This column was inspired by a response I received on FaceBook to a status update I posted. I decided to go a little more in depth about why the #BlackLivesMatters movement was inevitable!!! Although this post is not about the movement, I hope it brings a little more clarity on why such movements are necessary. Black people have had to fight for every step of progress made!!
I recently saw the movie Woman in Gold which stars Helen Mirren (whom I love) and Ryan Reynolds. It is a great movie and is based on a true story. It's a very poignant movie and addresses the issue of stolen wealth and the complications of trying to regain stolen wealth especially when that wealth was stolen due to racist policies and laws. It also focuses on the lengths the Austrian benefactors were willing to go to keep what was taken. The wealth and lifestyle stolen from her family will not be earned or amassed again by her, so this theft not only affected her immediate family but future descendants. She fights to regain her family's stolen treasure and reclaim what's theirs. Although this particular story happened in Austria, it really could have been the story of so many descendants of slaves here in America. The loss of property, art and other valuables were permitted and has yet to be corrected. When whites stole from our ancestors and robbed them of what was rightfully theirs, they also robbed us of what is rightfully ours. You cannot pass on wealth if you do not have it.
Unfortunately America has not been willing to remedy it's past or atone for it. The 40 acres and a mule never happened. Many whites have wealth that was stolen from blacks and never returned to their descendants. They passed it on to their descendants who it did not belong to. For this reason when I read about how slavery is over and it's time to move on, it annoys the hell out of me because it's a limited and over simplified assessment of slavery and it's repercussions. It does not address the issues or long term ill effects of slavery. It's easy for people who inherited the ill gotten wealth of others to want to move on and leave the past in the past. If Black America collectively wants to forgive and move on then that would be our choice, but it isn't for others to make for us. Anytime we speak about reparations or atonement, it is viewed as us wanting a handout. Handout for what we endured, continue to endure and will continue to endure is insulting.
Austria has set up a system whereby, descendants of the Jewish population that were robbed of everything they ever had, have a means to make a claim. The fact that you can make this claim in no way guarantees the return of stolen treasures. No one wants to give up wealth, so these people are in for a fight and many times, come out on the losing end, but at least Austria has begun to acknowledge what happened and started the process of addressing it. They have a long way to go before they can pat themselves on the back. America hasn't even begun to admit and atone for the wrongdoings it has inflicted on black people. It has apologized to the Japanese for the camps. It has apologized to Native American's and allows casinos for them to operate and accumulate some type of wealth. It has been a safe haven for the Jewish community fleeing the horrors of the Nazi's and it has helped countless other ethnic groups who find themselves in need and it should. Yet, America has not apologized or attempted to correct the single most horrifying terroristic act it has committed and that was the enslavement of black people. We were taken from our homeland of Africa, beaten, raped, brutalized, lynched, sold and separated from our families all in the name of free labor but there are still those out there who believe we should forget and move on like it never happened.
Here's why we can't. We still live with racism and effects of slavery today. We have a shorter life span, higher rates of medical ailments, higher unemployment rates, higher death rates from treatable diseases, lower earnings and salaries while having the same or better credentials than our white counterparts, higher incarcerations rates, higher police fatality rates, lower promotion rates regardless of education. higher loan rejection rates, higher interest on loans rates, stricter requirements and lower favorable rates for home ownership, higher insurance rates based on our addresses and not our needs, higher rejections for business loans. Our children are more likely to be labeled and placed in special education for just being kids, our children are more likely to be suspended, expelled or punished for the same infraction as a white student, the school is more likely to involve the police in a situation if the student is black, inner city black students attend more inferior schools than their white counterparts in the suburbs, yet our education system is supposed to be equal. One just needs to look at social media outlets or the comments section of an article, whether the article is about race or not and all the insensitive, ignorant, stupid and demoralizing comments that are made to understand, we are a long way from equality. A recent incident where a group of adults thought it was okay to post racist comments about a innocent and defenseless three year old child illustrates this point. There are so many more things I can say, but I think you get my point. We cannot even begin to think that all Americans are on equal footing and all have the same opportunities. It is just a lie, a myth, an insult and an injustice.
We can't pass along wealth that was stolen from us. I'm not saying that every white person stole from black people or every black person was wealthy but for those who did have land, created art that they were not allowed to keep, started businesses etc that were taken from them, their descendants never got the benefit of their ancestors fortitude to own or create. Unlike Austria there is not a system of retribution set up here. The U.S. Courts have consistently ruled that since black people were considered property at the time, we had no ownership of our assets and thus continue to issue rulings that are at the very least inhumane. How about ruling the U.S. violated the principle that "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL" when it decided to get into the slave trade and that owning human beings as property was unjust and immoral. The Declaration of Independence didn't make exclusions for skin color. Since this ruling is not likely to be made, at least in my lifetime, we continue to deal with a system that will not return to us what is rightfully ours. This is a theme with people of color all around the world. One of the reasons many Africans continue to remain poor and struggle is because they have yet to have what was stolen from them returned either. Africa is an oil rich, diamond rich, mineral rich country and yet is one of the poorest nations in the universe. The Aborigine people were the original inhabitants of Australia and remain shut out of the continent's wealth today. Why is it that theft of assets from people of color around the world continues to happen? GREED and CORRUPTION!!! The GREEDY and CORRUPT among us will never admit to their wrongdoings and will not relinquish our wealth as long as THEY DON'T HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!
