Statements in Support of Reparations
Vine Deloria, Jr.
Vine Deloria Jr. is a American Indian activist and writer, a professor at the University of Arizona, and member of the Hunkapa Lakota nation.
"If the United States can participate in the creation of Israel as a national homeland for the Jews in partial compensation for the genocide committed against them by Hitler during the Second World War, why is the United States incapable of recognizing the Sioux Nation as sovereign over its lands in South Dakota in partial compensation for the genocide committed against it at Wounded Knee and other massacres?"
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the civil rights movement, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was assassinated in 1968. Murder, not completion, ended his life-long work in defense of black people. He is remembered for his vision of a society without racial or religous discrimation and for the great moral leadership that he practiced. The following quotes suggest that Dr. King believed that reparations were a requirement for completing the journey to a color blind society.
"It is impossible to create a formula for the future which does not take into account that our society has been doing something special against the Negro for hundreds of years. How then can then can he be absorbed into the mainstream of American life if we do not do something special for him now, in order to balance the equation and equip him to compete on a just and equal basis? What will it profit him to be able to send his children to an integrated school if the family income is insufficient to buy them school clothes? What will he gain by being permitted to move into an integrated neighborhood if he cannot afford to do so because he is unemployed or has a low-paying job with no future? In asking for something special, the Negro is not seeking charity. He does not want to languish on welfare rolls any more than the next man. He does not want to be given a job he cannot handle. Neither, however, does he want to be told that there is no place where he can be trained to handle it. Few people consider the fact that, in addition to being enslaved for two centuries, the Negro was, during all those years, robbed of the wages of his toil. No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down through the centuries. Not all the wealth of this affluent society could meet the bill. Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages." (pp. 30 - 31)
"Justice for black people will not flow into society merely from court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory. Nor will a few token change quell all the tempestuous yearning of millions of disadvantaged black people. White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society. The comfortable, the entrenched, the privileged cannot continue to tremble at the prospect of change in the status quo. When millions of people have been cheated for centuries, restitution is a costly process. Inferior education, poor housing, unemployment, inadequate health care--each is a bitter component of the oppression that has been our heritage. Each will require billions of dollars to correct. Justice so long deferred has accumulated interest and its cost for this society will be substantial in financial as well as human terms. This fact has not been fully grasped, because most of the gains of the past decade were obtained at bargain rates. The desegregation of public facilities cost nothing; neither did the election and appointment of a few black public officials." (p. 41)
Ferenc Mate
Ferenc Mate was born in Hungary, escaping at age 11 after the revolution. He was raised in Vancouver, Canada and has spent much of his adult life in the United States and Italy. In his 1993 book, titled A Reasonable Life: Toward a Simpler, Secure, More Humane Existence, Mate condemns many aspects of high consumption, wealthy, modern life because of the resulting damage to the environment and what he sees an erosion of morality. His book makes no explicit mention of African Americans and only barely make reference to Native Americans; however, his recommendations for the future highlight a committment to fairness, equality, and common sense with clear implications for our current situation.
"If we want to be a true democracy then let us give everyone something to start a life with. Even the most 'let-them-eat-bonds' Wall Street broker could not disagree with that. Who in their right mind would start a game of Monopoly with 1 percent holding the wealth, the majority holding its breath, and the poorest 20 percent holding out empty hands ... or a gun? What fun is that? For anyone? So let us spread the goods. Let everyone start with a little basic something; a piece of earth to call his own, a roof over his head, and the means to put nourishing food on the table ... The terminally stupid would cry out that this is blatant communism. Hardly. In communism no one owns anything. This, instead, is perfect capitalism where everyone owns something." (p. 230)
"You could call it land reform. ... The pain to current landowners would hardly be felt. I realize Ted Turner and Jane Fonda are both serious farmers, but 300,000 acres (about 300 central parks) seems too much to hoe even for Jane. So why not have a yearly land tax on land over a certain size (say above what thousand Janes can hand-hoe in a day) of say 10 percent, payable in land. Soon we'd have enough land to give every newborn babe, and ol' Jane would still have few thousand acres on which to get her excercise. If she became distraught, we could always pay her with some blankets and beads." (p. 231)
Racism and Government
Forced Removal of the Chickasaw Nation from land claimed by the state of Mississippi
In 1826 several letters and speeches were exchanged between representatives of the Chickasaw Nation and the United States federal government. Chickasaw leaders refused to be moved from their homeland to an area, designated by the federal government, west of the Mississippi River. Generals Thomas Hinds and John Coffee on behalf of the Sectretary of War and President of the United States presented the following statement which made the intent of the government painfully clear.
"The commissioners of our father the President have received the answer of his Chickasaw children to their talk of yesterday, and we are sorry and disappointed to find that it was not such a one as their father the President had expected from his Chickasaw children. The commissioners herewith send you a talk of our late father President Monroe to the Congress of the United States. This talk will prove to you that measures have been for sometime in progress, by which all our Indian brethren will ultimately be removed from this to the other side of the Mississippi river. You will also see that this plan of the Government is not new, nor hastily adopted; it is the result of mature deliberation, and will not be relinquished until finally accomplished. The objections of our red brethren to the policy of our Government cannot prevent it."
Berkeley, William, 1666
Berkeley was the colonial governor of Virginia, 1641 - 165?.
"I thinke it is necessary to Destroy all these Northern Indians ... [which
will serve as] a great Terror and Example to all other Indiands."
(quoted in Morgan, p. 233)
Wallace, George, 1963
This famous statement was made by Wallace in his inaugural acceptance
speech as governor of Alabama. After retiring Wallace admitted that
these statements were a mistake. However, throughout his long political
career, Wallace employed segregationist and anti-black platforms and supported
white backlash against black youth who attempted to bring segregation to
an end.
"Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!"
From a French-designed reader for West African school-children,
1919
"It is ... an advantage for a native to work for a White man, because
the Whites are better educated, more advanced in civilization than the
natives ... You who are intelligent and industrious, my children, always
help the Whites in their task. That is a duty."
(quoted in Bodley, p. 114)
Defense Attorneys for four NYC police officers who shot Amadou Diallo, 2000
"Would any reasonable person have acted differently?"
"How could you fault him?"
"They honestly believed this guy was shooting at them."
These statements were made in closing arguements by defense attorneys
of four white NYC police officers in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an
unarmed black man, who was killed while holding only his wallet in the
entrance to the apartment building where he lived. The officers admitted
to killing Diallo, shooting him 41 times, including 19 hits, but they argued
that the attack was an act of self-defense and apparently a reasonable
way to deal with a black man. In 2000 a jury in Albany, NY declared
all four officers to be not guilty.
Discussing Slavery and Reparations
Betty Herzog
Betty Herzog is the descendant of Louisianna slaveowners. She
owns the plantation home and many of the material possessions that her
family acquired during slavery. The former slaves and their descendants
have not received any portion of this material legacy. Herzog runs
tours of her home which is now part of a national park. She made
the following comments on slavery and the possibility of reparations as
part of a New York Times story.
"A lot of people around here have put slavery behind them. It
is a part of the history here, and no one wants to ignore it. But
I don't want them to talk about slavery and get stuck on that."
"The government has given them every opportunity in the world, so stop
complaining about the past and go out and do something."
"I think they should be thankful they got their freedom back then.
The more that stuff gets stirred up, the more hate there will be on both
sides."
Despite Herzog's belief that she and others have put slavery behind
them, she is actually a vigorous defender of the material benefits that
her family acquired as a result of slavery. She claims that it would
be better not to talk about slavery, but she gives tours of her house (acquired
under slavery) showing off her fancy dining room set (acquired under slavery)
and is exploiting this legacy for financial benefit because in her words
"tourists help pay to keep up this old place." The way she describes
blacks as "they" and "them" is interesting. Also, she somehow believes
that the tour of her accumulated wealth doesn't stir things up, while a
complementary tour of the slave quarters is a serious problem.
Randall Robinson, KPFA interview, regarding his book, The Debt:
What America Owes to Blacks
You will probably understand the interview better knowing that the
KPFA interiewer is white and Robinson is black
KPFA: I'm joined in the studio by Randall Robinson. He was here a year ago with his autobiography, and now he's back with a new book, a book that I think is going to be controversial, it's called The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. Randall is famous for his work as director of TransAfrica, probably the U.S. organization that deserves more of the credit probably than any other U.S. organization for the fight against apartheid here in the United States, and I don't know I'm sure you don't take credit for all the success in South Africa but you deserve some of the credit, that's for sure. Welcome to KPFA.
Robinson: Thank you. It's very nice to be here.
KPFA: The reason I think this book's gonna be controversial is it is the story, your argument, your polemic, for reparations for African-Americans based on 350 years of slavery and what followed slavery which in some cases was almost worse. And I don't know why this hits such a nerve among white folks I guess primarily but maybe folks in general here in the U.S., but I'll confess it sort of hit a nerve with me. And so you've totally convinced me after reading this book, but I was initially and I really struggled with why initially I was not sympathetic to the idea of reparations. So let's start with why you decided given all the struggles that you could fight why you picked this one now.
Robinson: We've got an economic gap separating whites and blacks in America that has been, for the most part, static since the Emancipation Proclamation. There are changes around the edges of it so that you see an insignficant--comparatively insignificant--number of blacks who've been visibly successly, but down at the bottom of our national economic society are those who were long ago confied to poverty, a grinding poverty that delivers up its pathologies intergerationally. And when one looks at the 100 years that followed slavery you can say I think with some authority we didn't have full citizenship for blacks until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. All manner of discrimination--some of which I detail in the book and some not--like the prohibition in the state of Georgia after slavery for many years against teaching anything but industrial arts to blacks in the eighth and ninth grade so that they couldn't successly compete in high school or not building schools for blacks 50 years after slavery finding 75% of the blacks having to go school in churches, in back rooms, and that sort of thing. So there are very good reasons for this national economic gap. I wouldn't make an argument for reparations were not two things present. One, the damage done to the black community was done with the participation of the United States government. The government was complicit. And in addition it was peculiar to blacks, it was done on a racial basis, and no other group in this country has been treated thusly, 346 years when one adds it up of unrelenting assault on a people, and it has been costly, psychically, socially, and economically to blacks. And when this happens in the world and in other places nations are seen to have an obligation to make the victims whole, and so America has that obligation. Your reaction, your initial reaction, is very typical. The initial reaction of whites generally has been a reaction of irrational anger, and it takes a while to even procede to thoughtfulness of what is being argued here. The initial reaction of blacks is one of celebration because their feeling have been placed in the space of a polemic. And it shows how polarized we remain. I think we live in a state of denial in our society, and what I'm trying to say is that if we can urge other nations, as we do, other nations to come to terms with their past wrong-doings as we've urged the Germans to do this and the settlement reached a couple of weeks ago reached with the corporations, 5+ billion dollars, Steward Eizenhatt leads our efforts on that with support of the congress and the president. We've come to terms with Japanese-Americans, and Canadians have done something on the first Canadian issue. The same thing is true in Australia, Japan, and other places where these human rights abuses have occurred, but we are totally disinclined to face our past. Even on the mall in Washington, as I right in the book, you find no indication that slavery ever occurred in the United States. It's a remarkable attempt to hide from one's own past. And the cost is larger than one would suspect because blacks could be left with the impression having forgotten their own history that they are behind because something is wrong with them not because of what happenned to them in this long running victimization. So I think having this discussion as a nation will benefit us emmensly in so many ways beyond what reparations programs would provide to blacks in an effort to raise them and an opportunity to close the gaps between blacks and whites in America.
KPFA: So it's the process of getting there as much as it the goal of when you get there?
Robinson: absolutely
KPFA: So consciousness needs to be raised not just of white folks but everybody?
Robinson: Everybody. And so reparations in this regard, and the debate that would lead to it or what ever the programs are, would produce I think in the country a new understanding. Of course a response to that is, that I've heard a lot, is that "you're dividing".
KPFA: I thought of it as a wedge issue.
Robinson: But you see the wedge is never visible for those who are not victims. The wedge was always there for those who are victims. They've felt the painful part of the wedge, and they want to say "I've been invisible in my pain, now let's look at this." Of course those who are comfortable, this is not perculiar to race this is how people who are comfortable behave, they haven't sufferred the psychic damage. And here you are inflicting it on me, please don't do that. We're saying for all of us to get well, we have to face it and get well together as a society.
Effects of Racism
Jefferson, Thomas.
This quote reveals some of Jefferson's misgivings about slavery.
Despite these concerns, Jefferson did not free his slaves, even upon his
death.
"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise
of the most boisterous pasions, the most unremitting despotism on the one
part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this,
and learn to imitate it ... The parent storms, the child looks on, catches
lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the
circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions, and
thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped
by it with odious perculiarities."
(quoted in Morgan, p. 375)
Selected References
Bodley, John. 1982. Victims of Progress. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.
Deloria, Vine Jr. (1974) Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties
King, Corretta Scott and Jean Highland (eds) The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mate, Ferenc (1995) A Reasonable Life
Morgan, Edmund. 1975. American Slavery, American Freedom:
The Ordeal of
Colonial Virginia. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Thomson, Ginger (2000) "Reaping What Was Sown On the Old Plantation:
A Landowner Tells Her Family's Truth. A Park Ranger Wants a Broader
Truth." New York Times. June 22, 2000