Urban Thought Collective

No I don’t want reparations. Me getting a new IPod isn’t going to take away the centuries of pain. I’d rather all the money go to a museum or something.

I want my 40 Acres! I don’t care! I want it on behalf of my ancestors who got cheated and beaten!

I’m not against reparations per se. I just don’t think we ought to wait for or lobby for them. That we have and likely are being treated unfairly is not new business. I just think that energy should be spent making the lives of our families and people better. I appreciate and accept the apology but it doesn’t make the plight of Black people better in any usable way. What in that so-called apology did the House say could be done to repair the damage done?

We have always heard about it but now it seems like reparations may become a reality. We really need to think long and hard on this as a people. What would we accept as a proper reparation for what generations of our people have gone through?

Free education is a fine idea. I believe we should get some sort of reparations, whether a la the Japanese-Americans with cold hard cash or the Native Americans with so-called sovereign land with a different set of rules. Either way, the US government still could never fully repay or repair the damage done when they built this Third World agricultural backwater into the world’s leading industrial power off the backs of African slaves. While I do believe gestures, monetary, tangible, and otherwise do matter, like Wallruss, I’m not camping out by my mailbox or putting any energy into lobbying for reparations. Even though it’s small, the apology - the very LEAST America should do - is a step in the right direction.

Good stuff, R-ruh.

EJ

I think this conversation is a waste of time frankly. Its never going to happen. Lets focus on reality fam.

earlier this year Austrailia president apologized to the aborigines for taking their children from them and forcing them to live remotely away from the civilized parts of the continent - and that didnt’ change a damn thing. people of color all over the world have the short end and i’m sorry doesn’t cut it at all never will lets move on as best we can and push to make our communities a safe and prosperous place

@sara I had not heard a darn thing about this that is a shame

That Dave Chappelle was so hilarious and probably true we would all flock to the check cashing place like some fools who won the lottery!

Education is a great idea. It would not only spare us the further indignity of allowing them to put a number (that couldn’t nearly be high enough) on the life of our ancestors, but will allow us unlimited earning potential through our academic pursuits. Knowing that there is a college waiting for them might be just the motivation that some kids need. I heard about this last week and was not moved either.

I was wondering what the heck Juneteenth was LOLOL

This is a tough one. We need something, by money may not be the answer

they couldn’t even give us the measley 40 acres so you know their idea of a reparation would be a stinging slap in the face

The fact that the apology resolution didn’t dent the evening news or even reach black people (lmbao) shows the level of committment that the US government has regarding this apology.

It should have been a full on televised ceremony with every black politician, leader etc present to accept on us Negros behalf.

As great as UTC is (I been lurking for weeks), I’m dissatisfied that I heard about this here!

There is no amount of reparations that can erase the enormous deficit that black people face today as a result of slavery and Jim Crow. I do agree that an education credit would be a good start but the only realistic way to work out of this hole is by a sincere and massive investment by the government in fixing the infrastructure of the black community (neighborhood repair, school system upgrades etc.). Since this is not going to happen any time soon (even with Obama) we need to “do for self” and always look to do for other brothers and sisters who want to elevate their own position and that of our community.

Great blog Sister ReNina. I think that a free education for at least 20 years for Black America would help. keep dropping the knowledge… Youngsta (:

i suppose i’m to send everyone a check in the mail because my ancestors sold slaves, then? in what amount?
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did you really, honestly, and truly just belittle the plight of other groups? did you just make a *competition* out of suffering?
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fine. let’s play.
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do you even realize how much reparation Africa and her children owe to the Near East alone, if you’re serious about reparations? Africans were enslaving Near Easterners for *thousands* of years, not hundreds, and you may believe the cruelty involved stands at the forefront of creative human atrocity to this day.
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Hisherness…This is where a lot of indignant non-black people go wrong. Nobody’s asking you, personally, to pay for the sins of white forefathers. Nobody is “making a competition” out of suffering or “belittling” other ethnicities and cultures who have similarly suffered at the hands of a slave trade. However shabbily, the Native Americans’ suffering at the hands of this government has been addressed. However meagerly, the Japanese Americans’ suffering at the hands of this government has been addressed. Yet the greatest atrocity this country has institutionally (and still institutionally) engaged upon outside of the genocide of the Native Americans has NOT been addressed and, until recently, barely formally acknowledged.
Slavery and suffering has not been exclusive to America or Europeans - we know all that. At issue with the lame-ass apology from the House last week - and in THIS column - is the suffering of Africans at the hands of Europeans in THIS country. As best I can tell, nobody’s “comparing” suffering of the races here. But by bringing up such a concept, that just speaks to the insecurity if not raging, latent white guilt that lurks beneath the faux-ignorance of non-black Americans to want to minimize the historical and present day ramifications of the institutionalized cultural genocide and systematic subjugation of an entire people purely for economic gain. Wrangling a half-assed apology out of the lower house of the United States Congress hundreds of years after the fact does not reflect on other the suffering or enslavement of other cultures or countries. And, I might add, it’s the bare minimum our government could/should do, not only because a descendant of slaves is about to run their tails, but also because it’s the conscionable, HUMAN thing to do.

You go play by yourself.

EJ

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmn!!!!!!!
New found respect for our film critic Edwardo Jackson!!!!!
MONGO, JUMBO RESPECT!
Dropping KNOW-LEDGE FROM THE EDGE! I’m about to advertise this one!

Point of information, I believe Hisherness is African and of color.

Thanks Darryl for that information. I was not aware of that. That is actually the reason that I use the term “Black” to refer to those who have come through slavery. I have many African, specifically Nigerian friends who do not necessarily understand my passion toward this issue.