Who Owes Reparations to African America?
By M.D. Currington
Reparation Defined:1. The act or process of repairing or the condition of being repaired. 2. The act or process of making amends; expiation. 3. Something done or paid to compensate or make amends. 4. reparations Compensation or remuneration required from a defeated nation as indemnity for damage or injury during a war.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
I am a supporter of reparations for African Americans. Reparations are very common in our culture and legal system. It is more commonly referred to as compensation (in the courts it’s compensatory damages). I believe that one should be compensated for enduring an injury. Reparations for myriad civil injuries such as car accidents, loss wages, and personal injury. Even persons who are not citizens of the United States of America are can petition our government entities for reparations (compensation) for an enduring injury. If the person affected is no longer alive to be compensated, then his/her estate can be awarded and current laws of estate planning (or lack thereof) take effect. But who should pay?
My argument is that the Democratic Party exclusively owes reparations African America! Furthermore the Democratic Party should issue a formal apology to African America for severely brutalizing us dehumanizing us for profit and the United States as a whole for inconviencing and preoccupying a nation with their aggressive support of such treachery.
For the record, I am an African American who lives in Sacramento, California with my wife and children. I am 32 yrs old, my wife is 30, and our daughters are 3 and 1 1/2 years old. I am from the typical contemporary Black family - born to unmarried teenage parents, raised by my mother who subjected herself to uncontrolled use of drugs, and then I had to move with my grandmother. I was also a lifelong Democrat, even an activist for the Party. I served briefly as a school board member for the Centinnela Valley Union High School District which is in the Hawthorne / Lawndale area. I even presided over a grassroots Democratic club at my community college. I even supported Al Gore for President.
I was under the impression all my life that the Republican Party was historically the “root of all evil” in America. I was under the impression that Republicans promoted slavery in the 1800’s and that they have always fought AGAINST civil rights for Blacks in its history. However, I recently discovered I was wrong and was shocked into reality. The Republican Party was organized in 1854 on an ANTI-SLAVERY stance. The Party had a genuine interest in anihilinating an institution that treated humans so harshly. They included in their party platform resolutions to eliminate slavery and its remnants from this country. The Platform of 1856 said: “Resolved: That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign powers over the Territories of the United States for their government; and that in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism--Polygamy, and Slavery.”
The Party’s uncompromising position against slavery instigated the Civil War. The Democratic Party by the same time was firmly entrenched in this destructive yet very profitable institution. Democrats were so determined to continue enslaving African Americans that they seceded from the Union. When they lost and were forced back into the Union, Democrats challenged all civil rights legislation up to and including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, challenged all black elected officials to be seated in the Congress up through the early 1900’s, instituted Jim Crow and other Black Codes, and enforced Poll Taxes against African Americans. Democrats were the founders and almost exclusive members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Republicans continued well past the war to promote the passage to civil rights legislation such as the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In 1964, the Republicans in Congress gave more support percentage wise to the Civil Rights Act than the Democrats. It was the same with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These are all documented facts that anyone can reference on the Internet and in any library.
Toward the end of the Civil War the Republican Administration issued a special order to award African Americans 40 acres, $100.00 and a mule that would be loaned by the War Department (now called the Department of Defense). The order was in affect for 2 years until the Democrats won the White House in office in 1865. One of the first actions of Democratic President Andrew Johnson was to reverse the order, then took back the land and mules from the African Americans. The property was later given to former confederate, pro-slavery whites. And for all of the evils of the Party of Slavery, the Democratic Party, there has never been an official apology either to African America or to the United States as a whole.
Finally, reparations is primarily an issue propagated by the Democratic Party. In traditional fashion they are always attempting to put the blame on someone else. I submit if they should begin and end at their own political home. They should employ their best fundraiser and lawyers to raise funds and organize descendants of slaveholders to PAY-UP!
For more of M.D. Currington's commentary's, go to http://mdcurrington.tripod.com/mdc.
Click here and buy a book or two:
Reparation Defined:1. The act or process of repairing or the condition of being repaired. 2. The act or process of making amends; expiation. 3. Something done or paid to compensate or make amends. 4. reparations Compensation or remuneration required from a defeated nation as indemnity for damage or injury during a war.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
I am a supporter of reparations for African Americans. Reparations are very common in our culture and legal system. It is more commonly referred to as compensation (in the courts it’s compensatory damages). I believe that one should be compensated for enduring an injury. Reparations for myriad civil injuries such as car accidents, loss wages, and personal injury. Even persons who are not citizens of the United States of America are can petition our government entities for reparations (compensation) for an enduring injury. If the person affected is no longer alive to be compensated, then his/her estate can be awarded and current laws of estate planning (or lack thereof) take effect. But who should pay?
My argument is that the Democratic Party exclusively owes reparations African America! Furthermore the Democratic Party should issue a formal apology to African America for severely brutalizing us dehumanizing us for profit and the United States as a whole for inconviencing and preoccupying a nation with their aggressive support of such treachery.
For the record, I am an African American who lives in Sacramento, California with my wife and children. I am 32 yrs old, my wife is 30, and our daughters are 3 and 1 1/2 years old. I am from the typical contemporary Black family - born to unmarried teenage parents, raised by my mother who subjected herself to uncontrolled use of drugs, and then I had to move with my grandmother. I was also a lifelong Democrat, even an activist for the Party. I served briefly as a school board member for the Centinnela Valley Union High School District which is in the Hawthorne / Lawndale area. I even presided over a grassroots Democratic club at my community college. I even supported Al Gore for President.
I was under the impression all my life that the Republican Party was historically the “root of all evil” in America. I was under the impression that Republicans promoted slavery in the 1800’s and that they have always fought AGAINST civil rights for Blacks in its history. However, I recently discovered I was wrong and was shocked into reality. The Republican Party was organized in 1854 on an ANTI-SLAVERY stance. The Party had a genuine interest in anihilinating an institution that treated humans so harshly. They included in their party platform resolutions to eliminate slavery and its remnants from this country. The Platform of 1856 said: “Resolved: That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign powers over the Territories of the United States for their government; and that in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism--Polygamy, and Slavery.”
The Party’s uncompromising position against slavery instigated the Civil War. The Democratic Party by the same time was firmly entrenched in this destructive yet very profitable institution. Democrats were so determined to continue enslaving African Americans that they seceded from the Union. When they lost and were forced back into the Union, Democrats challenged all civil rights legislation up to and including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, challenged all black elected officials to be seated in the Congress up through the early 1900’s, instituted Jim Crow and other Black Codes, and enforced Poll Taxes against African Americans. Democrats were the founders and almost exclusive members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Republicans continued well past the war to promote the passage to civil rights legislation such as the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In 1964, the Republicans in Congress gave more support percentage wise to the Civil Rights Act than the Democrats. It was the same with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These are all documented facts that anyone can reference on the Internet and in any library.
Toward the end of the Civil War the Republican Administration issued a special order to award African Americans 40 acres, $100.00 and a mule that would be loaned by the War Department (now called the Department of Defense). The order was in affect for 2 years until the Democrats won the White House in office in 1865. One of the first actions of Democratic President Andrew Johnson was to reverse the order, then took back the land and mules from the African Americans. The property was later given to former confederate, pro-slavery whites. And for all of the evils of the Party of Slavery, the Democratic Party, there has never been an official apology either to African America or to the United States as a whole.
Finally, reparations is primarily an issue propagated by the Democratic Party. In traditional fashion they are always attempting to put the blame on someone else. I submit if they should begin and end at their own political home. They should employ their best fundraiser and lawyers to raise funds and organize descendants of slaveholders to PAY-UP!
For more of M.D. Currington's commentary's, go to http://mdcurrington.tripod.com/mdc.
Click here and buy a book or two:
posted by Robert at 6:12 PM
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