By Vernon A. Williams, Gary Crusader
What happens when you lift weights? You build muscle. Likewise, when African American’s oppressive societal burdens have been heaviest, they have discovered new strength, determination, resilience and resolve. Rather than wallowing in the mire of the recent Presidential Election, Blacks should start building an agenda for change.
Challenge Donald Trump’s promise of a “new deal for Black America” to become more than hollow rhetoric. One item at the forefront should be the issue of reparations.
Some say the notion of reparations for African Americans does not even warrant serious conversation. A segment of the population believes that it may be morally correct but too far-fetched to fathom in a nation still rife with racism. Others submit there is no legitimate basis on which to make such a claim. Some couldn’t care less.
Consequently, though the delicate yet powerful subject has been bandied about forever, it has gotten little significant traction in the mindset of America. Sometimes being so close to a situation from one perspective or another ignores the truth. Sometimes we need to view our condition thro-ugh the lens of those on the outside looking in.
A United Nations committee is getting into the fray on U.S. racial discrimination. After 14 years, and 20 days of speaking with U.S. officials, activists, and families of people killed by police in major American cities, it has issued its conclusions: the slave trade was a crime against humanity and the U.S. government should pay reparation.
Contrary to those who prefer to ignore all together or dismiss slavery as a long-gone era – insignificant in the new millennium – a French member of the working group of U.N. experts concluded: “Contemporary police killings and the trauma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynching in the past.”
The U.N. experts traveled to major cities including: Washington D.C., Baltimore, Jackson, Mississippi, Chicago, and New York City.
In Washington, they met with the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In Baltimore, they met with Maryland federal judges. In Jackson, they met with officials of the Office of the Mayor and the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi. In Chicago, they met with the Attorney General of the State of Illinois, and with representatives of the Office of the Mayor of the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department. And, in New York City, they met with the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York.
The recent decision by Georgetown University to offer several hundred descendants of slavery preferential admissions has raised the profile of reparations for the slave trade.
Several years ago, both the U.S. Senate and House, in separate bills — which never were passed into law — apologized for slavery and Jim Crow legislation, but were divided over the issue of reparations.
The “Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent,” was created 14 years ago as part of the Human Rights Council, under the umbrella of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR). The group said it “is deeply concerned at the alarming levels of police brutality and excessive use of lethal force by law enforcement officials, committed with impunity against people of African descent in the United States.”
The report cited the “killings of unarmed African Americans — such as the cases of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Laquan McDonald.” This year alone, another half dozen lethal shootings of unarmed Blacks have been caught on video. No telling how many went unrecorded.
The report advocates Congressional passage of the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, “which would establish a commission to examine enslavement and racial discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and to recommend appropriate remedies,” and urges the United States to consider seriously “a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities, an African knowledge program, psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.”
The concept is simply to explore reparations; to give credence to the possibility that there may be grounds.
In reality, there is a slim chance of any discussion being approved by Democratic or Republican law-makers; some certain odds are exponentially worsened by Trump’s victory. But stranger things have happened and there is international support.
But what about President Obama? Does he have the power to issue such an executive order? Such a dramatic measure would almost certainly silence critics who challenge President Obama’s record of pushing issues that directly impact his most loyal constituency – Black Americans.
And for those members of Congress who assumed an adversarial position against literally EVERYTHING Mr. Obama has proposed over the past eight years, an executive order on reparations would be a fitting farewell kiss for lawmakers. Pun intended.
CIRCLE CITY CONNECTION by Vernon A. Williams is a series of essays on myriad topics that include social issues, human interest, entertainment and profiles of difference-makers who are forging change in a constantly evolving society. Williams is a 40-year veteran journalist based in Indianapolis, IN – commonly referred to as The Circle City. Send comments or questions to: [email protected].
