Racism, War on Terror, Etc.
History Writes Us: An Interview with Antiracist Writer Kendall Clark
One of the points I have repeated in my work is that while oppressive social systems are often able to crush people utterly, as social systems they have to obey certain law-like social regularities. One of these is that the ideal way to justify or maintain a system of oppression is to make it socially invisible, to make it unquestioned and unquestionable. If you can convince your class equals, all of whom are White, that Africans are a race of natural slaves, then you can probably convince them to acquiesce to or join your efforts to enslave Africans. If you can convince the middle and lumpen class of Whites that Africans are natural slaves, they will hate and police and enforce and rape and accuse and lynch and profit. But if you can convince the African slaves themselves that they are a race of natural slaves, they will certainly be less likely to question their state than they otherwise would be. Convincing a person that she is a natural slave is difficult, but worth the oppressor’s effort if it succeeds. We are never, one might say, more ensnared than by invisible bonds.
On Monday, August 27, 2001, 10,000 delegates poured into the Kingsmeade Cricket Stadium in Durban, South Africa for the Non-Governmental Forum of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). On Tuesday, September 4, the U.S. delegates to the subsequent UN Governmental Conference walked out in protest. On September 11, three airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killing more than 4,000 people. Within minutes, the U.S. declared a world war on “terrorism” — before there were any identified perpetrators — creating a further shift in the world balance of power even more in favor of the United States, in particular the right-wing forces in the U.S. and their allies, and against the interests of the oppressed nations and peoples inside and outside the U.S.
Manning Marable, Reparations and Our Rendezvous with History
The most difficult challenge in winning the public relations debate over black reparations inside the United States is that of persuading African Americans to believe that reparations can be won. Black people, in a racist society, must constantly struggle to free themselves from cultural domination and psychological dependency, in order to acquire the belief in their own capacity to create social change. The quest for power begins first in one’s mind. You cannot become free, unless you begin to think like a free woman or man.
David Graham Du Bois, A War Like No Other? You Bet!
This “war against terrorism” is in fact an open declaration of war against the peoples of the developing world; initially the peoples of the Middle East and Africa, and ultimately the peoples of South and Central America and the Caribbean, all Asia, the South Pacific and the islands of the Seas — some four-fifths of humanity.
Christian Parenti, The “New” Criminal Justice System: State Repression from 1968 to 2001
Consider again the numbers: in the last twenty years the Justice Department’s budget grew by 900 percent; over 60 percent of all prisoners are in for non-violent drug crimes; an estimated one-in-three black men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine are under some type of criminal justice control or sought on a warrant; nationwide some 6.5 million people are in prison, on parole or probation. From the left it is clear that the United States is an over-policed, surveillance society that uses prison as one of its central social institutions.
James Maycock, War Within War
At the beginning of 1965, there were about 23,300 US servicemen in Vietnam. By the end of 1967, this number had jumped to a phenomenal 465,600, the result of Project 100,000, initiated by Johnson in 1966. This dramatically increased the number of US troops in Vietnam by dropping the qualification standards of the draft. Many black Americans who had received an inferior education and, consequently, had evaded the draft, discovered, like Muhammad Ali, that they were now eligible. Of the 246,000 men recruited under Project 100,000 between October 1966 and June 1969, 41% were black, although black Americans represented only 11% of the US population. With a bitter irony, the other group that Project 100,000 condemned was the poor, racially intolerant white man from the southern states of America.
In a country riddled with institutional racism, the draft boards were naturally infected. In 1967, there were no black Americans on the boards in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In fact, Jack Helms, a member of the Louisiana draft board, was a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. In one fatuous outburst, he described the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the highly respected and conservative black civil rights group, as “a communist-inspired, anti-Christ, sex-perverted group of tennis-short beatniks.” Although a poll in 1966 established that three out of four black Americans supported the draft, by 1969 56% of the black American population opposed the Vietnam war.
C.J. Sullivan, Bronx Stroll: The Slave Market
Around 1670 the first blacks were brought to the Bronx, as slaves. This handful of slaves had been imported from Barbados, and lived and worked on the farm of a certain Morris family.
That slavery once existed in New York City isn’t something whites here like to dwell on. Slavery ended in New York in 1827 — and besides, it was something those awful Southerners did. But history will testify that white landowners in the Bronx knew how to work a bullwhip across a black’s back as well as any cotton-grower in Mississippi. Along with the Morris family’s slaves, there were a few free blacks living in the Bronx at that time. The 1698 census listed an “Antone the Neger” and his family as living in Kingsbridge, and a black man named Jeffrey Garrot fought in the French and Indian War. But the black presence in the Bronx was small, which might have been an indication that conditions were no better for blacks in the Bronx than they were anywhere else. Bronx newspapers in the early part of the 19th century were full of wanted posters for runaway slaves.
January 17th, 2002 at 10:59 pm
Yeah. You might note that the “Dixie” of the [un]popular song and unofficial anthem of the Confederacy was Dixieland plantation, located in upstate New York. Sorry I can’t give you a cite, but look it up; I’m pretty sure it’s true. American history is a lot of myths, and many or most of them involve slavery.
February 13th, 2002 at 10:14 pm
Okay, let’s consider this fairly. Blacks, beyond any question or doubt, sold their own relatives into slavery as a result of inter-tribal war, internal squabbles, or sheer greed. Slavery was, and is to this very day, a black institution. The only people holding black slaves for the last one hundred years have been - other blacks! Any racial hypocrites who want to demean whites cannot get past this, and any arguments they have regarding white oppression are rendered unmistakably and irrefutably moot by this simple and obvious truth - blacks enslave other blacks!
If any US blacks want reparations, there’s an absolutely simple, fool-proof test as to whether or not they’re entitled to anything.
Just compare their net income to that of the mean wages of any other black, anywhere in the world. If their wages are lower, maybe they have a point, and they should be reimbursed for it. Oops - in the US, we already do this, by means of the EIC (Earned Income Credit). Look it up at www.irs.gov.
For every US black whose income exceeds the mean income of the average black in whatever African country they choose, however, they should be be forced to reimburse the difference to the US Treasury. Clearly, since they say the US is the source of their problems, they should have no problem at all paying back any extra benefit they’ve received while they’re here. A LOT of US blacks would be forced to pay huge sums back to the US for the privilege of being here. Consider it the proper, honorable implementation of racial reparations.
Any black which doesn’t accept this should be forcibly repatriated to Africa (which is only what they’ve been demanding) and have their US passports confiscated as they arrive, never to return to the US.
As Larry Elders, a respected and noted black columnist, has noted, blacks in the US today are MUCH more racist than whites. This is just an obvious, irrefutable truth. US blacks should be deeply ashamed of themselves for the harm that their greed, racism, and hate-filled bias is causing the US while we’re all in a time of crisis. Blacks who falsely claim that they’ve been discriminated against should be bundled off to Chad for six months. In three days they’d be whining to be let back to the privilege of living in the US. American blacks today have nothing to complain about, and absolutely everything to thank whites for.
March 12th, 2002 at 5:52 pm
first of all real reperation would be reversing every thing our opressors and slave owners have done. Not getting even because in getting even we would have to enslave them and what the hell would that prove besides that we could be ruthless animals just like they were. Reperations goes beyond money and social status. True reperations is lower crime rate among blks, lower teen pregnancy, higher self esteems and race-esteems, equal opportunity,no more blk babies starving, no more high school drop outs, lower or non existant AIDS count amoung african-americans. The real reperations lies not in money but in our dignity in our respect not only for ourselves but in each other, it’s being proud and of who you are and not wanting or having to assimilate in order to progress. Reperations is total reverseing the willie lynch formula reperations don’t lie in money it lies with in we have to first free our minds and stop thinking like slaves. THATS REPERATIONS
April 14th, 2002 at 1:54 pm
WHITE PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS AND ALWAYS WILL BE IN DENIAL ABOUT WHAT THREY HAVE DONE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD. LEGALLY AND HISTORICALL REPERATIONS IS AN EASY CASE. SLAVERY WAS AMERICAN LAW. WHITES CAN’T IMAGINE THIER CHILDREN BEING SOLD NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN. BLACK PREGNANT WOMAN TIED TO TREES WHILE THIER STOMACHS WERE SLIT OPEN. LYNCHINGS THAT WERE ADVERTISED AND WERE VIEWED AS ENTERTAINMENT WHILE WHITE FAMILIES HAD PICNICS. IT IS INTERESTING THAT JAMALS LOW IQ EXPLANATION DOES NOT GIVE HIS EMAIL ADDRESS. WHY ARE WHITES SO AFRAID TO DIALOUGE FACE TO FACE OR EMAIL TO EMAIL.
IN AFRICA THIER WAS NO LEGISLATION THAT ALLOWED FOR SLAVERY, WARFARE MAKES ITS OWN RULES JAMAL, LEARN YOUR HISTORY. AMERICAS RISE AS THE WORLDS FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY WAS BASED ON SLAVE LABOR. AS FAR AS PEOPLE THAT STATE IT WILL DIVIDE US, THE ONLY INTEGRATION WE HAVE IN AMERICA IS VIRTUAL THROUG OUR TELEVISION. WHITES TOLERATE US BUT WILL NEVER ACCEPT US. WE DON’T NEED THIER ACCEPTANCE. AMERICAS WEALTH WAS BASED ON FREE LABOR FOR 400 YEARS, THAT IS THE HISTORICAL TRUTH AND WE HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO BE COMPENSATED.
May 13th, 2002 at 11:34 pm
thank you for all the information you provided, I’m in the middle of a really big history project and your web page helped me an a lot. If you had more info. and in detailed on the operation,”Eyes over Modadishu,” then it would have been an even better source, but thanx for all your help. It’s very much appreciated, by some people and i thought you would like to know. ~talia~
May 20th, 2002 at 11:04 pm
slavery was a legal trade when our great grandfathers were running the show…times and ideas were differant then as they are today. Yes the Blacks were sold into slavery..and its true they had two choices…die or be a slave…if you had your choice , which way would you choose? The lucky ones chose slavery and their off-spring have enjoyed enrichment far greater than if they were lucky to have stayed in Africa and lived there at present. Looking back, one can have 20/20 and say how horrible it was and can be grateful it is over. The Black man lost freedom for a while but it bought his children and future generation an opertunity to show their own greatness through their own efforts. Many Blacks have fallen for the Democratic line that they are nothing without goverment giving them afirmitive action, welfare and food stamps. All that has acomplished is to hold the Black man from gaining his full potential. If you truly feel that you need another welfare check…ie reperations…then why as a white person could I not expect the goverment to repay my family if they had lost their plantations,farms, ranches and all the money spent on slaves they bought and paid for had legal tital for,southern moneys, just because the Northern goverment won the war? I do believe my family first set foot in this country in the 1890s so I really don’t have a claim….but just think of the reprocussions if it were to be argued that all those that lost assets due to a change in goverment laws were to be reimbursed…any way you wish to look at it…I don’t feel obligated to give a nickle for something someone elses great grand daddy did to your great grand daddy….Grow up and quit sniviling and just go to your local welfare office and get your reperations a little at a time.
May 21st, 2002 at 9:54 am
As an african, I think i can bring a little piece of information to the discussion. Excuse my bad english, my first language is french. Slavery in Africa was nothing similar to like you explained it. What you call slavery is different from our slavery. Slavery never meant the cruelty of the working conditions and inhuman treatment that africans and blacks had to go through in america. the traditional african societies taught the respect of each other, slaves or not and duties were shared by all, and not just the slaves. Slaves were extended members of the family. They worked and sometimes ate with their owner. It might be difficult for you to imagine, but it was a different reality than what most of you imagine. It was not uncommon for slaves to became kings. “Precolonial Black Africa : a comparative study of the political and social systems of Europe and Black Africa, from antiquity to the formation of modern states” by Cheick Anta Diop is an excellent source of information to know what slavery was in Africa.
June 1st, 2002 at 7:22 am
Xavier - just because slavery in Africa had (has) a different set of rules does not justify it. It was still based on ethnic and social divisions in the local populations and meant that the enslaved person was less free within that society than the slave owner (this situation still exists in some areas in africa - primarily based on ethnic divisions.
The best reparation from the period of slavery would be for the people of today to learn from and act upon their learning from history. Today both black and white people encourage modern slavery in their consumer habits, neither black nor white people (in general)have learnt the lessons. Cash cropping in the third world is a form of slavery, economic aid from the US or Europe always comes with strings, tieing populations for generations to come to trade agreements and loan repayments that they cannot afford, increasing their dependence on country giving aid. Black consumers along with their white counterparts are complicit in this.
The true reperations for slavery are there for the taking - that is the knowledge that this form of economy has terrible repurcussions on social situations for years to come and the choise of not to be complicit in furthering the damage. As to the present situation in the US - reparartion can not happen whilst the social divisions in society exist (in fact need to exist for that society to function with it’s current and self-celebrated economic organisation), therefore the period of slavery is not truly over - only now it has extended to people of all colours. In fact a black man (Colin Powell) is helping to extend the US slave net further afield a you read this - slavery is no longer a racial issue.
June 1st, 2002 at 7:26 am
OOPS, wrong email address on previous entry!!!
June 15th, 2002 at 5:38 pm
gary, you are ignorant and don’t know a darn thing about history! You speak of the african slave trade as if people of color were brought to this country aboard a plush, Disney cruise ship, sipping whine and playing shuffle board. WRONG!!! Africans were raped, beaten, and seperated from their families. Yahoos such as yourself expect us to ignore the past and stop crying. Would you you tell a Jewish survivor of the Holocoust to forget their past and move on?! Wake up and read a book. Gaining your knowlegde from a here-say and the Jerry Springer show is not valid information. Until the day comes when people of color can simply live without some racist constantly telling and showing us that we don’t belong, I’ll never stop nashing my teeth. Deal with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 16th, 2003 at 6:40 pm
I stumbled on this site by accident because it came up when searching for information about Delta Force. I have to say that the people writing the articles, particularly the one about “Black Hawk Down”, are completely ignorant. You give reason to white people like myself to dislike blacks. You insite anger in people insted of being intelligent, you are reinforcing sterotypes about blacks and at the same time angering white people.
On top of that how dare you criticize or special forces troops, especially the ones which gave their lives trying to save a bunch of “worthless” people in Somilia, it’s a shame that they did not kill 50,000 Somali. These soldiers do the jobs no one wants to and ensure that everyone in America, black or white, can sleep safely at night. You obviously are un-American and should not have the right to be a citizen….so as the saying goes go back to Africa, you have not earned the right to even call yourself Americans