Reparations March: Thousands to descend upon nation's capital Saturday

Washington Post ^ | August 16th, 2002 | Manny Fernandez

[End The Hypocrisy]

Thousands of African American activists plan to bring their demands for reparations from the U.S. government for centuries of slavery and racism to the Capitol Saturday. One group of counter-demonstrators, the National Association for the Advancement of White People, founded by former Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke, announced its intention to hand out materials at the rally.

Reparations demonstrators plan to call on Congress to support a bill that has been introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) that would establish a commission to examine the effects of slavery.

The demonstration comes as the reparations movement gathers what proponents see as a new momentum, sparked in part by a class-action suit alleging that CSX, FleetBoston Financial and Aetna profited from slavery. A group of lawyers and social scientists -- including Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree, lawyer Johnnie Cochran and University of Maryland political science professor Ron Walters -- is exploring legal action against the government.

Critics contend that the call for reparations is fraught with complications and portrays the African American experience as one of victimhood. "If those people can afford to go to Washington, D.C., and go to a rally, then they don't need reparations," said the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the black founder of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that promotes self-responsibility.

The gathering has received support from the New Black Panthers -- not affiliated with the Black Panther Party -- whose members will assist with security.

"Knowing what I know about what my people did, I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I weren't doing everything I can to have this country and white people face up to the crime we committed and to right this grave wrong," said New Yorker Donna Lamb, 53, a member of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation. Lamb said she and about 20 other supporters of the group plan to join the rally.

>Those are mere excerpts<

[End The Hypocrisy]

Michelle Malkin's analysis of this is a real classic:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin.html

What surprised me a bit, though, is the discovery that nearly as high a percentage of blacks are middle class now as whites:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020516-25223272.htm

So are these protesters trying to tell us that they sincerely believe that decades of reverse discrimination, tax-subsidized contract set-asides, quotas, racially motivated riots and other hate crimes, and seemingly hypersensitive discrimination-related litigation haven't been enough reparation? Perhaps this new march is really just intended to perpetuate some of the abovementioned examples of legally enforced reverse discrimination?

Personally I think it's time to adopt the color-blind system that woud seemingly be a logical extension of Martin Luther King's vision. If there's going to be legally enforced discrimination in our country, shouldn't it be based upon socio-economic factors instead of on pigment-related ones?

[VaBthang4]

"Thousands to descend upon nation's capital"

Is that "Million Man March" Math or regular folks math?

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

"Knowing what I know about what my people did, I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I weren't doing everything I can to have this country and white people face up to the crime we committed and to right this grave wrong," said New Yorker Donna Lamb, 53, a member of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation

I hope this meathead gets mugged!

[tinacart]

I'm going to end this right here and now. I'll just write them all a check to cover any damages. Now, let's just "move on!"

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Is that Million Man March math or regular folks' math?<<<

It's regular folks' math, although I seem to recall that it's now prohibited for federal security officials to comment on the size of such demonstrations on the Mall, ever since an outcry resulted from their having done so after the supposed Million Man March.

[Skwidd]

Never give in to the organized racists. They'll just demand more next time.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Don't forget Michelle Malkin's deserved checks though. Have you seen her article yet? She's awesome.

[Consort]

I won't be able to make it. Saturday is the day that I sort my cummerbunds.

[LouD]

"Knowing what I know about what my people did...

My people did nothing. Above and beyond the fact that my ancestors were on another continent until long after the end of slavery (brought about, BTW, through a bloody civil war and the deaths of many white people, among others) there is no provision for collective guilt in this country. I have no "people", other than my fellow Americans, but if I did, they would not all be culpable for their sins.

I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I weren't doing everything I can to have this country and white people face up to the crime we committed and to right this grave wrong," said New Yorker Donna Lamb, 53, a member of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation.

I am reminded of my old First Sergeant, who, when confronted by the pronoun "We" always asked if you had a mouse in our pocket. Ms. Lamb surely has some kind of rodent in her pocket, because she surely cannot be speaking for me. I refuse to face up to a crime (actually not a crime, since it was then permitted by law) that neither I, nor my ancestors, participated in, nor benefited from, simply because I happen to share the same pigmentation as the alleged perpetrators. That would be as wrong as condemning all blacks for the disproportionate share of crime committed by a small minority of black men.

We did right that grave wrong; if this moron happens to doubt that, I would refer her to the Emancipation Proclamation, and to the battlefields of Gettysburg, Antietam, and a hundred others, where white men died to assert U.S. sovereignty over the south to make it possible.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I can tell you one effect of the slave trade: individuals whose lineage came from Africa as slaves are alot better off here, than there. Boat-people came here escaping Vietnamese communism and in one generation their children are engineers, doctors and lawyers, and all we hear is how white-folk and the man want to keep a brother down. WE DON'T WANT TO KEEP YOU DOWN, WE WANT YOU TO RAISE YOURSELVES UP, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HAS TO. THAT'S WHAT RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE DO! Not withstanding the UNCF, they ARE looking for a hand-out, not a hand.

[SoCar]

This is great for Republicans. All future candidate should be asked their position on reparations. This is an issue that greatly divides the Democrats. Get them all on record.

[pupdog]

"Knowing what I know about what my people did, I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I weren't doing everything I can to have this country and white people face up to the crime we committed and to right this grave wrong," said New Yorker Donna Lamb, 53, a member of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation.

Their web site is full of collective guilt statements like these. They seem to want to see every group who's ever suffered the slighest hardship to jump up and demand money now... provided, of course, that the ethnicity of these groups is sufficiently non-white.

We Won't Pay

[mr.sarcastic]

DC/MD ping!

[AGreatPer]

You could still make this meeting today:

Slavery-reparations panel discussion — noon — Heritage Foundation holds a panel discussion, "Are Black Americans Entitled to Slavery Reparations?" Location: Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Lehrman Auditorium. Contact: 202/675-1752.

A meeting to whip up the troops?

[bandleader]

This just illustrates why the school-voucher program is such a GOOD IDEA!When"Hundreds"are counted as"Thousands" and"Thousands"counted as"Millions",we can clearly see that the Public-Schools are failing our children!!!!!!!!

[billbears]

"Knowing what I know about what my people did, I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I weren't doing everything I can to have this country and white people face up to the crime we committed and to right this grave wrong," said New Yorker Donna Lamb, 53, a member of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation

Which people would that be again? Lord knows the fallout as to what's going to happen if these fools ever do the work to find out just who is descended from a black slave and who from a black slaveowner. Will those descended from black slaveowners be allowed to recover reparations?

You know I'm of the opinion that we need to get an org chart of who and what are tied to this. I'm of the opinion that it's going to lead back to a very small group including Jesse, Al, and some of our good Marxist friends from the SPLC

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Above and beyond the fact that my ancestors were on another continent until long after the end of slavery (brought about, BTW, through a bloody civil war and the deaths of many white people, among others)<<<


Some would say slavery was also disappearing due to the emergence of the more or less industrial revolution. Even by the 1860's, I've heard that only 1 in 10 households even had slaves. I bet that some had them merely because not to have them would have been a competitive disadvantage. After all, black slave-peddlers in Africa had already successfully pushed their product on their competitors throughout the New World. But I don't see reparations demands against Africa, not even for CURRENT slavery practices in countries such as Sudan. A double standard appears to exist, does it not?

[End The Hypocrisy]

Some would claim that the Asians benefited from informal domestic or even international credit unions, and a relative LACK of racism compared to what blacks allegedly faced. however, I think that Asian American Michelle Malkin's article mentioned above addresses those "excuses" rather well (and certainly with considerable wit).

[End The Hypocrisy]

Yes, the reparations issue DOES divide Democrats, as does the fact that they keep selecting nonblack Vice Presidential candidates. Al Sharpton called Joe Lieberman's selection reverse racism or something similarly incomprehensible, but the example nevertheless tends to show how hypocritical the Demos are, doesn't it?

[AnalogReigns]

620,000 Americans dead in the War Between the States.

What price could be more?

[End The Hypocrisy]

Good for the Heritage Foundation. Rational discussion about these issues is important in our democracy. I wonder if it will be webcast, like some of the Cato Institute's events are.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>You know I'm of the opinion that we need to get an org chart of who and what are tied to this. I'm of the opinion that it's going to lead back to a very small group including Jesse, Al, and some of our good Marxist friends from the SPLC<<<

Michelle Malkin's article, the URL of which is in the first comment above, points out who is making a potential profit by instigating this reparations march. One of the instigators is (coincidentally) even trying to promote his new line of shoes with it.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Excellent point. Meanwhile, look at how the South has been enslaved to pay D.C. central planners' salaries ever since. The bureaucrats justify the Northern aggression by claiming the war was about slavery, but I've read that only 1 in 10 households in the South even had slaves (and that number was declining due to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution). Most fought for the South because it was a war of Southern independence from the IRS, and from bureaucrats who keep doing stuff such as thwarting tuition vouchers (in exchange for political favors from teachers' unions).

[Ed_in_NJ]

Blacks were enslaved in Africa - by other blacks.

Those that were brought to this country were freed - by whites.

Who owes whom?

[AGreatPer]

It is live on C-Span right now.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Thanks! I'll check C-Span online out right now to see if it's still on.

[reagent]

I think this is the URL for that Malkin article you were talking about:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin081402.asp

[goldstategop]

A few hundred punks show up and demand: "Show Me The Money!!!" <yawn

[End The Hypocrisy]

Yes but it takes far fewer to successfully make such a demand in court...

[End The Hypocrisy]

This thread carries the analysis a bit further, analyzing just which entrepreneurs and attorneys are instigating this reparations march in D.C. Saturday, and why:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/734486/posts

Follow the money...

[fone]

How's this:

THEY get their reparations

WE get our States Rights back?

[End The Hypocrisy]

How's this:

We get our states rights back.

[fone]

sounds good to me! okay, FIRST we get states rights back, then the feds can't pay them a dime...yes your idea is superior!

[End The Hypocrisy]

Your idea is neat too. Perhaps after states rights are returned the feds could still pay them what they want out of funds that states VOLUNTARILY pay to the feds? I can say based on experience with bureaucrats though that they value their bloated salaries and other perks far more than they value their missions. They don't really care about blacks' well-being, especially not the black bureaucrats. The better off blacks are, you see, the less they need the bureaucrats. And meanwhile, the less impressive the bureaucrats seem when compared to increasingly prosperous blacks. That's a major reason why they impose quotas on society...potentially prosperous blacks are stigmatized by prestige-diluting quotas so the blacks consequently need bureaucrats AND the laws they can help get passed to help them better make ends meet. And as for government contract set-asides....Newt Gingrich's PRIZES approach to government procurement (http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes ) is usually avoided like the plague because the bureaucrats want (and need) to be needed. Pathetic isn't it? I wish this was an exaggeration; it's not.

[GRRRRR]

CSPAN will have this activity on LIVE TeeVee starting at 1PM to be followed by those opposing reparations at 5PM EST.

I watched the CSPAN Washington Journal segment this AM with Viola Plummer

of the "Millions for Reparations, National Coordinator.

Her whining rant on CSPAN this am was the most perfect selection of hate speach and vitriole I have ever seen. She accepted the lauds of a caller that called for a national uprising to revolt against the "evil white man, the devil" as Elijah Muhammed says...slavery is a "crime, crime, crime" she complains and we demand reparations, a demand associated with a "Crime against humanity, we will never forget the ten's of millions that were raped, murdered, etc...forced child labor..."

She blamed EVERYTHING on white Americans, from Breast cancer to high crime rates on racism in the USA..."African Americans are at the bottom because of racism"...she says...

With people like this, the black community cannot raise up out of bed much less live the American dream.

She refused to respond to a caller that said if it's money you're looking for, go back to Africa and look for the people who SOLD you into slavery...

GRRRRRollin' FOR America

[IronJack]

This is the generation that inherited Martin Luther King's "dream." The only reason his movement resonated -- even in hard-core racist areas -- was because of its undeniable moral element. Contrast that lofty vision with the venal, grasping parasites the movement houses today.

It's a sorry end to a noble cause, but what is left when the dream is realized? Just the waning momentum and a horde of criminals trying to ride it to its bitter end.

[GRRRRR]

PM Bump

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>..."African Americans are at the bottom because of racism"...<<<


This issue, alone, could be a topic for an entirely new and vibrant thread, couldn't it? :-)

[grumpster-dumpster]

"It's a sorry end to a noble cause, but what is left when the dream is realized? Just the waning momentum and a horde of criminals trying to ride it to its bitter end."

That should be the "quote of the year!"

[IronJack]

Thanks. I hate what The Revs (Al & Jesse) have done to Martin Luther King's vision. It is a study in human nature to see the tremendous gains made by a man of character, who touched a sense of goodness and decency in all of us and who fueled his movement with that morality. Then compare that movement, internally driven as it was, with the strongarm, shakedown, thug mentality that drives the second generation of "civil rights" champions. Can you imagine Martin Luther King leading a riot through Bensonhurst? Or sitting down with executives of Toyota in a $2,000 suit to extort money from them?

It's clear that the civil rights movement is a clock winding down, spent, dissipated, chaotic. Its only hope now is to make issues where there are none, and to reach for more and more extreme claims.

The same is true of feminism, by the way.

[FreedomPoster]

Or sitting down with executives of Toyota in a $2,000 suit to extort money from them?

When we FReeped Cynthia McKinney at her "Veterans Town Hall Meeting" in May, her bodyguards (four *big* guys in dark suits, looked like Fruit of Islam/NOI types) arrived in a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser. I still wonder if it was part of the shakedown Toyota paid.

[grumpster-dumpster]

I agree with you regarding the reprations, civil-rights, and woman's movements.

You have stated, very clearly, my own thoughts regarding the matter.

I would like to thnk you for saving me a great deal of typing...(LOL!) and for expressing the sentiments better than I could.

[Pining_4_TX]

There's nothing stopping this wonderfully compassionate woman from giving all her wordly goods to pay reparations. She can keep her hands off my money, though.

[End The Hypocrisy]

You're right, but it's about the money. For some amusing relevant photos, check out:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/734486/posts

[fone]

Interesting link.

The day is not far off where the public burden of supporting the government bureaucracy will reach it's breaking point. Layer upon layer of these paper pushers, many of which are redundant or useless, created by agencies who have no goal greater than to maintain their own job security (these jobs by the way are never listed in the classified or employment offices -- they are doled out to friends and families).

The list of these agencies, at all levels of government -local to state to federal- must be staggering. I've learned that one way they perpetuate their own self-worth is by legislating that they "review" their procedures (rotated) every 3 to 5 years [hey! if it's "the law" then they "have to do it" right?]. Let me explain one I'm personally familar with to illustrate:

I worked as an Adminstrator for a small agency here in Ohio who (after jumping through all the legal hoops) provided in-home services for mentally retarded folks living in the "general population" (just needing help with grocery shopping, bill paying, social activities and transportation usually 12-40 hours per week).
The state mandates a gazillion forms of paperwork be completed - basically we have to document every moment of thier life while they are entrusted to our care (imagine that). Okay, lets say we have six sets of paperwork (there is more but I don't want to bore you!)
Set A: medicine they take
Set B: Documenting ALL their money spent (to the 50 cents worth)
Set C: Housekeeping we do for them
Set D: Social activities they are involved with
Set E: Medical appointments, dentists doctors and so forth
Set F: Meals and Nutrition

(this only scratches the surface).

Okay the state has set up guidelines for documenting these things. They now 'review' their procedures, lets say in the year 2000 they almost completely revise how the paperwork must be done for Set A and Set F.
Year 2001, the do the same for the Set B and Set E.
Year 2002, Set C and Set D are redone in the same fashion, new forms must be created, reporting critera is changed and so forth.
If that isn't burdensome enough, during that three year span they require MORE levels of documentation, they add Set G for personnel training, add Set H for fiscal reporting and on and on... (Set G & H now added to the "review" schedule)....

If I haven't lost you, can you see how at the State level they not only justify their work, they create more, thus creating the need for more staff, more money....

Back to the original idea here. My thought was about reparations. Seems to me they were on the winning side and have gained what they sought: freedom. This reparations idea is ludicrous!

State's rights were LOST, and if these nitwits had a freaking clue they would understand that states rights are far more valueable than a few silver coins which will be spent in short order.

PRIZES is a first-rate idea. But as you said the powers that be will have nothing to do with it -- mostly because it is effective. Lord knows the bureaucrats distance themselves from anything that would make any sense at all.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>If I haven't lost you, can you see how at the State level they not only justify their work, they create more, thus creating the need for more staff, more money...<<<


The more bureaucrats one has under one, the more imporant one becomes.


>>>This reparations idea is ludicrous!<<<

The Washington Post just reported that "hundreds" protested in front of the Capitol for the Millions for Reparations demonstration. When even a liberal and local publication reports such painful truth, that says something doesn't it?


>>>PRIZES is a first-rate idea. But as you said the powers that be will have nothing to do with it -- mostly because it is effective. Lord knows the bureaucrats distance themselves from anything that would make any sense at all.<<<

As you know, the bureaucrats want what gives them job security and comfort, first and foremost. With prizes' availability, bureaucrats can no longer pick winners, earn favors and feather their nests. But Bush is trying to remove civil service protections of federal workers in his new Homeland Security Agency. Union-backed Senators are blocking the bill but hopefully Bush will ultimately prevail.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Strangely enough, the liberal Washington Post gave a conservative figure for the http://www.millionsforreparations.com event today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30662-2002Aug17.html

"Hundreds of blacks rallied in front of the Capitol on Saturday to demand slavery reparations, saying that compensation is long overdue for the ills of that institution."

Ouch! :-)

[fone]

I caught (and could only stomach) about 10 minutes of the replay of the "march." Some woman with a foul mouth M-F'n this and that; then some (muslim-named) wannabe demanding that a dozen or so incarcerated individuals should be set free...
A pan of the "crowd" revealed the truth. If it were my cause, I'd be damned embarassed.

The thing is I think they've only just started. We haven't heard the last of this...

[End The Hypocrisy]

Oh well, now the Washington Post ALSO says "thousands" witnessed for reparations at the Millions for Reparation$ event. BTW the "witnessed for reparations" words were the eloquent ones used by some of the many gifted speakers at that rally...and by "gifted" I mean they were obviously accustomed to seeking handouts. But I digress...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31363-2002Aug17.html

"Raising red, black and green flags and clenched fists, thousands of African American activists descended on the Mall yesterday, demanding reparations from the U.S. government for centuries of slavery and racism against black people. Young and old traveled from nearly every corner of the country, but the assembly for Millions for Reparations was modest by Washington standards, as the rally filled a small swath of the grassy expanse near the U.S. Capitol."
(Excerpt)

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>If it were my cause, I'd be damned embarassed. The thing is I think they've only just started. We haven't heard the last of this...<<<


So they can rebound after this? Perhaps with the media's revisionism, I guess they're getting encouragement. However, at least in Hollywood, sequels seldom bring in anywhere near as much as the originals (two thirds if the studio is reasonably lucky). Even when they do get reasonably lucky, doing so requires a relatively enormous budget. It's not clear that these folks have the right stuff, and yesterday made that apparent to the masses. Even Farrakhan wouldn't pay much attention to them, let alone Sharpton, Jackson(s) and Johnnie Cochran.