Millions for Reparations
Supporters of slavery reparations are preparing for a weekend rally in the nation’s capital a city they note was built in part by slaves hauling sandstone blocks and sawing lumber.
Organizers say the Millions for Reparations rally on the National Mall this Saturday will be an important demonstration of the broad support that reparations enjoy among U.S. blacks.
“It is our contention that millions of black people in America support the idea of reparations for black people, and thousands of those millions will be in Washington,” said Conrad Worrill, national chairman of the National Black United Front.
The reparations effort has gathered steam this year, with class-action lawsuits seeking compensation for the unpaid labor of enslaved blacks filed this spring against insurance companies, railroads and banks.
The Reparations Coordinating Committee, a group of prominent black attorneys and scholars, is also working on a separate lawsuit against the U.S. government, which it plans to file later this year. And hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons has started a radio and print advertising campaign that combines a message, “Reparations. It’s about time” with promotion of his tennis shoes.
Organizers say the rally’s populist flavor will complement other reparations efforts.
“It is the masses of people on the ground that change things, that make history,” said Viola Plummer, co-chair of the rally and chairwoman of the December 12th Movement, a black human rights group. “What the Reparations Coordinating Committee is doing is amassing research and information to bring lawsuits. You can’t have one without the other.”
The rally’s leadership also comes from less-familiar sources in the civil rights movement. Major names such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson ( news - web sites), the Rev. Al Sharpton, National Urban League President Hugh Price and Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( news - web sites), were not expected to attend as of Monday.
Rep. John Conyers ( news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., who has proposed a commission to study the institution of slavery for the last 13 years, does plan to attend.
Washington is an appropriate location for the rally because it is an example of a city built through the labor of slaves, Plummer said.
Such unpaid work is at the core of the reparations movement and explains the slogan that will decorate banners at the demonstration: “They owe us.”
Reparations advocates say enslaved blacks performed onerous tasks but were never compensated. Compensation should go to descendants of those slaves, they say, though there is no consensus on what form reparations should take.
“The United States government owes black people,” Worrill said, “and many of the corporations that are multimillion, billion-dollar corporations, they actually received the basis of their wealth from the enslavement and labor of black people.”
Blacks still suffer from the vestiges of slavery, demonstrated by present-day gaps between blacks and whites in everything from health to education to the criminal justice system, reparations backers say.
Some conservative blacks do not support the movement, saying it depicts blacks as victims and they don’t feel the weight of slavery in their lives.
Reparations advocates are hoping young people will play a larger role in the movement, and are encouraging them to participate. “In order for the movement to be successful, we need longevity,” said Kahlil Almustafa, the 25-year-old co-chair of Youth for Reparations.
With his advertising campaign and appearances on radio shows talking about reparations, that is also Simmons’ goal. A portion of proceeds from his sneakers will be donated to increase public awareness and research on reparations.
“It’s a simple American justice issue,” Simmons said. “We can make young people talk about it, and we will.”
August 18th, 2002 at 3:35 am
Sir,
I was just watching the rally in D.C. and felt that I must voice an opinion. first off I agree that slavery was wrong and truly a disgrace to America. But, it seems to me that there has already been reparations, All I heard while watching the rally was what goverment and white people owe the black community. I never heard anything about the thousands and thousands of white people who fought and died to abolish slavery, not only in battle but running the underground railroad to help black slaves be free. I for one, do not understand how people can have organizations that are for blacks and deal with all that is black, but, when you have other organizations for whites this is considered discrimination, seems a little bias to me. I will also have you know that my ancestors not only fought and died to abolish slavery, but also never owned nor thought it was right to own slaves. So tell me why should my tax money and the millions of other tax payers pay for something that has, not only happened decades ago, But has already been payed for with the blood drenched battle feilds of the civil war. Seems to me the only thing keeping discrimination alive and well is the fact that people can not let the past go. I am not saying to let go of ones heritage But, that maybe the world can be a better place to live in if peaple can let go of and learn to accept the past. We (and this includes all races and religion) can learn from the past without letting it ruin our future.
Sincerly,
K. Meidinger clasik60@mcleodusa.net
August 18th, 2002 at 4:54 am
I missed the rally, however, I am interested in helping out in the Washington, DC area. Please hook me up or pass my information on to those who may have a need for a Social Worker willing to lend a hand. I also have a paper I wrote on this very subject and would like those in power to take a look at this paper.
August 18th, 2002 at 4:52 pm
So tell me why should my tax money and the millions of other tax payers pay for something that has, not only happened decades ago, But has already been payed for with the blood drenched battle feilds of the civil war.
Everyone who opposes reparations wants to pretend African slaves and their descendants became full American citizens the minute Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Don’t you people read history?
We had a very long period in this country of formal racial apartheid, stretching from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights legislation of the mid-1960s! How did the Civil War pay for Jim Crow?
And why did the federal government pay reparations to Japanese Americans interned during WWII when lots of citizens had nothing at all to do with that decision? Where’s your outrage over that?
Seems to me the only thing keeping discrimination alive and well is the fact that people can not let the past go.
Yeah, that’s entirely and completely wrong. Look around: there are still lots and lots of White people deeply invested in maintaining their social privilege at the expense of people of color. “Letting the past go” has nothing to do with ongoing discrimination, inequality, unjustice.
August 19th, 2002 at 1:41 am
The idea of taxing Americans across the board for slavery reparations is outrageous. I know many political moderates — Dems and Republicans — who’d take up arms if the day ever comes when the government tries to take our money for reparations. History is full of ironies, and a successful reparations movement could be just the thing to launch another civil war.
On the other hand, the Southern states kept Jim Crow alive until the 1970s. I’d be much more sympathetic to a reparations movement squarely aimed at Louisiana, Georgia, etc.
August 19th, 2002 at 3:32 am
I continue to be frustrated by people who haul out the old “my ancestors fought to end slavery” line. The fact is, the Civil War was fought over a collection of issues - it was not fought to liberate enslaved Africans. If that had been the guiding principle, the Emancipation Proclamation would have liberated ALL enslaved people - go read the text, I doubt you know what it really says. And assisting with the Underground Railroad was a moral imperative. You should be proud that your relatives did what was right, but what about the other relatives or friends that we all have that participated in the various racist institutions in this country.
Also, formerly enslaved Africans and descendants did not achieve some immediate wonderful freedom and equality - or did everyone miss the need for the Civil Rights movement.
Reparations are still needed, because equality was not granted, and is still being fought for. Generations upon generations have faced discrimination - sanctioned by the US government. That is why the descendants of enslaved people deserve some kind of reparations.
I am white, my ancestors arrived in this country long after slavery had ended, and I believe reparations are owed. My tax dollars might have to contribute to that, and I fully support that. It’s a much more ethical use of them then building weapons or “pre-emptively” attacking other countries. Do I know what form they should take - no. But I support the principle that something must be done to recognize the crime against humanity that was the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery, apologize for it, and make up for it.
Each day that white people do not stand up and fight against the institutionalized racism that still benefits them, legacy of slavery continues. It did not end in 1865, and it will not end until all people in this country are ready to face not only the past wrongs, but those in the present.
August 19th, 2002 at 4:04 am
>I am white, my ancestors arrived in this country long after slavery had ended, and I believe reparations are owed. My tax dollars might have to contribute to that, and I fully support that.
I’m all for people using THEIR money as they see fit. Jean, you should be free to give every penny you have to the cause of your choice. I’d even go so far as to give you back your taxes so you don’t have to contribute to those nasty weapons (and police, firefighters, etc.) so you can put all your money where you want.
As for me and probably most Americans, we’d prefer to keep paying for those weapons, tracking down terrorists, fighting crime, etc.
August 19th, 2002 at 8:25 am
Reparations? then what? I dont believe the black people will be completly happy until they have inslaved the “white man” when hell freezes over!!!
August 19th, 2002 at 2:00 pm
Dear Sir/Madame,
I watched the Millions For Reparations rally held in Washington, D.C., this weekend. I was so touched and moved to see the many of us who have survived mental slavery to see our problems in this country are still very deep. I was so happy to see so many in African attire, and talking reparation, and possibly even separation. I’ve believed for many years that we (Africans in this country named America and possibly the Diaspora). Marcus Garvey stated in 1922, in the book, The Philosophies and Opinions of Marcus Garvey… If Black folks in America and the diaspora don’t unit, and return to Africa…that we would be exterminated within the next 75 years. We see what time it is and we know what is happening.
Recently on CNN it was reported that European industry in Africa (Ethiopia) is responsible for the death of 1.5 million Ethiopians. I knew no real famine or diseases (unless they had a little help) could be killing Africans because the Whites in certain (African) countries were not dying of famine and disease. I’ve never seen a starving or disease ridden European living in Ethiopia. So, something was wrong with that picture. I am one who would like to return to Africa. I believe if the Reparations debt is paid…it could possibly be acceptable to pay $5 million to each person who is willing to get paid and leave American and return to Africa - Separation/ reparations. Please give me the information of how to contact the Attorney, Deadria, Farmer-Paellman, the attorney who is filling individual law suits against certain corporations for reparations. I would also like to have contact information on how to reach Prince Israel of the Nation of Israel. I have long believe we are the descendants of the Ancient Hebrews. And according to Prophet Isaiah Israel has not return to the Holy Land in Israel, otherwise known as Northeast Africa. Some things has to happen first, that has not happened.
August 19th, 2002 at 9:17 pm
There are millions of people in this country who live in poverty and despair. They have many different physical and emotional attributes, reperesenting the diversity of this nation.
Reperations only seems to address a particular segment of this population; it says somehow that the suffering of a jobless black mother addicted to crack in the inner city is more significant than the suffering of a jobless white mother addicted to methamphetamine in a rural area.
I have a deep moral problem with this view - a view that that says money should only be spent on one group, based on a physical attribute, and all others can be left behind. The people who support reperations seem only to care about people who look like them.
You then make it much easier for others to adopt the same attitude.
August 19th, 2002 at 11:26 pm
I’m a black man, I’m sick and tired of blacks trying to get over. I watched the rally Saturday and was ashamed of being black. Was it horrific what happened to blacks yes, but stop fostering the hate. We as blacks do more harm to each other and kill more of our people than anyone else. If your mad do something for our people. Stop trying to set us back any more than we already have been. That Kill whitey T-Shirt will do a lot for us. Wake up black people of America. America is by no means perfect, but remember you are free to leave if you please. Why do I feel a hand out is what the rally was about. Stop being unhappy with your life and tired self and do something about it.
Peace,
Lawerence Alli
August 21st, 2002 at 7:22 pm
That rally in D.C. was ridiculous. Civil rights for all? Perhaps rights are earned from being civil and I saw no such thing at that rally.
Why is it that black people think they were the only slaves. White people were enslaved long before. Not only that, but the black people of Africa sold their own people for mere trinkets. If it weren’t for the white people …the slaves may not have been set free as soon as they were.
They’ve been given rights and want more, more, more! Look at the native americans, which I am. We have our pride and we only ask for equality. We would sooner tend to our only home…the earth (which is beyond repair now), but more blacks then any are so greedy as to put aside our only home for bitching and complaining about something that people today, had NOTHING to do wih.
Never have I seen a more selfish race then the afro-americans.
August 21st, 2002 at 7:51 pm
That rally in D.C. was ridiculous. Civil rights for all? Perhaps rights are earned from being civil and I saw no such thing at that rally.
I guess you haven’t read the Declaration of Independence lately? (Or, for that matter, even the most basic explanation of what a human right is…).
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…
So, no, rights aren’t “earned”, they are bestowed by virtue of being a human person. If you deny rights to African Americans, you ipso facto deny their humanity. (Well, that or you don’t agree with the Declaration of Independence.)
It’s interesting that after denying the rights of African Americans for so very long — for going on 300 years — when they finally start to demand that their fellow citizens respect those rights, they’re called petulant and selfish. No one calls white people petulant or selfish when they demand others respect their rights.
Why is it that black people think they were the only slaves.
Why is it that you think “black people” think any such thing? What nonsense.
Not only that, but the black people of Africa sold their own people for mere trinkets. If it weren’t for the white people …the slaves may not have been set free as soon as they were.
This is so tiresome. First, on simple moral grounds, that some other agent was party to your morally blameworthy act can never dissolve your responsibility; at best it can only mitigate it, and that has to be shown rather than merely asserted. Second, I’m deeply skeptical about all these claims from reparation opponents that some (always unnamed) African kings were responsible for enslaving their own or neighboring peoples. No one ever offers any decent evidence for that claim. Third, setting aside the question of responsibility and evidence, what precisely is this counterclaim supposed to establish? Fine, I concede that African kings collaborated with European slave traders to enslave African peoples. So what? Some Jews collaborated in the Nazi death camps with the Nazis in order to help them kill more Jews. No one told the Jews who asked for reparations after WWII that they weren’t deserving of reparations because “some of their people collaborated”.
As for the claim that if it “weren’t for white people the slaves may not have been set free as soon as they were”; well, I guess “as soon as” is a matter of opinion. Certainly some whites — what seems to have been a very small percentage of white people were ever actually abolitionists — worked for the liberation of African slaves, but many more whites worked precisely to enslave them in the first place, and incalculably more whites have benefitted from the oppression of African slaves and African Americans ever since.
They’ve been given rights and want more, more, more!
Umm, again, no one gives anyone else rights! If you’re a theist of some sort, you believe rights are an endowment from God, not from other humans! Sheesh, this is just basic stuff.
Look at the native americans, which I am. We have our pride and we only ask for equality. We would sooner tend to our only home…the earth (which is beyond repair now),
African Americans who demand reparations aren’t demanding equality? That’s funny; they sure say they are demanding the same treatment given to Jews (and Gypsies and others) after the Holocaust, to Japanese-Americans after the internment camps.
As for the oppression of Native Americans, you won’t find a more strident set of allies for the just treatment of Native Americans than among reparation proponents.
but more blacks then any are so greedy as to put aside our only home for bitching and complaining about something that people today, had NOTHING to do wih.
Yeah, it’s a good thing you don’t monolithically ascribe feelings and attitudes and beliefs to an entire segment of the population by virtue of your perception of the uniformity of some of their physical characteristics. I thought we got past “all black people are greedy”-kind of statements years ago? All these reparation opponents are forever blathering on about how racism is ended, and yet most of them engage in racist talk in the very act of their so-called criticisms of reparations.
Never have I seen a more selfish race then the afro-americans.
Rarely have I seen a stupider comment.
August 21st, 2002 at 9:20 pm
Don’t you realize that reparations will never be approved unless a majority of other groups — including the whites and Hispanics and Asians — approve of it. African-Americans: It’s not up to you! So how do you think that your hate and vitriol and guilt tripping is going to get the others to support your cause?
August 21st, 2002 at 9:39 pm
Don’t you realize that reparations will never be approved unless a majority of other groups — including the whites and Hispanics and Asians — approve of it. African-Americans: It’s not up to you! So how do you think that your hate and vitriol and guilt tripping is going to get the others to support your cause?
If you read the comments on this site, you’d see that the hate and the vitriol is amazingly one-sided. I routinely have to delete dozens of messages per week which are so disgustingly racist and offensive that they simply exceed the bounds of civil discourse. 100% of these comments engage in white supremacist invective of the most vile, base type.
August 22nd, 2002 at 3:41 am
Personally, I completely disagree with reperations for slavery. Let me tell you why I think this way.
First: The whole idea is completely racist. The reperations idea generalizes by saying that all blacks were victims and all whites were the villians. In reality, this is simply not true. There were MANY white people who gave their lives trying to fight for the anti-slavery cause. On the flip-side, there were MANY black people in Africa who actually sold their own people into slavery. Now, that’s only one of the reasons that I disagree with this topic for.
Second: They need to open their eyes. The people who are fighting for free money (reperations, if you prefer) need to open their eyes to the real problems in their society. Many advocates say that they are still affected by the slavery movement, and that, for some reason, they deserve payment as a result of their life being crappy. We need to look at the facts:
41% of black males aged 15 and up are married.
36% of black children live in two-parent families.
Those are huge problems right there. Reperations advocates need to confront the real problems, and stop blaming their troubles on something that happened 136 years ago.
(P.S.- 85% of black children grew up in two parent families in 1925…therefore, unless the affects of slavery skip generations, there’s no excuse for this.)
I’m sure the liberals in this forum will argue this with me, but oh-well…
August 22nd, 2002 at 3:35 pm
If descendants of enslaved Africans do not deserve reparations, then neither do the Jews, Japanese, or anyof the other groups who have recieved such payments, soical support or compensation.
To those who argue against reparations i challenge you to turn down your remaining paychecks for whatever it is that you do for a living for the remainder of the year. Reparations is not a handout it is about the maintaining good ol’ amercian work ethic, “if you work hard you should be paid for your hard work”. Our African anscestors worked hard and took pride in what they did even if they were doing it for their oppressors, that is why the Capital building in DC is still standing, that is why the oldest buildings on the campus of Brown University are still standing. All we asked is that we compensated somehow for work done and the contribution we have made to the the making and sustaining of this country and the world.
August 23rd, 2002 at 7:43 am
First of all, Yes, Japanese Americans who were interned during WW2 DID get reparations from the United States govnerment. However, the ONLY people who recieved this payment were SURVIVORS. Not the 6th generation ancestors on the mother’s, brothers’, uncle’s side as is the situation with many blacks.
I’ve got absolutely no problems repaying a slave who is still alive for the oppression that they had to endure, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a person who fits this requirement. Being a relative of someone who was a slave 140 years ago is a weak argument.
August 23rd, 2002 at 4:53 pm
First of all, Yes, Japanese Americans who were interned during WW2 DID get reparations from the United States govnerment. However, the ONLY people who recieved this payment were SURVIVORS.
Do you know this for an absolute fact? I’m very doubtful. Consider this scenario: A is living in Europe during internment but her parents, B and C, are interned for the duration of the war, both of whom die shortly after being released from the interment camp. A arrives in the U.S. and is eventually paid the reparations B and C would have been paid, had they not died during their internment.
In other words, I suspect some internment descendants were paid reparations on behalf of their dead relatives. This is not unheard of in the law.
The important point, however, is that you’ve moved from opposing the very idea of reparations to dickering over the details of implementing the idea in a real world policy. That’s an important move, congratulations.
Not the 6th generation ancestors on the mother’s, brothers’, uncle’s side as is the situation with many blacks.
Interesting that you say “many” rather than “all”. Three obvious responses to the claim that there are no descedants of slaves living, so reparations for slavery cannot be paid:
Reparations can be made to descendant’s of victims; it’s been done before and can be done again
We have to ask ourselves why no actual victims of slavery were ever paid reparations, and I suggest there are many reasons but by far the most significant is that slaves were not emancipated into citizenship. Rather, they were emancipated into formal racial apartheid which lasted nearly 120 years. The descendants of slaves and survivors of slavery simply could not press for reparations until very recently because they COULD NOT VOTE until very recently, nor could they agitate politically until relatively recently without facing harassment, humiliation, and the prospect of death.
Simply put, emancipation was a half-measure. Had there not been an intervening period of 120 years of the most vicious white supremacy against slaves and their descendants, your arguments about the belatedness of reparations would hold a lot more force. As it stands, the belatedness is a function of the ongoing oppression which slaves and their descendants endured. This suggests that the only form of belatedness argument which even gets off the ground is a severely forshortened one, starting with the passage of the voting rights legislation in the mid-1960s (though even that’s being uncharitable to African Americans, but it’s possibly defensible).
Lastly, if the belatedness argument is that much of a problem, then think of reparations as being paid not for slavery but for the 120 year period of formal racial apartheid against slaves and their descendants. The Japanese Americans were paid reparations for a far lesser pattern of harm, amounting to some four, rather than 120 years. And no Japanese American was ever lynched for demanding equality.
And, most dramatically, there are lots and lots of living survivors of the Jim Crow period all over the country. Every African American born here who’s older than 50 is very likely to be a survivor.
I’ve got absolutely no problems repaying a slave who is still alive for the oppression that they had to endure, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a person who fits this requirement.
Oppression, whether it takes the form of chattel slavery or formal racial apartheid (as in South Africa, as relatively briefly committed against Japanese Americans, or as in the case of slaves and their descendants for 120 years after emancipation), is what one pays reparations for, so it’s not just slaves and ex-slaves who can rightly make reparations claims.
When you understand that point, you realize that lots and lots of African Americans living today have legitimate claims for reparations. This doesn’t mean they will get justice, but they have an initially legitimate claim on their fellow citizens.
Being a relative of someone who was a slave 140 years ago is a weak argument.
In some sense it’s a weaker argument than being a living survivor of slavery, but not, as I’ve shown above, in any sense which makes reparations claims illegitimate.
August 23rd, 2002 at 4:58 pm
And no Japanese American was ever lynched for demanding equality.
Actually, I don’t really know that this is true. I should say that, even if some Japanese Americans were lynched, it was never a systematic tool used as a way to forestall political and social equality on the part of Japanese Americans as an entire social grouping. Which it clearly was in the case of African Americans and the lynching epidemic which lasted from the end of Radical Reconstruction to WWII, nearly 60 years of unremitting terror. (And, yes, there were lynchings after WWII, but they were more episodic than systematic, though at the end of the 1950s they became a strategic tool of white supremacists in the South.)
August 27th, 2002 at 10:09 pm
If this government can extort 1.3 trillion dollars from the taxpayers to spend on more weapons of mass destruction, it can certainly make sure that all citizens have equal access to health insurance, a primary and secondary education, and make sure that no person gets left behind in a state of pauperism.
Repairations isn’t about writing a fat check to a specific sect, it’s about accountabilty!
Ascetic Anglo’s need to wake and live reality: your ancestors from Europe and the United States plundered resources that didn’t belong to them and they also exploited peoples from Africa, India, and indigenous Americans. I’m not trying to insult or attack Anglos’ but your ancestors did execute genocide against people who didn’t share the same hellenistic perspective of the European settler.
Repairations is a righteous cause!
Power to the people!
September 3rd, 2002 at 4:25 am
Yea, you’re absolutely correct. My ancestors did do those things to other ancestors. I DIDN’T DO THOSE THINGS..why should I have to pay for them!? The enslaved people aren’t even alive any more! Let it go! Move on with your lives and quit trying to blame others for the shitty and sorry state that you’re in now! You have no one else to blame but yourselves!
November 6th, 2002 at 8:14 pm
To Kendall,
Thank you for speaking out for Reparations for African people. This is a movement of dignity and self-determination for African-Americans. Many people are not prepared to speak out. They are brainwashed and armed w/ inaccurate historical information.
The question of Reparations is difficult for many people. So our task will be a life long one, as for any individual in any time or place who has dedicated their life to searching for truth.
In Struggle, Kahlil Almustafa
November 29th, 2002 at 12:59 am
I understand that history will never be changed. What will the reparation do for this country? I feel that young people are not involved because it does not effect them,the way that it did for their ancestors. White or Black, we have fought wars with eachother, for our country. The youth of America has the power to create history.
January 16th, 2003 at 7:47 am
The travesty that is slavery continues unto this very day. The process of slavery in Africa is one place where it still continues. Would you also seek reperations from those who hunted and enslaved because those would be Africans. The perception that Europeans hunted en masse Africans is utterly false. This, as it had been done hrough the ages, was done by Africans albeit intensified due to the trade initiated by Europeans in Arms, Gold, and Sugar. The slave trade in Africa has continued somewhat abated now for thousands of years. What had been a north south route was transformed by european interaction via trade in goods to an an east west route.
The great difference between slavery was that Africans were used as slaves in a number of capacities, not simply for labor but for teachers, soldiers, civil servants, etc…
Having said this the true sadness of what had happened to our ancestors and as recently our fathers should be tempered by the benefits that we have living in a society where most of the poor have microwaves and they all have shoes. Should you desire to see the pain and suffering that still exists in the world then go to Western Sahara and dedicate yourself to altering the deplorable situations. Or go to Indonesia and watch fifteen men on the side of a road waiting for the privelage to empty a truck for of rocks, if their the first on the truck, for a pittance to feed their families.
As my Professor, Dr Reginald Butler, said; Understand our part in the process or you give THEM (white people) all the power. Africans enslave Africans. Europeans only intensified and altered that truth.
February 21st, 2003 at 9:35 am
i so interesting to look at the posts here both black and white.dont you realize that this is not about payoffs.this reparations issue is about the cycle of nature,what goes up must come down.people of eroupean decent have benifited from the the actions of their ancestors now they will pay for those actions.just as black africans exploited whites during the the hieght of kemet’s
power
May 7th, 2003 at 1:34 pm
Are there any Info on black lawyers sueing the system for reperations for drug-addicts?
August 7th, 2003 at 10:39 am
“With his advertising campaign and appearances on radio shows talking about reparations, that is also Simmons’ goal. A portion of proceeds from his sneakers will be donated to increase public awareness and research on reparations.” Now would he be on TV,Radio,Etc. and have a sneaker he promotes if things were not already straightened out? I do not have a sneaker contract I bust my butt just to support my wife and kids and I have not seen any benefits of slavery, I am not rich and bathing in wealth from slavery. I have only felt the jolt of all the uproar and unequal rights being enforced. I am Caucasian raised in a single parent home were my mom had to work two jobs just to put food on the table and keep a roof over my head. Then when I go to college and apply for financial aid I get turned down and pulled aside by a African American financial aid counselor telling me “I am sorry but the only money we have left are for minorities”. So I suck it up and work full time and go to school time and still maintain a 3.5 average. After college I go to apply for jobs and guess what there is a law that certain amount of minorities have to be employed in major corporations or they can face lawsuits so even if I have a slight edge over a minority with education and experience I still do not get the job. Then when there are clubs with all white members and that means they are a member of the KKK but if there is an all African American club no one complains. So who is really being discriminated against?
April 12th, 2004 at 7:18 am
….”Then when I go to college and apply for financial aid I get turned down and pulled aside by a African American financial aid counselor telling me “I am sorry but the only money we have left are for minorities.”….
I’m so sure those are the exact words you were told. (roll eyes)