Posted by By John the CEO
Hopefully you had a chance to read the inaugural post regarding the US Congress hearings on Slavery Reparations and the aftermath. The hearings were a slap in the face of Black America, but eh, what can you expect from a Congressional Black Caucus that loves their golf club memberships and the usual bribes…umm, I mean political contributions. Enough of that. The real movement is out here in these streets. In the first post, I gave shout outs to some individuals and groups doing big things in this space, and ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) have done a great job keeping that fire going. For those who are older, talk of reparations have ebbed and flowed throughout our history, but after decades of trying both parties (Republican from 1865 till 1965 and Democrats since then), we now know that we have to upgrade our political strategy and make all parties compete. I’ve actually been writing about this topic since the 1990s–and yes I am a proud and long time independent because i got tired of the fake “tennis match” known as the two party system.
I am writing this interim article, before part 2 of my series, to quickly address some of the comments from mostly white people on both sides of the political spectrum. When you bring up the idea of reparations for both slavery and the long arm of Jim Crow, you have to come to the conclusion that neither party has any interest in anything for us. Surprising to many of you, much of this is coming from Democrats. When I bought Facebook advertising to promote the series, I targeted our interests as my plan is to spread the series first in our communities. But low and behold, many whites with similar interests got the advertising and responded via comments, DMs, and email. Let’s just say, brothas and sistas, we are very alone in politics and need to act accordingly. I do appreciate all feedback nonetheless, because they were honest in how they feel. And we need to know how the other sides truly feels so that we can alter our strategy accordingly.
In a nutshell, based on said feedback, I truly blame the education for severely under-educating students about Black history. So let me quickly provide a little backdrop for those who don’t understand (in fact, this whole series will get down to the nuts and bolts of the issue without boring you with the typical snooze fest that is “fake history”).
Slavery plus Jim Crow was like a massive economic weapon of mass destruction dropped like 10,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs on the pre and post slavery black economy. It was much worse than the harsh economic sanctions the U.S. is currently leveling against its enemy nations. At least those nations have partners like Russia and China to give them an alternative economy. We only had ourselves, and when our micro economies began to flourish in the early 1900s for 20 or so years, the same economic weapon of mass destruction and sanctions was dropped on us again, never to be repaired. Promises were made, as we saw with Black Wall Street in Tulsa in 1921, but when the press faded away, so did their memories of those promises. yet the whites who remembered only the promises never knew, or did not want to know, that none of those promises from Reconstruction until the race riot era of 1905-1921 and beyond, were ever kept. Time for what I call “quantitative repair” where we won’t need taxes, but real, measurable value in the form of currency created the same way the US Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Congressional banking committees quickly created “quantitative easing” to bail out Big Banks starting in 2008. Yeah, that one!
Going back to my military metaphor: There are some examples of US sanctions and subsequent military destruction that have devastated the target economies the way it did the Black community. Look at Libya. At one point, Libya was one of the strongest economies in Africa and the world. Citizens on average were content with the rich oil-based benefits they received from their government. And simply because their leader wanted to establish a gold standard for Africa, the US sanctioned Libya, and then an America-led NATO coalition bombed the crap out of the nation. At the time, the American media downplayed what happened (though some indie outlets reported the ugly truth), and US leadership made jokes about killing Gaddafi. America said Libya was “free” now and would prosper.
Sound familiar?
At the end of the Civil War, they told black slaves the same thing. “You’re free, you inferior negroes. Enjoy your freedom.”
Going back to Libya, did America help the Libyans recover? Of course not. While the western media lied about how good Libyans had it, the actual Libyan economy and society eroded into tribal factions and guess what: slavery took over. Libyans tried to flee, but no one wanted to help them, so they either died on boats trying to escape to a better life, or they starved in concentration camps wherever their boats docked, if their boats happen to even make it across the Mediterranean Sea.
Sound familiar?
During the Postbellum era, the press told the country that the newly freed blacks were free and ready to prosper, but no lasting help came. What little was given was taken away within a year or two as Jim Crow under the KKK quickly took root and spread. When some tried to flee to the north, they were ushered into slums and had to compete with white laborers for jobs, and the non black laborers weren’t too happy to have all that competition coming up from the South. As with the Libyans, nobody helped us.
The same thing happened to the Syrians since 2012, where their displaced citizens were unwanted in Europe. Assad has been welcoming them back, offering assistance to repatriate them, but Black Americans have still been institutionally left in the equivalence of concentration camps. Of course, the media has done a piss poor job explaining our plight the way they’ve described the plight of immigrants, gays, Jews and others. Both political parties have consistently chosen to ignore the lasting damage done by the economic weapon of mass destruction that we see everyday, but they don’t want to see.
Isn’t that interesting: They claim we’ve been made whole, but how many non Black people really go to the various Black hoods around the country to measure if in fact that is true? I personally know my fellow brothas and sistas in the hood are still reeling from the financial cancer caused by the economic weapon of mass destruction I outlined earlier. If you are truly objective in your historical analysis, there is no decade before the 1980s where blacks have not been systematically damaged by various forms of explicit and implicit racism.
That’s not an emotional complaint, that’s an objective fact with receipts.
In each of those decades we tried to overcome the unimaginable, utter devastation. But the combination of the Postbellum political and economic institutions joined together to overturn that progress, then pretended like nothing happened, so that later, their children would say, “what racism? There is no racism.” I squarely blame the failure of all American school systems that taught fake news in education about slavery and its crippling aftermath. These schools basically said “slavery was bad and cruel, but superman Abraham Lincoln beat up the cruel South and saved blacks from slavery. He set up the Freedman’s Bureau and Reconstruction and blacks lived happily ever after.” Ummm, hell to the naw, you fake schools!
Going back to our friends, both Liberal and Conservative non Blacks who armchair quarterback the severe lingering damage to the black economy…These same ones rarely if ever set foot in a hood to witness the chronic, lingering devastation for themselves. And those who observe from a distance say, “you people are lazy, relying on handouts that we paid too much for already. Get a job. Slavery was 150 years ago. Reconstruction already helped you! All nations practiced slavery…etc” Just ignorantly dismissive and completely unable to exhibit human empathy. But now the tables are actually turning, and they see the handwriting on the wall as the American empire declines, and yet still vomit these same catch phrases. Tsk, tsk, my friends.
Now the massive, globalist-focused US government is threatening to take their rights, their guns and overturn the 2nd amendment. And Liberals are seeing it too. Notice how all of a sudden, abortion is being threatened? All those feminists who ignored the core black agenda now need help more than ever in their “struggle.” Hmmm, how does that expression go: Help those who the oppressor is oppressing now because one day, that same oppressor will come for you.” Well, my friends, that demonic oppressor, who helped financed the American Revolution and the Civil War, has now come for you, your rights and your wealth. And just as you said we are lazy and complainers, we can now say the same about you: quit complaining and let them take your rights and overturn the 2nd amendment and take your wealth, since you didn’t help us with the 13th and 14th amendment. Let them take away women’s rights since y’all just dismissed our concerns. Let immigrants pile up in concentration camps on the border since you didn’t lift a finger to help us restore to native Blacks what is truly theirs and never was granted to them.
Now is that what you want? Well then, I thought so.
Help us help you. You liberals want women’s and immigrants’ rights? And you conservatives want the 2nd amendment and conserve your wealth? Well then, ladies and gentlemen, we simply want quantitative repair to resolve the financial devastation of slavery and the long arm of Jim Crow laws that we live with everyday, such as redlining, capital flight and gerrymandering. And our agenda does not have to involve taxes actually, although we do need temporary tax credits in place immediately until the quantitative repair system is in full swing. Sounds like a win-win compromise to me. We have the swing vote to help you with your causes if you reciprocate. You first, though, since we’ve already shown time and again we’re willing to work with those who work with us (but y’all just conveniently ignored us). Show us you mean business, and we absolutely promise to respond in kind. But know that in any event, we will pursue our needs by all viable means. There’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to the Black vote. Let’s make a deal, America.
Affluent Blacks of Dallas 