okay, i am in favor of reparations, just to get that out the way.

however how can convince others of that we deserve reparations?

then, how should it be distributed?

who will be entitled? afterall, many of us can only trace our family ancestory back so far. i can only go back as far as greatgrandparents. and that information will be limited because of records were destroyed in a fire in the public records department in a certain county in TX.

we have several individual, polticians, and a prestigious group of lawyers trying to make our case. i think it would be imstrumental to get the support of others who have already received reparations for the injustices done to them: native amercians (indians) , jews and japanese.

recently, my local black weekly newspaper did a series of articles on the railroad business the and many contributions of advancement and labor we provided to that industry.

insurance companies are being named in these lawsuits. however after doing a little research for a afterschool youth project, i learned that we, black folx, have contributed to the everyday conveniences of this country.

remember, america and alot of white folx have alot to lose if america admitted it guilt. their, our whole way of living and thinking could be affected.

do you really think we will ever get reparations?

being the antagonist that i can be...

what about all the opportunities we've had over the years. many blacks have moved up the ladder, moved to neighborhoods with greener grass, become business owners and the like.

what is the problem with black americans? many immigrants have come to this country and established themselves and we don't hear them complaining about the injusticies and inequalities of this country.

from the lack of responses, does this mean that others don't believe we will ever receive reparations?

yes in due time

convince me Rich...

first off you really thing white folx are gonna concede to reparations. and you said in due time, it's way past due. remember that 40 acres and a mule???

now convince me why you should get reparations?

i think this is the hard argument we are gonna have to tackled. I see it as a big obstacle.

yes it's past due us indeed
i know our shinning point is ahead

thanks for the responses.

sherykah, if you were talking to someone who didn't understand why reparations should be made to us, what would be your argument?

you really do need to get the common folx involved as well. our history needs to be told and understood. otherwise, if i were a white person, i too would probably wonder why i should have that burden.

and again, how should reparations be made - money, land, exemptions for paying taxes, free advance educations (college or other high education)?????

those are questions for you too Rich...and anyone who can answer or has an opinion.

I wish there was a simple answer to this, but the idea of reparations has been around for years and no one has been able to get their hands completely around it because of its complexity. First my answer is no. I don't think it will ever happen because we are not politically potent. Nor or we economically united such as the small Jewish population in this country that weilds an enormous amount of power. Nor are we organized like labor unions. Do we deserve them in some form? The answer is a qualified yes. It is qualified because of determining who would get them. What is the criteria? Who decides. What are the time frames covered? Who decides that issue?

I doubt seriously if it will ever happen, but is there any doubt whether of not a debt is owed should be obvious, then I will say that African American are owed a huge debt and forty years of "affirmative action" is hardly a payment for all the land we missed out on owning, for al the education we are just now getting, for all the money we were blocked from making, for the inventions that were patented in someone else's name and much more. Yes, we are owed. Will we get it? I wil be dead and stinking when it happens.

Ra

:toast:

i agree, thanks for answering those questions.

i think we would have to slowly and surely make others, especially those others who have had reparations made to them, understand so that we have their backing and support. like you said, the jews are a small group that weild alot of power.

i see the group of "super" lawyers and individuals who have filed and will file lawsuits have a huge task at hand.

our history is being even further buried. our children aren't learning in schools and definitely aren't learning about their history and our struggle only to be where we are at now.

i did just recently here the illinois has a law that companies getting government funds or assistance must submit info to determine if they benefited from slavery.

Thandiwe,
Maybe with the Lott controversy now, it might be a good time to bring up reparations again. Since Republicans are in control, maybe this could be a bargaining chip...

i've heard a few black representatives, and even jc watts basically say that lott needs to not just talk but walk the walk. watts mentioned the black farmers and their plight. i don't know how much more lott can take though. i didn't see the interview with ed gordon but from what i heard, it was hard for ed to keep his foot out of lott's asz. :D

reparations, well, i still find this a hard nut to crack. whites don't even want to give us a nutcracker, but knowing us black folx we will just find another nut to use or a pair of pliers to get to the meat. LOL!

if lott suport reparations, he will most definitley loss his white constituency. i don't think he's ready to lose that footing.

as i stated, we do need the support of other groups who have received reparations and our history in this country is already lost and buried. our own children don't know our history. with the looming war and other economic issues, i really don't think reparations will be made any time soon.

with the loss of black news programs on BET, we will have even less of an outlet and venues to keep us informed.

but i hope we will continue to fight the power!!!

I don't think that we will ever get it either due to fear, they will always fear the black race. This would be an advantage for America, we are the biggest consumers in the world. We buy and spend not from our own businesses but from theirs, so the money given to us would be given right back, and that would be the atrocity of it all. It wouldn't advance us any further nor would it give us much of a significant position in this world. So if white america would look at it from this point of view they would stand to gain more than to loose. We however would be filing bankrupt, due to our over indulgence of spending needlessly on things that would allow us to be seen. Reparations? no we don't need it.

interesting points. we are the biggest consumers, we own very little, etc. however, you say "we don't need it", but isn't it owed to us?

with an impending war, reparations is even further back on the bus now.

More than just reparations is owed to us from America, and they know they owe it to us. But see their main agenda is to keep us behind and without. I fully believe that the only reason 9-11 happened is because they keep their attention fully focused on us, and what they want us to believe that we are not about, and they got blasted on. If it is going to happen God Almighty will allow it to be so, and until we understand what is in our hearts and who we are,..this type of power would be a power out of control. Black men and women are at battle with ourselves, and each other. What can be done or said to make us realize,.."Reparations?" we can take it, we are the most beautiful, talented, inspirational men and women in this world. Darn yes it's owed to us, bottom line they'll never give us what we deserve, even the truth in history has not been given to us. Come together, come together, come together,.. we have it, now lets just take it,..no more handouts.

again, i agree with some of what you're saying. however, unless i am wrong, in your first post you said we don't need reparations but in your 2nd post you said we deserve it.

and also any talk of reparations would be viewed as being unpatriotic, by white folks.

plese explain why you think 911 occur to keep the attention on us.

No not to keep the attention on us, I feel that when you view television and just listen to white people in general, their whole focus has been about us, in my view, they live their lives telling us how many diseases we have, they focus on 90% of the time on the negative, I feel had they been paying more attention to the real enemy and the real problems at hand 9-11 would not have happened.. There is not one black person that has not experienced racism at the job, in the shopping malls, they enjoy what they do to us, they get away with what they do to us, they don't focus on any other race the way they focus on the black race, 9-11 was and is a holy war. Black troops are on the front line as we speak, yet just yesterday I was called a ****** while taking a peaceful walk though the park. I feel like reparations is more than a want from us than a need from us, and until we can understand why we are at battle with one another, I feel that it would be a power out of control, for example look at all of the entertainers that have filed bankrupt due to lack of self control, Red Fox, MC Hammer, Glady's Knight, to name a few, we have done without for so long and we are such a materialist group which is not a bad thing, would we understand what has been handed over to us. strongly I feel it would be the beginning of a holocaust of the black race, not enough of us understand that power or would be able to control this new fortune.

so if we wree paid reparations, we would waste the money on frivilous goods insteading of building our own companies? yes, that's a question..:)

That is what I would love to see us do, set aside money for our childrens college, and go back to school ourselves, This is how we could take reparations, they follow us in trend, we set forth the boundaries in america, for instance, they put down everything we do until one of them tries it themselves then they understand, they didn't understand the Jackson 5 until there was the Osmonds, they didn't like french braids until bo-derik wore them, when we realize that we are our best commodity, we could accelerate to the heights of business women and men. We could get reparations if more of us knew the legalities of how to attain it. just talking about it and expecting them to give it to us is not good enough, when we begin to excercise knowledge and knowledge is power, then we can excercise control. POWER TO OUR PEOPLE

Thandiwe, guess what? awhile back ago I expressed Black American should take reparations by educating themselves of their heritage, I followed my own advice and made a few contacts, to my surprise I contacted my great great aunt in colorado who has been working on our history for the past 7 years and have learned that during the homestead act of 1862 black citizens fo the united states acquired 160 acres of land from the government by living on it for 5 years, for a fee of about 16 dollars, this act was so written that it was an open invitation to fraud, and it has been estimated that over 90% of the eight million acres transferred under the act were obtained through fraud. I have learned that my Great Great Grandfather was victimized of this such fraud, the land taken from him which was given to him by the government is now and has been producing millions of dollars in oil. George B Booker Sr. civil war verteran servered in the colored infantry. President Abraham Lincoln did give Blacks their 40 acres and mule, but many blacks back then could not read or write and their land was taken from them. Since our findings and contacts important documentations are mysteriously loss or not evident. My aunt was told by one group of lawyers and I quote, "yes we took your land, we have taken thirty million dollars worth of oil and gas, what are you doing coming here now to complain about it? we do it to you people all of the time, even if you find out how we did it there is nothing you can do about it, because no black man ever took a white mand down for any reason, so trying to get our land back will be like whistling in the moon. Our plight now is to find the correct representatives to help us take reparations for ourselves. What I am saying is Black America do research on your family tree, educate yourself with the laws then and now, 40 acres and a mule was given to our for fathers and mothers. I urge you do your research do your research, do your research.

Seriously....it would be nice to get reparations BUT....none of us have gone through anything. None of us have been slaves. Everyone is treated equally now. There hasn't been slavery in forever. Slavery was VERY awful but so was September 11th. We have things going on NOW that we have deal with. NO one owes anyone anything in this day in time. Stop looking at the negatives. You cannot honestly believe that someone owes YOU something for something that happened to your VERY distant relatives?!? I'm sorry to sound so negative but I think this is very selfish.

before my grandmother died we took trips to greatbend kansas and when driving past the oil fields, I'd often hear her say "there is our land, those people took my grandfathers land right out from under him. Words of regret, humuliation, and sorrow. I am much older now and realize just how much hurt followed in her heart the injustice done to her greatgrandfather grandfather and so on. WRONG IS WRONG, we have documentations to prove my great grandfathers land was illegally stolen. You see the powers that be embelish themselves with the likes of you, and you think that what was going on 200 years ago is not going on today, I am sorry you are so naive, Today DNA testing is serving justice to kkk members sending them to prison because murder was done to great grandfathers and mothers from families who stay pursuant and wanting justice to be served, your view however would be "we'll it didn't happen to me it happened to someone in my distant family past so why bother", I am not looking for a handout nor am I greedy, I have information and documentation to prove land was stolen from my great grandfather, Indians on the reservation are doing it are they selfish too.

62special, you trying to get your own land back is not repoartations. that is your entitlement. i wish you the best in the long and tough fight.

you said to do research about my family. ironicly, our family papers are somewhat lost as well. i'm from texas and there was a fire that destroyed the records office. we were referred to washigton, dc. :rolleyes:

just recently i saw an ad on tv. it was an 800 number offering up to 40 acres of land in a state out west. the spokesperson said he was authorized but the government to sell this land at record low prices. you know i laugh when i think about how the government never really guaranteed or gave us those 40 acres, no chance on getting a mule. ;)

think about it. black people built this country yet we received none of the recognition. many things were taken, stolen, manipulated in regards to black in america.

those who say it's all in the past, so quick to forget the past, will never understand.

others have been reparated, why not black folx?

Sigh....I don't agree with reparations...If I wanted to be on that "I want my 40 arces and a mule"...Then hell, I would bring up that my line origninates from Mississippi..and the facts of my other orgins........

Ok, I wasn't even done!
Like I said, sometimes I get the whole"Barbershop" feel to the way the world is today. Black people stand on street corners doing drugs and hold it in the back of there mind that "hey, the goverment owes us ...all the way back from the 1800's"....Please....I think that yes, slavery was a tough time...but WE WEREN'T THERE! We never worked a **** day in the hot sun under the conditions that our ansestors worked in! We sit up here, rocking baby phat, pelle-pelle, Louis Vuitton purses n *****, We sit acroos from the white man demanding reparations ,demanding money which our ANSESTORS worked for...Hell, it it were up to me Id bring them all back to life to collect...But for us to want that money is just soo wrong that it disgusts me:angry:

I see that 62 specials thought of that forty acres of a mule first...darnit!! :)