes. The United States has the economic capacity, and potential political will (we hope). Along with the legal and constitutional wherewithal for properly covering the restitution of American Freedmen claimants only – but not any claims of the Diaspora. This stupid Pan African demand only confuses things.
“…both sides should pull back a bit from the rhetorical battleground and cool their hostilities in an analytical chill.” Maybe. Maybe not. At the same time, NAARC and N’COBRA are doing a lot of incompetent things behind closed doors that we did not appoint or elect them to do. Things that will affect myself and the lives of thirty plus millions of other people. OK? They don’t report to me or the public about what they are actually doing. They have an arrogant, dismissive, non-engagement policy towards Freedmen and any other individual or organization that speaks in specificity. Any media appearances by them consist of words upon words dispensed that don’t match their behind-the-scenes actions or publicly-stated web platforms. Confusing and slippery? This is Pan African intentional Sir.
Therefore, we must keep them In Sight and On Blast.
The rank and file within those same organizations don’t seem to know or understand what the officials are doing. They unfortunately are being fooled – right along with the general Black public. The hot rhetorical background just brings things that are hidden or obscured right out front and rendered in a clear political focus. NAARC and N’COBRA’s problem is that in the past two years an analytic “look-see” has finally been focused on them, and the previously unenlightened, but directly affected are not liking what they are seeing. Nothing to see to like.
They [NAARC and N’COBRA] are angry about the covers being pulled back. The monitoring and contentiousness you see from Freedmen keeps a light on them and prevents them from doing more damage than they have already done.
Reparations is a political issue. This is no more contentious than Fox News.
Paragraph IX
“Although it’s a step in a clarifying direction, the ADOS acronym is not quite precise. Also, the pugnacious rhetoric of some ADOS acolytes (perhaps it’s the fervor of new-kid-on-the-block conversion) is needlessly contentious and seemingly oblivious to the debt owed to those who paved the way for ADOS’s emergence. There’s a divisive potential that is troubling.”
“… the ADOS acronym is not quite precise.” Ahh… That possible imprecision could be there from a technical standpoint. Maybe. I will leave that open. But even in its possible imprecision – it cannot be denied its attention-getting power as a hashtag First. It has demonstrated an ability to call, raise, and rally young, and not-so-young folks in the thousands (hopefully – soon to be in the millions) to support and advocate for a single cause Second.
And despite its possible imprecision, every person that knows of it at this point knows precisely what it means, knows precisely whom it is indicative of, knows precisely what we do, and knows precisely what our aims are. Correct?
It cannot be denied that hashtag ADOS was good for marketing.
So, imprecision (if there) in this case is fine. On-the-money-precision in acronyms and their expansions can be reserved for the actual legal-legislative documents that will be drafted once reparations is passed. Words like “Freedmen” or “United States” could be inserted, or changed, et cetera. We will see if that is necessary once we get there. And once we get there, our legal and legislative professionals will make sure that the labelling and document language is on point. And besides – the foremost group for reparations advocacy as of now is called: “The United Sons And Daughters Of Freedmen.” We individually label ourselves as: “Freedmen.”
This is politics Sir. Politics is divisive.
We are not oblivious to the debt owed to those who paved the way. We are at present doing more study of the history of reparations. Who did what? What was their basis and philosophy? What did they do right? What did they do wrong?
They did what they did. OK – why don’t we have reparations now?
Our core membership is quite young (19 to 35). The need for reparations came up within (the then) ADOS mostly without a focused reparations history basis. That conclusion (the need for reparations) came about due to our own studies and discussions on race politics, economics, and stratification theory. We did and do up-to-the-second data. We do not do derivatives from the history of reparations movements. We don’t process here and now reparations necessity from the recognition of certain historic figures. So, in one sense – there were no shoulders to “stand on” Sir. Because those historically established and esteemed shoulders were not sought for, nor needed in a technical sense. At the same time – Freedmen are heavily steeped in Black American and reparations history.
The economist that we reference most of our studies from and to – Economist Dr. William A. Darity Jr. as of this writing is still alive. We did not “get” anything from those prominent in reparations history to shape our conclusions. Our conclusions came to be from the conclusiveness of the data. So, in the many broad senses available (especially in the historic sense), there was no debt to pay.
The Freedmen “just the data” track over here, and the track of the combined histories of reparations over there, independently came to some of the same conclusions differently. No one civilization discovered or “owns” fire. All civilizations have came to the same knowledge of combustion differently but independently. They all have independently agreed on fire’s nature and utility. There is a clear and honest disaggregation here when it comes to the informational paths that were taken to understand and do reparations scholarship, research, advocacy, and policy creation. The important thing is that we reached the same conclusion – the conclusion is the necessity for reparations.
Our Freedmen reparations path was of course, different, but no less valid. We rely on hard historic economic and stratification data. Deriving from the foundational asset and wage accumulation numbers from 1619 to whatever day, month, and year you are reading this post. Then continuing on – to the final legal/legislative assessments from 1776 to whatever day, month, and year you are digesting these words Sir – not the histories of reparations movements.
And to spend too much time with reparations history with no numbers to recalculate in substance – is to actually waste our good time. I am not saying that us knowing and analyzing at least some of that history is not necessary though. Because contrary to what some might say, we do that as well. Our opponents say: “Y’all don’t know enough” – this is a popular Pan African refrain we hear ad nauseum. That kind of thing. And there may be some truth to that assertion.
We don’t know enough about the things that we don’t have a reparational need to know. You see? The things that don’t add in substance or clarity to our reparations argument, calculation, or conclusion. But in reading those histories that we have taken the time out for, we are taking careful note not only of the reasons, but also – of what not to do. That’s a good thing. That’s why we study history. Right? At the same time, 90% of the young folks involved in ADOS advocacy (at the time) did not know whom NAARC and N’COBRA were.
They did not understand why they were so hostile towards us. Instead of the NAARC and N’COBRA leadership coming on board as reparations “elders” (putting that “ujima” into practice – Right?) to help out all those young people with their reserves of historical knowledge, experience, and connections. Instead. The “elders” openly disparaged those thousands of eager – motivated reparationist youngblood activists and then gaslighted them as “movement hijackers.”
We [Freedmen] were never steeped in reparations movement history in the beginning – because we were and are still too busy with right-now reparations economic theory and its finalizing calculations, along with the development of and execution of reparations politics and potential reparations deployment.
We are studied in reparations “whys” and numbers and projections. There is barely any talk about “Queen Mother Moore” or “Callie House” at Freedmen gatherings. Not that these figures are not important or to be unjustly minimized. OR – that we don’t study, analyze, or speak on reparations history. But that’s just the way it is. There IS within our circle a lot of talk about “wealth gaps,” stratification data, constitutional legalities, program structuring, policies, equity, redlining, political engagement, the Census, Freedmen membership numbers, Black buying power and credit, reparations policy, social media utilization, that kind of thing.
No libation-pouring, or calling on the ancestors, or drum-beating. Not needed.
Paragraph X
“Pan-Africanists, on the other hand, should be applauding ADOS folks for advancing the logic of ancestral acceptance to the Americas. For too long, Pan-Africans have valorized the (partially romanticized) history of a composite ‘Africa’ while diminishing and even ignoring the amazing struggles of the folks at home; the ADOS folks.”
We appreciate this paragraph. There seems to be in Pan-African thought, a general devaluation of the Black struggle here in America. We’re trying to talk about the particulars of Martin Luther King’s politics and the over-scholarized Pan Africans drag us over to Mansa Musa. We try to discuss the subtleties of Brother Elijah Muhammad’s reparations philosophy, and the booked-up Hoteps take us to Egypt.
Quite frankly, We don’t relate to that anymore. We don’t want to think about Egypt. Especially when there is so much more that we need to know about Ella Baker, Wyatt Walker, and Hubert Harrison. Those people. More to learn about American politics. More about crafting a here and now reparations strategy so we can get this recompense done. NOW. The Freedmen are a diamond forged by the heat of hellfire and pressure of oppression. An indestructible conflict stone thrown into the here and now to continue and complete a just advocacy.
You See?
Conclusion
Thumbs Up Sir!!! For posting fair observations and suggestions.
I was assisted in writing this post by a smooth bottle of Cherryblock Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. It is election season and yeah this motherfucking shit is $120.00 a bottle. OK? But I needed to drink this bad boy in order to think. You Know? So don’t fuck with me. Rich berries, pepper, raspberries, oregano. Medium tannins. Very low acidity. Balanced structure. Long but slightly sweet finish.
Had to put this post up so that the ADOS Family downballots with an awareness of the various state voting laws. We don’t want to lose any downballot votes on the basis of technicalities. You Know? Below is a listing of three latitudes that you can and cannot do within all states. Pay attention Family. This is important.
This post was written prior to the ADOS schism.
Here it is:
A. States that allow write-ins at the Executive (presidential) level. No prior filing is required for write-in candidates:
Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Wyoming.
These joints – you can write in “ADOS.” Or your granddaughter. Your mother. “Deez Nuts” might want to take another run for office. Or just leave those slots blank. The important thing is not to give the Democrats the vote for president.
Then We Have:
B. States that allow write-ins under restrictions:
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
New York
Nebraska
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington (State)
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Long-assed list. What does “under restrictions” mean? Ahh… Different things in different states. OK? Not sure if I would want to risk my ballot being disqualified in any of these states. The restrictions themselves are laid out in politician deliberated and composed pseudo-legalese. Shit that most adult-aged, fourth-grade reading level type motherfuckers can’t comprehend. They will fuck this up. Guaranteed.
In my home state of Illinois, even if a write-in candidate has filed the proper registration paperwork with the state, and received their certification – election judges can re-determine at any time which write-in candidates are running in their precinct. Unbelievable, but motherfuckers can do this. Illinois Democrat election judges are historically notorious for bullshit.
All of this is too subjective and politically tricky.
So let us all keep this simple.
I will end up voting for a third-party candidate with the Green Party or the Libertarian Party. If those choices are not available, I will just end-up voting for Trump’s ass. Leaving the presidential spots blank in these states will legally open the door for the possibility of your whole ballot being disqualified. We don’t want that. So I will have to do this – third party OR Trump. The important thing is not to give the motherfucking Democrats the vote for president.
And Lastly:
C. States that don’t allow downballot blank spots OR write-ins period:
Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
Don’t fuck around with these states. No blank spots. Do Third-party or Trump. The important thing is not to give the bitch-assed Democrats the vote for president.
Family: Last word on this post: The important thing is not to give the Democrats the vote for president. I don’t feel like hearing Cardi B on Election Night.
FREEDMEN ABSOLUTE 