The Hard Truth: They’ll never finish paying reparations

12th March 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Columnist

I was watching a video on Blacks in Kung Fu when it really hit me.

Martial Arts master Ron Van Clief was talking about his experiences in Viet Nam, particularly how racist white officers would send entire teams of Black soldiers into pointless “no return” missions. I remembered the stats that said more than 55 percent of the frontline casualties in that undeclared war were Black men, this in spite of our much smaller representation of the population of this nation and its armed forces.

Then I thought about two police killings in New Orleans during the past week and I realized that whenever reparations are won the amount will have to be open-ended, as open-ended as the varied attacks upon our bodies, minds and spirits.

For those who may not know reparations is the payment that nations make to other nations or groups of people they have done harm to. The idea is to “repair” the damage with money and other resources. Ger­many has paid hundreds of billions to the state of Israel for what happened during the holocaust. The United States has paid Native Peoples for some of the harm done them in “settling this nation. The U.S. has also paid Japanese citizens for putting them in concentration camps during World War II. (Kinda like what Hitler did to the Jews during the same period.)

So you have to wonder, when is it OUR turn? None of the other groups has as many of their people suffer the loss life/health, physical injury, mental harm, stolen wages, loss of identity or a dozen other things we could name. So when do we get compensated for our oppression?

Even the bible says that the thief when caught must repay. The details are tough. Are we talking cash to individuals, institutions or agencies or some other form of payment? Much will have to be worked out but it should happen. The U.S. should want to do this to avoid reaping some of the foul seeds it has sewn. I am totally down with reparations but don’t push it because I don’t think this government will give them up until we whip them, so it’ll probably be a minute.

But how much should we get for our collective labor, pain and suffering? How much should be repaid for what had been taken from us through the years?

Maybe we should compare in contemporary legal terms.

In 1994 a jury awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages to Stella Liebeck who sued the McDonald’s corporation because she spilled a cup their coffee in her lap. The coffee did cause her serious injury but she did finally settle for a lesser amount.

So, if a woman injuring herself with fast food coffee is worth nearly $3 million then what about all the abuse suffered in the lifetime of a single slave? The branding, the beatings, the rapes (male and female) the free, forced labor, the selling off of children, siblings and mates like cattle and on and on. How much should one slave get for what was done to them, the terror they lived in and the horrors they watched daily?

It does not matter if the individuals who started and continued formal slavery have died. The entity that allow it is called the United States of America and that entity still exists and still profits from exploitation and has never, ever made any attempt to right the wrong that was done to us.

What about the countless Blacks who were held in various forms of slavery after the formal system ended? Thanks to our own Antoinette Harrell and others much of this information is re-surfacing.

Then what about Jim Crow, the physical and mental violence, the humiliation of “whites only” signs and lives and careers that were never fulfilled because of an irrational, racist system? What about all of the Black families that were run off of their land by groups white attackers and never compensated?

And what about the Black soldiers in Vietnam and other wars sent to their deaths for no other reason than the racism in the hearts of their superiors? How much is each life worth? What should each family receive for their loss?

What about the lives of Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Ayanna Smith and countless other unarmed innocent Blacks killed by cops who this system will never hold accountable for their actions? How much for each life?

What about the millions of Blacks who have been falsely imprisoned through the years? What about those who are in prison right now solely because an officer of the law decided to ruin their lives? How do you compute the loss of wages, the physical abuse, the mental/emotional trauma they experience. How do you calculate the fiscal value of the residual/collateral harm done to their loved ones by their absence?

Now factor in the fact that every white person has benefited from our oppression. Many have become wealthy but all have benefited. Remember, most of your “old money” in the USA is actually “slave money.”

Being a reasonable guy I would personally try to “low-ball” a fair price to pay for the pain and suffering and ruining of lives, so about $1 million sounds about reasonable to me.

Yep, that’s right, one million dollars to me is about a fair settlement. One million dollars per person. One million for each man woman and child ever enslaved or who is a descendant of slaves. Plus land and technology. Payment for the deceased can go to their descendants. This would include all babies born currently and until some point in the future. How far in the future? I’d best not say right now, but it’s not even my call. We must decide some things collectively.

Thanks to Queen Mother Moore and Mama Dara Abubakari (Peace be upon them) the case for Black Reparations before the world court is still open. In 1963 they made a formal appeal to the United Nations for reparation in order to beat a 100-year statute of limitations.

The issue of reparations is absolutely legitimate in spite of the logistical challenges and questions. Just because the right thing is difficult to do doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

…and That’s the Hard Truth!

This article was originally published in the March 12, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper