Owe Me Back Like You Owe Your Tax

July 6, 2006

Owe me back like you owe your tax, pay me be back like 40 acres to blacks. -Nas

Reparations. Defined as payments or other compensation offered as an indemnity for loss or damage. The word alone can send chills down ones back for many different reasons depending on who you are and what you believe.

All over this world of ours, since the beginning of time, wrongs have been committed against other human beings and prices have been paid for those wrongs. The price can be as little as a child being denied a cookie as punishment for swatting a sibling or a man being executed by the government as a punishment for taking the life of another. However, many times when a wrong is committed, the wrongdoer is able to escape punishment and offer an apology as his only means of retribution. This perhaps is acceptable if one's crime was calling a classmate a big-mouth, but as a transgression grows in its severity, so should the price that one must pay to those who have been wronged.

Which brings us to the point of reparations. For what, you ask? For one of the largest criminal enterprises in the history of this world. For an enormous act of genocide that pre-dates and overwhelmingly outnumbers the Jewish Holocaust. For the descendants of the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It is estimated that a mind-boggling 30 million Africans were involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade from start to finish. Half of those died in combat for their lives in Africa or while waiting on it's coasts in factories. An estimated 3 million African bodies lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the heinous conditions on slave ships. Once they made it to the "New World", many were sent to "seasoning camps" which were meant to break their wills and spirits and introduce them to the lives they would lead. Another two million died in these camps. Supposedly two Africans died for every one that was successfully made a slave in the New World, which gives us the estimation that at least 20 million Africans died over 351 years. In addition to the horror of being taken from their homelands, enslaved Africans in the New World were forced to endure chattel slavery which dictates that the slave is no longer a human with free will, but a piece of property. It also dictates that the children of the enslaved will also be property. This version of slavery differed vastly from the types of slavery in Ancient Africa, Europe and Asia.

Stop. Re-read that last paragraph. Digest the monstrosity of those figures. 20 million dead. 10 million enslaved. 351 years. Humans as property.

Now, in 1863, a presidential order was passed and it freed the majority of slaves in the United States of America. Two years later, an order was issued by General William T. Sherman that promised the former enslaved blacks in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida 40 acres an a mule. Although around 40,000 freed enslaved African-Americans were occupying 400,000 acres of land in June of 1865, the order was later revoked, and the land given back to its proper owners.

And that's it. That's all we got. An empty promise, and then over 100 more years of torture, terror, and state-sponsored discrimination. And we're not faring too much better these days either.

So one must ask, how is this possible in America? America, one of the most litigious countries in this world. Any day of the week you can turn on any one of the numerous television court shows and watch people collect money for the damages they accrued because of someone elses actions. People sue for coffee being hot in a cup that reads "Caution: Hot and get millions of dollars!" But what do African-Americans receive for one of the worst crimes against humanity? Weak ass apologies and urgings to "get over it." (Which irks me to death because you seldom hear people telling Holocaust survivors to "get over it," and they didn't suffer the losses that Africans did.)

Not so fast. I've watched enough People's Court to know that this is not how the story is supposed to end. You see there's a little something called punitive damages in civil cases where the defendant has intentionally wronged the plaintiff. African-Americans, both past and present, have the right to pursue punitive damages against the United States. Punitive damages are defined as damages awarded by a court against a defendant as a deterrent or punishment to redress an egregious wrong perpetrated by the defendant. I'd call millions of people being kidnapped, mistreated, killed, and made to work for free egregious, wouldn't you?

Many people are quick to say that those who were enslaved are no longer alive. They feel that this means that the descendants of the victims of these crimes should not receive compensation. Again, American law and mores do not support this logic. First of all, quite frequently, people are sued in civil courts in wrongful death suits. Now, who receives the compensation for the person who is wrongfully dead? Not the dead person! Whoever is in charge of their estate. That sort of case slays any notion that people who were not victims of the crimes themselves cannot be compensated for the crime. Secondly, when a debt is owed to a person, it is owed. It does not matter who dies, the debt lives on. If you don't believe me, ask anyone whose family member died leaving behind him or her a mountain of debt. The debt didn't go away, it still had to be paid. Well, this country was in debt to my ancestors and just because they're no longer living does not mean the debt should not be paid in full.

People also point out that there are not any living slave owners. They feel that it is unfair that white Americans have to pay the price for a very small percentage of people who did own slaves. Many of them hastily say that their forefathers did not own slaves and others add that their ancestors entered America after slavery had been abolished. How could they possibly be at fault and in debt? (First, let me preface my reasons by saying that life is unfair. If it weren't unfair, this blog wouldn't be necessary because there would not have been a Transatlantic Slave Trade in the first place. So unfair is not an adequate defense. Just ask Judge Mathis.) To those people I explain that although neither they nor their forefathers directly benefited from slavery, they indirectly benefited. And those whose ancestors entered after the end of legal slavery are even gained even more than those whose ancestors were here during slavery. You see this country was built on the backs of slaves. Enslaved Africans made this country great. The first products to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange were enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans built many of the historic cities and places of education in this country. Their free labor made it possible for America to be The Land of the Free. Their toil created a country that people flocked to. Immigrants chose America to relocate to because of the greatness that enslaved Africans produced. They, second to slave owners, benefited perhaps the most.

In addition, the aftershock of slavery still shakes the black community to this day. Black people, as a whole community, follow far behind whites economically. Many attempt to blame this on the fact that black people are supposedly "lazy". How can black people be considered lazy when we built this country? Obviously, this is a fallacy. So what is the cause? The cause is that while other Americans were able to build their economic status through their wages, blacks were not. While others were able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, blacks recieved not one boot or bootstrap. While others were allowed to accrue wealth and save money for their descendants, blacks were not. We left slavery empty-handed with nothing to show for it other than hundreds of years of labor. Nothing but damaged psyches and destroyed families. So 143 years later, we are still feeling the affects of this predicament.

We also must not forget that America has paid reparations to other groups before. Many of those imprisoned at WWII Japanese internment camps were given compensation for what was taken from them when they were forcefully moved from their homes and made to give up their belongings and property. Native Americans have been given different forms reparations as an apology for the mass genocide of their people and theft of their land. I am in no way even implying that the compensation given to these groups of people could ever truly make up for their losses, but attempts were made that set a precedent for reparations.

What was done for African-Americans? Nothing. And please don't say affirmative action, because those policies do not solely affect African-Americans, they don't halfway work, and they're on their way out. Why has the U.S. government been so wary of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans? First of all, doing so would address and truly acknowledge the horrors of slavery which would define it as a "crime against humanity." It would then become obvious that such a horrific crime would certainly still have an influence on the present state of the black community. This would denote that blacks are still suffering from the affects of slavery which means that America is not yet a country of equality. The U.S. government is scared to death to admit that because of their bullshit belief that they are the "moral compass" of the world. There is no way that the U.S. government wants to admit to being the perpetrators of a "crime against humanity."

How will reparations be paid, if they ever are paid? Certainly not through checks to the ancestors of enslaved Africans. (Dave Chappelle showed us the danger in that option.) I believe that reparations should be paid by the government sowing money and capital into predominantly black communities. (And as Smart Chronicles added, free college educations.) This would help us build better housing and schools. I believe that with adequate places to live and with excellent educations, the black community can truly begin to repair itself. How long should the government do this? How about they do it for how long blacks were enslaved in America? (And they should be grateful that we are not charging interest and seeking court costs.)

Will this heal America of its racial wounds? Certainly not. That takes more than money, but money is a start because it shows a willingness to sacrifice for the purpose of reconciliation. A stingy capitalist country willing to repay a debt to a portion of its citizens would show that America is at least willing to start taking responsibility for past crimes. You see, the thing about a wound is that you must clean it out before you allow it to heal. If you don't, it will become infected and flow with puss. Worst-case scenario, something will have to be amputated. America cannot just expect to heal its wounds by not addressing the dirt in them. They must clean them out first.

So, to all those at the healm of the U.S. government, I say, fuck you, pay me!

"The events which transpired five thousand years ago, five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now, five years from now or five thousand years from now. All history is a current event." -Dr. John Henrik Clarke