Black Politicians Chicken Out on Reparations

It’s no question that during 235 years of enslavement, wages not paid to African Americans’ fore parents total over $1.4 trillion. Slavery was fundamental to America's evolution into a world economic power. So, how much sense does it make for black elected officials in Virginia, Georgia, Missouri and Delaware to let those states’ inheritors of America’s wealth off with benign “apologies” for slavery and no money?

Black elected officials have become so ensconced in the system that they’ve completely retreated on issues directly affecting blacks. Through compromise and personal reward, they’ve bought into the “establishment” to the point they forsake politics that advance the lives and situations of constituents. The state cases illustrate how black politicians fail to leverage their access, power, and resources for us.

Declaring that, “It is time for Georgia, one of the major stake-holders in slavery, to say it's sorry," Rep. Tyrone Brooks recently introduced a bill proposing that Georgia apologize for its role in slavery and segregation. Brooks’ measure comes on the heels of Virginia’s resolution, supported by black legislators that expressed “regret over slavery”. Though they didn’t even get a full apology, the momentum of Virginia’s “success” has black legislators in other states considering similar idiotic proposals.

“It’s something that’s very heartfelt to me as a decedent of a slave, as a person who witnesses the residual effects of slavery," said Rep. Talibdin El-Amin in his sponsorship of House Resolution 26, which gets Missouri to apologize for its role in slavery. El-Amin says his bill “… begins the healing process …” But how and when do we complete the process?

The U.S. government's first reparations plan to compensate African-Americans for the legacy of slavery was 40 acres and a mule. In Gen. William Sherman's promise to former slaves shortly after the Civil War, he gave an order that set aside land on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts for the settlement of newly freed families.

Over 40,000 freed slaves settled there, but President Lincoln’s successor Andrew Johnson rescinded the federal government’s promise and reversed the reparations.

Since Sherman’s promise, the issue has been revisited time and again; sadly El-Amin’s Missouri proposal will be met with disclaimers from the state’s elite, who will finally capitulate in the form of “sorry, but no check”. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. said Sherman's promise was “a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'"

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