Reparations Can Help Repair Past Wrongs

It is very sad indeed that the issue of reparations for the descendants of Africans enslaved in the Americas and for the destruction caused by colonialism and slavery in Africa has been so quickly and easily pushed out of importance by some. Yet, when one looks at the history of the world, it has been the refusal to resolve such issues of wrongs done to others that have led to horrible wars, revolutions and conflicts that continue to rage after hundreds of years of not being resolved, the continuation of hatred for the perpetrators and the longing for vengance when the oppressed get into a position where they themselves become powerful and can equal the score.

The history of Blacks in the Americas began thousands of years before the birth of Christ, (see the great book; "A History of the African-Olmecs:" Black Civilizations of America from Prehistoric Times to the Present Era ) pub. by 1stbooks Library, 2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington, Indiana 47404 email: 1stbooks@1stbooks.com www.1stbooks.com 1(800)839-8640 1(812) 339-6000

Yet, it was the Papal Edict of the mid 1400's A.D., that opened the way to enslavement of the first Blacks seen in Africa and the Americas ny the portugese a few years before 1492 and the Blacks of Black Moorish origins in Europe during the same period.

Some of the early victims of enslavement in the Americas were the Black Guanini, Caracoles and Garifunas (Black Caribs ...September issue of National Geographic Magazine) who were found in the Caribbean and Central America by the first Spanish explorers, who called them, "slaves or our Lord."

These Africans who were in the Americas before Columbus were called "slaves of our Lord," because the religious hierachy of Europe followed the great lie called "the curse of Ham," as an excuse to enslave Blacks found anywhere on earth.

Descendants of African Slaves in the Americas Deserve Reparations

The arguement that Blacks living today are not due reparations is itself racist, hypocritical and has the potential to backfire in the faces of those who claim no reparations are due. This collective attempt to deny atroticities and to claim that Blacks today are not affected by the violation of the human and natural rights of their ancestors for more than three hundred years and the additional 100 years of legal Jim Crowism (segregation and discrimination sunctioned by the states) is more than just an example of denial and dishonesty.

This denial clearly goes against the idea that human beings are in fact affected by brutality, oppression and all forms of evil metted against them. It makes all recognition of atrocities done against others a farce and any reparations paid to others mere apesement or worse yet, honest recognition because they are not Blacks. This denial also makes a mockery of one of the basic beliefs of Christianity, that we are born with Adam and Eve's original sin.

After all, why teach bilions of people around the world about "original sin," and how we carry such sin, which was committed tens of thoiusands of years ago, yet crimes against humanity, atrocities, brutality, dehumanization and continued oppression committed over the past five hundred years by the ancestors of people who continue to reap the benefits today, should be forgotten.

The legacy of racism and oppression since the end of slavery tilll today, exists in par with the legacy of wealth, property, money and power that exists today for the descendants of those who had slaves in the Americas and those who had colonies and Africa.

Furthermore, when one looks at Blacks living today in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, the pattern of oppression, poverty, destruction of culture and continued racism is a direct legacy of slavery, Jim Crow (apartheid) and racism of the past.

In order to understand what slavery was all about, one has to do some serious reading and research. The findings will show that slavery was not merely Blacks working for twenty hours daily without pay. It was a form of systematic genocide of people, their culture, their language and their religion.

For example, some of the atrocities committed against slaves were so horrible that not even animals were treated in such manner. For example, slave codes established during the period of slavery give an idea of the type of brutal atrocities committed against Blacks:

1. The slavemaster could dispose of slave belongings (there are modern examples of this rule being applied to this day).

2. Slaves were forbidden to be together at any time or place (another rule that applies to Blacks today)

3. Fugitive slaves caught, had their ears cut off (all one has to do is look and one will find similar laws today).

4. Slaves were branded for trying to flee.

5. The hamstrings of slaves caught trying to flee were chopped off. A third time they were killed.

5. On slave ships, African female slaves were brought up on deck to be raped and were more valuable if pregnant. (Black women today are the victims of sexual abuse. If pregnant and they cannot find work, like slaves, they become the ward of the state, being forced to get rid of their husbands, making their babies commodities and raising fatherless (made fatherless on the advice of the welfare system) children that may themselves be entangled in the system.

6. According to Vaissiere, on one plantation in the U.S., thirty slaves hanged themselves, the planters cut of fthe heads and decorated his rooms with them.

Anyone who remember the war in Angola during the seventies will remember the same use of the heads of African soldiers being marched as trophies in the streets of Luanda by the soliders of the colonialists.

7. The wives of planters (white women) were even more cruel than the men, according to Baron de Wimpffen. In one example, a white woman ordered her cook be thrown in the fire because the cook (a female) served a pie that was burnt.

Today, racism by those who are the women of the race in power is well organized. For example, the push to encourage abortion and sterilization among "poor" and Black African women, is nothing but the continuation of the racist eugenicist scheme began by the founder of Planned Parents who wanted to eliminate the Blacks, poor whites, and southern Europeans in the U.S., while proposing, "more children for the fit, less for the unfit." (Magaret Sanger)

8. Slaves in Haiti (where some of the most horrible atrocities took place and led to the extermination of the plantocracy), had to walk past tall racks on which hang whips. The planters of Haiti used the whips to cut the back of slaves to shreds. Today, Blacks are not flogged in public, however there are those who use the ballot box to keep Blacks powerless, to support forces of oppression and brutality against Blacks and to pass laws that are turning Blacks into modern slaves for stealing a cookie or a slice of pizza.

9. Lazininess and transgressions were punished by fifty lashes; wounds were smeared with salt. Today, Black people, particularly men and women to some extent are deliberately not hired, no matter how educated they are. Jobs and higher positions are given to other people, who sometimes have absolutely no education at a level as high as the Blacks who are refused promotions.

10. A slave who attacked his or her master was roasted alive and his flesh given to the dogs (The Black Book, Random House, p. 21) Black folk who attack non-Blacks are liable to be punished at a very severe rate compared to if they ttacked other Blacks. The rate of execution for Blacks is also much higher.

11. Pregnant women were flogged; a whole was dug in the ground where the stomachs were placd while they were being whipped. In today's racist society, pregnant Black women are still chained to their beds in some places, while they are giving birth. In other places they are used on "chain gangs" as modern slaves.

12. Gunpowder was placed in the cavities of slaves, filled with gunpowder and fuses placed in and set alight to blow up the slave.

13. Noses of slaves were chopped off.

14. Slaves were locked in barrels and rolled down hills. Those who were seriously wounded or dying were left to dogs who ate them up. Today's Blacks are deliberately confined with with disease infected people, so they can be deliberately abused and infected. Such crimes are in the category of "crimes against humanity," and are committed daily against Blacks in the U.S.

The above examples are of atrocities committed during slavery compared to similar atrocities committed today. Not only were these atrocities committed, but thousands of other forms of brutality were committed against slaves.

Slaves were forbidden from reading or writing and when caught, their tongue was cut off they hands cut off or they were sold from their wives, husbands and children.

Today, Black education which was designed for the children of sharecroppers, (whose grandparents and parents were slaves), is of the most inferiority and worse quality anywhere on earth. Today's Black schoolchild in the U.S. is being trained for nothing but being a modern slave.

The fact that in America today, there are laws that have been approved by the white population to establish a modern form of slavery (example manditory minimums, "three strikes," which are also being used in England and Australia against Blacks) is evidence of the continuation of the same policies developed during slavery being applied today.

The destruction done to Blacks throughout the Americas and Africa due to European and Arab slavery is a crime against humanity. The refusal to appologize and to take measures to repair the severe damage done to Blacks around the world will lead to a long period of animosity and anger among Blacks, unseen at anytime on this planet.

The idea that Black nations and those who have suffered from colonialism and slavery and who continue to suffer from the effects of these atrocities, will continue to remain poor, downgraded and powerless nations is really foolhardy. In fact, the refusal to accept the humanity of Africans will push Africans to take another althernative, one that will lead to an economically, militarilly and politically stronger Pan-Black (Pan-African) or Pan-Negritic world.

The fact of Black oppression is one that is a worldwide phenomena. Blacks of African origins range from Blacks in Melanesia and the South Pacific to India, South Arabia and parts of Asia.

These Blacks, although they belong to the prehistoric Black migrations are still victims of the same type of racism that led to the racist theories and sanctified racism of European religions, Semitic religions and the caste system of India. All led and continue to lead to the type of mental conditioning and cultural beliefs that still leads to the oppression and exploitation of Blacks today and the enslavement of Blacks in the past.

Soultions to the Refusal to Consider or Give Reparations

Black nations around the world, including Black communities and peoples of Dalit/Tribal India who are of African origins, Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, African-Americans, Afro-Latinos, Blacks in Europe and worldwide should and must begin at once to work towards building a strong and powerful Pan-Negritic or Black World Movement. This attempt is very necessary in a world that is already becoming bi-polar and where superpowers are loosing all influence and power around the world.

Black world power that works to eliminate poverty, disease and lack of development can be organized first nationally, then regionally, then on an international basis. For example, Black organizations in the U.S. such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Urban League, and others should form a united government (see the book, "Susu and Susunomics: The Theory and Practice of Pan-African Economic, Cultural and Racial Self-Preservation," pub. by www.iuniverse.com see preview at www.barnesandnoble.com )

Black communities in Latin America should unite with Blacks in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean (the Organization of Africans in the Americas was founded for this purpose). With unity, the problems faced in the Americas can be worked on, a strong and powerful voice can be heard, a strong and powerful agenda and economy can be persued.

Unity between Black Dalits and Tribals in India with their kinsmen in Africa, the Americas an other places is vital. In the case of the Black Untouchables of India (Dalits, see www.dalitstan.org ) it is simply a matter of a lack of knowledge that has kept their plight from being known by more people in the Americas.

Those Blacks and others who know of the plight of the Black Untouchables (Dalits), the response as been overwhelming support. The objective of Africans in Africa and the Diaspora is to work for Black world unification and solidarity and to create a common agenda that protects and serves Blacks around the world.

When Africans and Blacks around the world take the step towards economic, cultural, political and military development and unification, the entire issue of reparations, appologies for slavery and other atrocities and wrongs done to Blacks from Africa to India and from the Americas to Europe and Melanesia will be handled in a very different manner. When one is powerful, strong and able to apply their will, their desires are not quickly discarded.

Blacks in America can improve their power and influence in a matter of ten years if each Black family decides to stay united, to encourage strong family unity and begin a population boom and larger families. Black America is up for heavy competition as millions and millions of other people find themselves suddenly in competition with Blacks for rights, benefits and the respect that the ancestors of Blacks have shed blood, sweat and tears to attain over the past four hundred years in the United States.

If no reparations are paid, the way to power and influence is to start a Black population explosion and to double the Black population in a short period of time. The fact is, there is power in numbers and if that was not so, there would be no great effort at present to court people from Spanish-speaking nations who are living in the U.S.

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Paul Barton
Nubianem3@webtv.net
http://community.webtv.net/paulnubiaempire

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