| Racism still exists as a form of justifying doing nothing about this problem. Growing up I was taught that the reason Black people are worse off than Whites is because they are generally lazy, less intelligent, freeloaders looking for someone to take advantage of. I, of course, reject this view entirely. There is one simple reason why African-Americans are less well-off than Whites: for the majority of the history of our country African-Americans were primarily viewed as property, and for almost our entire history (the short span of time spanned by middle aged people alive today) they were legally, socially and economically classified as at best second class citizens. Indeed, the only real asset of value held by African America is the debt owed to them for unpaid labor and genocidal abuse at the hands of the White power structure. This unpaid labor built not only the South, but also literally built the foundations of New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and the entire economy of the United States for most of its history. Only this country’s most horrific cataclysm of violence gave any space for the end of slavery, and even then it took 100 years to effectuate full legal equality for African-Americans. It is a stain that robs African-Americans to this day, and lines the pockets of the rest of us at the same time.
It is probably apparent now what I am suggesting. When a debt is held by a person, that debt is outstanding until it is paid or forgiven. If the debt holder dies the credit is inherited by their children, and if the debtor dies the debt accrues to his or her children. African-Americans hold a massive debt for unpaid labor and vicious abuse, White people have this genocide and epic con to thank for our current economic strength. The only real solution to the problem of race in this country that has any hope for actually solving the problem is for this debt to be paid. In short, slave reparations. It is time for public figures, Black and White, to come together to find a way to compensate African-Americans for the suffering and swindling they have suffered at the hands of the White power structure in this country.
This is a controversial position. The fact that it happened long ago among people long dead gives many a sense that it is unnecessary or unfair to impose such reparations. But this avoids the central issue. Was it wrong to force Africans to work 16 hour days, 364 days a year (365 in leap years, Christmas was their day off) from the moment they learned to walk until the day they died without a single cent being paid to them? Was it wrong to assert the right of one group of people to own as property another group of people on the basis of color? The answers are clearly yes. The question that follows is what has been done to compensate the victims, those still without the compensation that is owed their forebears? What has been done as penance by Whites to make up for the sins committed against our African brothers and sisters? The answers are both nothing. The largest resource owned by Black Americans is the unpaid debt owed to them for 300 years of forced labor. Until it is paid, the enormous gap between Whites and Blacks will persist.
Reparations were paid to Japanese-Americans for their internment, but have never been extended to African-Americans for their experience with slavery. Some Jews have been compensated for the suffering inflicted in the Holocaust, while African-Americans have never been compensated for the Atlantic slave trade, called by the UN the biggest crime against humanity in humanity’s short history. Why are these groups entitled to justice and fairness, but African-Americans are not? Persistent racism is the cause of this disparity, and until reparations are paid this racism will continue to persist.
This is a long struggle, and the details are not entirely agreed upon. I personally believe that money for housing, education, business capital or health care should be provided to all African-Americans. And while I believe that the income tax on money earned by one’s labor should be abolished (and is already noncompulsory under law), I certainly believe that in the immediate future African-Americans should be exempted from taxes on their income. Over the course of a generation—20 years or so—African-Americans will be able to go to any school, pre-school to grad school, public or private that will accept them, absolutely for free. Over this generation any African-American family that needs a home will be able to get one for little or nothing. Over this generation African-Americans will get the health care and the investment in their communities that they need to finally, in one generation, make a giant leap towards eliminating the disparities between the races in this country. It will be divisive in some areas, but that is why we must work on the hearts and minds of our countrymen, particularly White people, in order to make this change.
I hope that Smiley will address this issue with the candidates tonight, and with the Republicans down the line. It is imperative that this issue be addressed, or else our country will continue to limp along, half of its strength sapped by historical injustice and contemporary apathy. |
