12231: RE: 12234: Re: 12223: reparations (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Joel Dreyfuss <jdreyfuss@attglobal.net>

The debate on reparations in this forum is taking place as if hard facts
don't exist; some of the research on reparations in the U.S. has shown
clearly that companies that exist TODAY were involved in slavery,
including some of the largest insurance companies, which insured slaves
and the ships that carried them. A recent law suit cited Aetna and a
half dozen other companies. There are documented ties to existing
companies, which makes the issue much more interesting.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press published a series investigating
stories about land stolen from blacks in the contemporary South. Looking
back at the last 50 years, the series documented case after cases where
black land or property was stolen by blatant conspiracy among white
business people and local and state government. Interestingly, this
series has not found much resonance among the American intelligentsia,
maybe because it helps shatter a myth that contemporary American whites
bear no responsibility -- or have not benefitted from slavery. More
recently, the Wall Street Journal reported how sheriffs and mining
companies in the South conspired in the 1920s and 1930s to create a
cheap labor force that did the dangerous work in Alabama coal mines. The
sheriffs arrested black men on any pretense and "sold" them to the
companies for a fee. The men had no legal standing, could not protest
conditions and died at an appalingly high rate. These companies too,
still exist as acquisitions of larger mining and steel coporations.

Mambo Racine's story about the tough life of her ancestors is a classic
immigrant defense in this kind of discussion and conveniently leaves out
one important point of context; her ancestors had the right to work, to
vote, to be protected by laws as soon as they stepped off the boat.
Americans who has been here hundreds of years had no such rights and
were legally locked out of the labor market to protect white immigrants.
The labor unions played a large role in this process. In fact, they
destroyed a large and relatively prosperous class of black craftsmen
(descendants of the slave craftsmen who did all the work on the U.S.
Capitol) by refusing to organize black craftsmen so as to make room for
European immigrants. So even if an immigrant never lifted a finger to
directly lash an African-American, chances are he or she benefitted from
the state of apartheid that existed in this country during its first 200
years. I've always thought that a lot of the racial tension around
affirmative action or diversity issues has to do with whites
unaccustomed to broader competition from people they were raised to
consider as undeserving.

Another comment by Racine reminded me that people who may be "liberal"
on Haiti can expose their biases on other topics. Racine suggests the
reparations movement is a kind of "get whitey" effort and even suggests
it is an excuse among some black Americans for not working hard. I have
listened carefully to the dialogue on reparations among blacks and what
I hear is an effort to correct past wrongs, to educate Americans about
their past history and to begin a process of reconciliation, much like
South Africa's Truth Comission-- led by some of our hardest workers and
achievers. I have argued for years that the progress of
African-Americans --given the obstacles they faced -- has been
remarkable. Having gained voting rights just 35 years ago and job
equality just a couple of decades ago (and hardly fully realized), the
black middle class is already a  solid third of the black population in
the U.S., with another third in the working class; while those who are
poor are still too many, one has to remember that just a fraction of
those poor fall into a real underclass that lacks the values for upward
mobility. A sizeable majority of African-Americans have moved to better
lives by all measures -- and gained considerable political and economic
clout as well. We can't forget, even if we disagree with their politics,
that Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Ken Chenault (ceo of American
Express) and Stanley O'neal (coo of Merrill Lynch) and some 40 member of
Congress don't spring fully formed from the ether. They too, are
products of this rising class of Americans. Yet, so many Haitians and
Hatianophiles are quick to hold black Americans in disdain, the one
group that has been Haiti's most consistent supporter in Washington for
the last 80 years, going back to the First U.S. invasion.

Finally, the responsibility of Haitians for their own fate is
indisputable; but it would be silly to discard the constant meddling of
experts. My cousins are right in arguing that Haiti dug its own grave
when Boyer agreed to pay for France's recognition; millions that could
have gone to infrastructre and development went to rich French
landowners. But Boyer may have had no choice. It's something like when
the IMF tells you to destoy your economy so you can get foreign aid..
But I digress.

Joel Dreyfuss
jdreyfuss@attglobal.net