Rev. Jeremiah Wright: "Let's tell the truth about Haiti"

Oakland, CA, USA — "… If you want to help Haiti, let's start, let's start, let's start by telling the truth. Okay? The truth is that on April 7, 2003, President Aristide, a democratically elected president on the side of the poor, called together a Restitution Commission which determined that France owed Haiti twenty-one billion dollars. And within weeks, France and The United States told Aristide it was time for him to go. Step aside, step down, resign or be killed.

"The Haitians had their duly elected, democratically elected president kidnapped by United States Marines …"

On Sunday September 19th at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland it soon became obvious that when Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright said he had "retired," a couple of years ago, it meant he retired from his daily pastoral obligations at Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) in Chicago — where the Rev. Otis Moss III is now the Senior Pastor — and did not include his prophetic obligation to deliver timely messages to the People of God. Since his "retirement" in 2008 he has been in constant demand — just as in the years before Bill Moyers "admitted" that he was aware of the most prolific minister in his own, largely white, denomination — as a revival week preacher for many African-American congregations across the USA.

The large congregation of Allen Temple packed their own church early and left the overflow hall to visitors who "came on time." A good preacher can mostly "fill" Allen Temple, it takes a great preacher to "pack it." That would have been a good day's work for a great preacher but, right after Dr. Wright finished his morning sermon, he was whisked away to San Francisco to pack the equally large Third Baptist Church. We're sure the Third Baptist crowd would have loved to feed him after the service, but Sunday dinner for Dr. Wright was another packed large church back over the Bay to Oakland where he delivered the keynote address — "Living Up To Our Greatness" - for the inauguration of the African American Leadership Commission (AALC).

At Allen Temple, preaching from the text of Micah 6:1-8 - a favorite passage of Liberation Theology leaders - Dr. Wright's sermon topic was: "What Does The Lord Require?: To Do Justice?" The text points out that "doing justice" is not just a guideline, but a requirement for those who claim to be the People of God. Like Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the Hebrew prophet Micah was confronting the ruling elite and government of his day demanding that they throw off their oppressive addiction to and desire for power and return to the "justice for all" that was required in the covenant relationship they had with their Creator. One doesn't have to look hard in the Book of Micah to see that there is a direct correlation to the Haiti of today.

The ruling elite of Israel and Judah wanted to pursue a life of luxury and excess, feeling that their position on the economic food chain entitled them to exploit the workers at will. When the peasants couldn't keep up with the increased demands of the plutocracy, the rich landowners were able to evict the peasants after bribing the judges or ousting the government officials who didn't "play along." The unemployed peasants were forced into the now overcrowded urban areas which saw overwhelming poverty on a scale never before experienced by the Hebrew nation. Micah saw a return to justice and right living as a way back to meeting up to God's expectations for those who wanted to be known as his people.

While not calling for the return of Aristide to Haiti, or for the participation of Lavalas in the upcoming presidential elections, Reverend Wright waded into Haiti's issues that would be glossed over by the corporate media interests in their pursuit of celebrity gossip:

"We give four hundred and ninety eight million dollars for Haiti's natural resources. For sugar, for timber, for flax seed, and guess what else we give them money for? For their concrete! They send their Grade A concrete to rich countries for pennies on the dollar and are left to build their homes and schools, their hospitals and churches with inferior concrete that can not withstand any kind of earthquake — much less a seven point anything on the Richter scale. Why not do justly? Why not 'do justice' in Haiti and give a fair price of five billion dollars for Haitian exports. That's what they bring in the white world, after we steal them for pennies from poor black folk ."

Reverend Wright has been exhorting the African-American Church family to stand in solidarity with the oppressed in Haiti for some time. Wright was one of the few national leaders in 2005 to sign a Lavalas petition calling for the return of Aristide and the end of the US directed occupation. Later the same year TUCC - When Reverend Wright was still Pastor - hosted a showing of "Haiti the Untold Story," in Chicago.

In the Allen Temple sermon, the Reverend returned to the subject of Restitution and Reparations — after exposing the Injustice in South Africa — by providing further Scriptural authority to the issue:

" … That's not reconciliation. That's just empty words … Come to Luke 19 with me … We always hear sermons about Zacheus and how short he was … All he wanted to do was to see Jesus … Instead of him seeing Jesus, Jesus saw him … called him by name … Zacheus must have been notorious, not Notorious BIG, but Notorious Small! … We hear many sermons about this, but very few sermons talk about this Justice issue. Restorative Justice, where Zacheus restores what was taken from the poor, the weak. And then Zacheus not only repents — the first step in reconciliation — Zacheus also REPAYS! The ultimate proof of 'repentance' and the crucial element of true reconciliation."

" … Zacheus says — in so many words — "I cannot get right with God, if things are still wrong between me and the People made in God's image" … The white Dutch Afrikaners did not want to hear this part of the Reconciliation Process … Reparations' is a dirty word when it comes to the rich and when it comes to the powerful in this country also — not just in South Africa … Zacheus engaged in Reparations …"

The dynamics of justice to people of African descent was further explored at the AALC event of interfaith community leaders. The fear of the Dominant Culture is hard to move. The methodology of the oppressive class depends on restricting transfer of power and wealth to a Zero Sum Game (ZSG) model. One group can only progress if another group loses. In its quest for hegemony, embracing another culture or nation to collective progress is counter to maximizing wealth. Sustainable economic and cultural models are rarely explored and usually disrupted whenever they show promise.

Below is the full transcript of Reverend Wright's comments on Haiti in the sermon: "What Does The Lord Require?: To Do Justice?" Even better download and listen (7.7M) to the audio segment. For the complete sermon contact the Allen Temple Tape Ministry

"Justice for the helpless in Haiti. Haiti was forced by European powers to pay reparations to the French. Twenty-one billion dollars worth of reparations. The first and only time in world history that reparations were imposed by a defeated nation (France) on a nation that had defeated it (Haiti). A racist decision backed and supported by the United States, with US banks being one of the places that poor blacks in Haiti had to borrow the money, with interest, to pay back rich white folk.

"Justice. Not just prayers for Haiti, but justice for Haiti. Sustained justice for Haiti, on whom the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank keep instituting policies that undermine Haitian's agricultural base. The recent IMF loan to Haiti required Haitians to stop producing rice. You wanna help Haiti? Pray, yes. Send monetary assistance (not to the Red Cross, they're still holding on to those millions), yes. But also get on your phone. Get on your email. Get on the case and force Congress to change the policies which keep Haiti poor, keep Haiti colonized and punishing them for daring as African to break free of European domination. That'll help Haiti.

"We give four hundred and ninety eight million dollars for Haiti's natural resources. For sugar, for timber, for flax seed, and guess what else we give them, for their concrete. They send their grade A concrete to rich countries for pennies on the dollar and are left to build their homes and schools, their hospitals and churches with inferior concrete that can not withstand any kind of earthquake, much less a 7 point anything on the Richter scale. Why not do justly? Why not do justice in Haiti and give a fair price for five billion dollars for Haitian exports. That's what they bring in the white world, after we steal them for pennies from poor black folk . If you want to help Haiti, forgive the debt. Tell your congressmen that. That's justice. If you want to help Haiti, pay them a fair price for their exports so they can build their own rice fields, build their own houses, build their own schools with grade A concrete and have their own emergency services.

"If you want to help Haiti, let's start, let's start, let's start by telling the truth. Okay? The truth is April 7, 2003, President Aristide, a democratically elected president on the side of the poor, called together a restitution commission which determined that France owed Haiti twenty-one billion dollars. And within weeks, France and The United States told Aristide it was time for him to go. Step aside, step down, resign or be killed. The Haitians had their duly elected, democratically elected president kidnapped by United States marines and flown to The Congo on a CIA plane, to get him out of the way of the rich US, French and foreign business interest .

"You want to help Haiti? Let's do justice. Tell the truth, be honest, fess up, pay up and in addition to charity, let's give Haitians dignity. Stop the double standard of letting white skinned Cubans in, and keeping black skinned Haitians out. God demands justice. God desires justice. And God requires justice."

“owed Haiti twenty-one billion dollars”

Don’t these leaders know anything other than demanding more welfare under the guise of “reparations”?

Why doesn’t this racist “Rev.” instead lecture the Haitians on the importance of breaking the welfare mentality and going to work?

The other half of the island (Dominican Republic), though not wealthy by Western standards, is a utopia compared to the garbage pit known as Haiti.

O.K., “Rev”: Let’s DO tell the truth about Haiti: it’s glory days were when the French were there and since self-rule it has been a hellhole comparable only to some of the African countries and will remain so when we’re all gone from this vale of tears.

P.S., “Rev.”: I want my pro rata share of tax money back that has been squandered on Haiti.

Haiti paid France around 10 million US in reparations for property lost in the revolution to gain French recognition over 50 years from 1838-1888.

Let's put this amount into some perspective, shall we?

For one thing, it was roughly 30M US dollars at the time, not $10M.

The US bought the entire Louisiana Territory for about $15M. That's about 1/3 of the continental USA. Admittedly it was a hell of a bargain, but that was still a great deal of money at the time.

The entire US federal budget in 1860 was $60M. I've been unable to track down what it was in 1825, but I suspect it was pretty close to the $30M in question.

The majority of the "property" the Haitians were required to indemnify the French for was the money value of the liberated slaves. Guess what we paid the owners when we liberated the slaves (confiscated their value) in this country? Zip.

The 150M gold francs ($30M US) was about 5x the total annual exports of Haiti at the time. The equivalent amount for the US today would be more than $5 trillion. By 1900 80% of the Haitian budget went to these payments. Many presently consider the US grossly over-indebted, but our payments on the national debt consume a great deal less than 80% of our budget, and most of that goes to American creditors, or at least is reinvested in the USA by foreign creditors. When Haiti paid money to the French it left the country never to return.

I stand by my contention that the USA would have considered this an egregious violation of the Monroe Doctrine if committed against any other Latin American nation. But southern (and northern) prejudice against black Haiti kept them from intervening.

AFAIK, no Latin American nation was forced to pay anything remotely equivalent to Spain or Portugal for losses suffered by Spanish or Portugese nationals during their revolutions. If you have evidence otherwise, I'd like to see it.

I agree with most of what you say about Haiti having largely messed itself up. But the French, with American acquiescence, certainly helped a great deal.

Contrast them with Dom Rep next door...a fairly African place but with a strong white and mulatto bourgeoisie...much much better....though still way below what we would call good.

I agree. You have any evidence that DR was required to pay equivalent, or any, reparations to Spain?

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