A Message to Our Fellow 'Whites' upon
the Inauguration of President Barack Obama.
From the Executive Board of
Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation.
People of all races, ages, ethnicities and nationalities are celebrating today with high hopes for the Obama Administration. They look for their own best selves within the Illinois Senator, asking him to change what is wrong with America and rescue a way of life they believe was founded upon worthy ideals.
In our own lifetimes, we've seen that those who work for a more just future do sometimes experience a step forward. When we come together, resolute in putting our lives on the line to effect change, change has been possible. Many now see the election of Barack Obama as one of those successes. It is a bold step, one that many of us did not imagine we would live to see.
However bold, it's not the arrival of the 'post-racial world' as our TVs would have us believe. The ideology of white supremacy -- the idea that white people are 'more human' than others -- was built into our Constitution, and continues to be part of our lives. It is as blatant as the untimely deaths of African-Americans years before their white counterparts, and as insidious as subtle images in the media. It is as powerful as the tenfold difference in wealth between black families and white ones.
Yet many of us 'whites' cannot imagine what step we could take to end this legacy -- just as once most of us could not imagine an end to Jim Crow, or even an end to slavery, that did not seem to invite chaos and social disorder.
As we have in the past, we can look to the black community for an idea of how to proceed. When no one could see an end to slavery, enslaved Africans found their own ways to undermine it and bring it to crisis. When Jim Crow seemed like a permanent fixture, the black-led Freedom Movement brought it down.
The long-standing movement for slavery reparations, deeply rooted in Black America, is a next step that directly reflects the noble ideals of liberty and equality. Reparations can bring the change that so many hunger for to complete our unfinished American Revolution.
The financial institutions that today clamor for $700+ billion bailouts are heirs of those that financed slaving ships and plantations and insured the human 'property'. The desire of the landed to increase their family wealth framed the desire of children of peasants to enslave Africans and 'settle' Native people from their land. It seems that every issue we face today, if we do so honestly, returns us to the central contradiction: a country that values freedom and liberty has been built on stolen land by enslaved peoples.
The reality is that we cannot save ourselves by saving only our family or 'our kind.' Facing global risks, we must learn we are one humanity sharing one planet, and act with the morality and mutual respect that requires.
The good feeling that many enjoy as we watch Barack Obama take office is only a taste of what we could know if we worked to transform not just today's changing of the guard, but the underlying direction of the nation over which he now presides.
The righteous demand for reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans is key to this re-direction. It deserves our support, not our dismissal. Indeed, it would be far better to dismiss the propaganda of those made fat by exploitation, and seek instead a path for redeeming the soul of our nation.
We call on young people, particularly, to make this the challenge of your generation. Just as generations before you ended Jim Crow and the war on the Vietnamese people, now you can end this nation's war on people of color, both at home and abroad. Real repair of the damage done by the system of white supremacy would inaugurate not just one man, but a transformed world.
Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation is an organization of white Americans and their allies, which supports and advocates reparations proposals put forward by Black leaders. In the organization's Statement of Beliefs, the group calls "upon the families of the white American aristocracy that directly benefited from slavery to voluntarily pay their fair share of the reparations debt with wealth gained from slavery, the slave trade, and slavery related enterprises." The organization is led by Ida Hakim, CEO. Your comments are welcome at http://www.reparationsthecure.org.
Comments
It’s been a while since the slavery amongst the black and African people where practice by white community. Till now, many black people are looked down because of racial discrimination. I guess having Pres. Obama as the first black president will make a change and hopefully he will lead our people with equality and fairness regardless of races. I guess its time that we let go of the past and start to act as one for the benefit of all country.
NO So Different in between Hope and the Central Contradiction.
Hope: I hope i done in top position in my ccna certification
Central Contradiction: If i never prepare to exam then is just a dream.
I am unable to understand how have you related this stupid theory of yours with the topic and how confidently....
1Y0-259--N10-003--70-622
I must say that with the passing of the stimulus package, I was extremely disappointed that Black reparations were not even addressed. This would have been an excellent opportunity to make this reality. We can give billions to Wall Street, but not the Black community. I fear that those representing us in Congress haven’t the political will to seriously pursue reparations. Until we increase the number of Blacks and liberal whites serving in Congress, we will never see this issue raised, let alone passed. Of course, I never thought I would be fortunate to serve under a Black president. So anything is possible.
Don
If it is about slavery, are white descendants of slaves entitled to reparations.
If it is about slavery, what about the descendants of the black slaveholders. Do they have to pay. What about post-slavery African immigrants who may have descended from the Africans who originally enslaved the blacks brought to America as slaves?
Remember always that emancipation was a European idea which wasn't accepted outside the European sphere with even lip service until the 20th century.
Sounds like race baiting using slavery as the bait
anonymous
You ask - "are white descendants of slaves entitled to reparations?" Are you talking about indentured servitude in the US or people of mixed race who look white? You're not clear. If you're talking about people who look white and have a black ancestor, I don't know what black people are going to decide. They may go with the one drop rule - we did. It's up to them.
You ask - "what about the descendants of black slaveholders." Maybe their ancestors were buying relatives out of slavery - I'd guess that would need to be investigated. It would once again be the decision of black people as to who to include.
You ask - "what about post-slavery African immigrants etc." African immigrants in the US are not making a demand for reparations for enslavement in the US.