Occasionally I speak publicly about the racial disparities that afflict the prison-industrial complex. I often end my talks with an observation about how racial lynching once was accepted by white Americans because they assumed that the mostly black male victims were guilty. African Americans had been so thoroughly demonized by the media of those days many whites considered lynching a… return to article
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Reader Comments (29)Page 1 of 1 pagesThank you, Salim, for another very insightful essay. To be sure, belated, hypocritical apologies and long delayed, diluted justice are no substitute for Reparations. For more than a decade courageous Black scholars and activists (including AFRE’s Silis Muhammad and NCOBRA’s Dorothy Lewis) have been diligently working inside the United Nations to establish Human Rights and secure Reparations for all slave descendants in the Western Hemisphere, who continue to suffer from long-term Euro-American imposed ethnocide and forced assimilation. We must remember that the same Caucasian Republicans and Caucasian Democrats who are fiercely opposed to Reparations for Afrodescendants have always fully endorsed massive Reparations for the Jewish people. Reparations means far more than financial restitution for centuries of chattel slavery and subsequent decades of de-facto apartheid. It means the Restoration of a people who were robbed of their original language, original religion, original culture and the powers of Self-Determination.
Sincerely,
Malik Al-Arkam
www.AllForReparations.org
Posted by Malik Al-Arkam on Jul 21, 2005 at 11:54 AM An excellent but saddening piece indeed. This article is a good repudiation of right-wing calls for an end to affirmative action, who disgustingly enough, validate their position by claiming “racism.” Racism is alive and well in American society today, only it has changed in terms of how it is manifested. There may no longer be lynchings and racially motivated murders by the KKK and other right-wing domestic terrorist groups, but today’s racism is reflected most strongly in income disparity and prison representation. Being a white man, it is easy to say racism is dead. To take racial equality for granted overlooks the decades of protest and efforts of those brave enough to challenge their government to meet a higher standard of human rights. It overlooks all those who died in the fight for freedom and equality. That viewpoint glosses over the lingering wounds created by centuries of human bondage and abuse by the ruling class for economic gain. While overt discrimination is illegal, that does not mean it no longer exists. It has only become more subtle in how it raises its nasty head. A good chunk of this nation was built on the backs of blood and suffering. Reparations seem like the least this country can do to start healing the wounds of its racist past.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 21, 2005 at 1:57 PM Agreed on much of Salim’s essay; in particular, how even ONE Senator would refuse to go on the record with the belated apology is dumbfounding.
But enough on the reparations nonsense already. First of all, the best way to address the grievous wrongs of the past is not through some arbitrary endowment of cash to people who may or may not have actual ties to slaves.
Not to mention the fact that if reparations are to be handed out, then blacks can go to the back of the line, behind the Native Americans who had their land stolen from them and their numbers virtually wiped off the face of the earth. No, the best way to do this is to work to fix the problem.
Ever hear of affirmative action?
All this bullshit about reparations just serves to divide the country when it should be coming together to determine viable solutions for the vestiges of racial inequality that still exist. Salim speaks of the prison population and the fact that the percentage of inmates are heavily black.
Well.. why is that? Should we just unilaterally wave a magic wand and set them free? Does Salim actually believe that most of the blacks in prison are wrongly accused/convicted?
While no doubt there are blacks in prison who might have been incarcerated wrongly, they are not the only ones - it happens all the time to people FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE. All the time. Not saying it’s right, but it does happen.
No - I think the answer lies in the miserable, self-perpetuating cycle of poverty, drugs and crime that admittedly white America helped foster in the black community. Take Chicago, for example: I don’t know what genius thought packing people like animals into 30-story ghettos in the 40s/50s was a good idea, but the results were predictable. You want to do some REAL damage and make some REAL strides?
How about funneling more money towards community programs and especially education in poverty-stricken areas? How about focusing more efforts on job-training and helping ex-cons avoid repeating their mistakes from the past? I guarantee that will do more good than simply serving up handouts to people.
Posted by g-love on Jul 21, 2005 at 2:08 PM This country reaped enormous economic gain through the use of slave labor. What is wrong with returning some of it to the ancestors of those laborers?
I agree with most of what you said except the claim that the number of black men in jail is not indicative of racist state tendencies in this country. Black men do not have access to the high-profile lawyers and the connections to get them out of serving jail time. Most of the black men in prison are there for drug use/distribution. That behavior is the LEAST of this country’s problems with respect to criminal behavior. We would best be served by shining the light of law into the halls of government than onto the poor and economically disenfranchised. Public housing is a good idea, but the way it was carried out was not. Public housing projects only isolate the poor from the rest of society. No private developer wants to build near the projects. That is why Section 8 housing vouchers are a good idea. They help poor people pay for their rent but allow them to be integrated into the greater community.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 21, 2005 at 2:26 PM “This new thrust for retroactive racial justice is also, I suspect, a muted reaction to African Americans’ increasing push for reparations.”
Wrong as usual, Salim. There will never be reparations and anyone with any sense knows that. I owe you nothing for being here.
Posted by Kaiser Bill on Jul 21, 2005 at 2:56 PM Liberal, I hear ya on the prison thing; although I still maintain that high-powered/priced lawyers or not the overwhelming majority of these inmates would be exactly where they are. It’s hard to lawyer away murder and drug-trafficking.
But, I do acknowledge that the these are simply the results of much deeper, more insidious social wrongs that should be and need to be corrected.
It just saddens me to see all the empty wind over the concept of reparations; much needed efforts and resources are being drained that would have a much greater return and provide sustainable long-term benefits.
To those who say this country profited on the backs of slaves I say: you’re right. Absolutely. Just like without the wanton slaughter, rape and theft of Native Americans and their territories there would be NO USA whatsoever!
Not saying it’s right, but unfortunately throughout history the “might makes right” paradigm has reigned supreme. To try and go back and “fix” the wrongs with a cash donation doesn’t do a damn thing towards fixing the evils slavery dumped on us all in the first place.
This doesn’t even begin to address the folly of reparations from a practical perspective. For example, my ancestors came to this country during the wave of mass immigration in the early part of the 1900s - they certainly didn’t enslave anybody and neither did their ancestors. I sure the hell ain’t parting with any of MY tax money for crimes my ancestors weren’t even around to perpetuate.
And just how exactly does one plan to determine who gets the handout? Not every black person here was descended from slaves. And how about Africa? Should we look to Africa for reparations, since the slave trade wouldn’t have existed without the greedy, opportunistic sell-out of Africans by their own countrymen?
How about descendents of Union army soldiers who died in part to free the slaves in the Civil War? Should they get some payment in recognition of their ancestor’s efforts, or at least be excused from liability?
Finally, how much money should each recipient be “awarded?” How much is enough? Is crashing the economy worth it?
I doubt it…
Posted by g-love on Jul 21, 2005 at 3:18 PM It seems to me that reparations would be symbolic in nature, and should go to the NAACP or to build a national memorial portraying the slaughter and exploitation of people of color that made this nation possible. You might not have descendants engaged in the slave trade, but wouldn’t you want, g-love, to know your tax dollars were going to heal the racial divide in this country? The Civil War was not really about slavery. It was about individual states seceding because they did not want the federal government to intervene in their domestic economic issues. This was a war about state vs. federal power. So I do not think Union soldier descendants should get federal money.
If black people are in jail becasue they truly committed drug-related offenses, then why is Rush Limbaugh a free man? It is becasue he is a rich white man and the powers that be do not want his racist voice silenced. Did you hear what he said about Mehlman apologizing for the Southern Strategy? Limbaugh is a blatant bigot and should be behind bars if the law TRULY treated everyone equally.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 21, 2005 at 3:50 PM I’m surprised that no one mentions the connection between lynching and the death penalty. Check out the book Rough Justice by Michael Pfeifer. It basically traces how Progressive era reformers, alarmed at vigilante justice in general and lynching in particular in the early part of this century, used the death penalty as a means of modernizing and bureaucratizing these revenge killings. It was a historic compromise that, in the name of ending mob rule, took mob prejudices (particularly racism) and gave them a much more ruthlessly scientific legitimization. So these apologies over lynching really are crocodile tears. It’s no accident that the greatest use of the death penalty is in the South. And it’s no surprise that Congress has yet to apologize to all the families of innocent people who have been put to death through this new, technocratic form of lynching.
Posted by tbone on Jul 21, 2005 at 4:29 PM Liberal said:
“The Civil War was not really about slavery. It was about individual states seceding because they did not want the federal government to intervene in their domestic economic issues.”
Couldn’t agree more!! What most people fail to realize is that while the Civil War is errroneously credited with “ending” slavery and Lincoln gets practically canonized, the reality is exactly as Liberal states. Lincoln, thought he ultimately came around, wasn’t necessarily interested in ending the slave trade, he was in for the politics which at the time centered mostly on the issue of state’s rights. Although to be sure, in the context of his day he was practically a civil rights activist compared to his fellow Americans.
Not to get too much off topic, but the whole issue of “state’s rights” seems to have come full circle, n’est-ce pas?
But to answer your question, Liberal… yes, I would love nothing better than to have my tax dollars be spent for something worthy - for a change - like addressing the racial inequalities whose origins are steeped in the vile traditions of Jim Crow, slavery and overall racism.
But I’m after more than the “symbolic” gesture you offer up in the way of reparations. What good would that truly do? When folks speak of reparations, in general they speak in very vague terms and avoid at all costs placing a dollar figure on it. In fact, just the other day a caller to a radio station discussing the issue actually said they didn’t know the mathematics of it all but surely someone from Harvard or a similar institution could figure it out.
Well. Let’s say, for the sake of arguement, that reparations payments would equal 100 billion dollars. Even in today’s economy that’s some big bank. Now, I pulled that number out of the air but I gotta think proponents of reparations would be looking for something similar, right?
Consider that sum: if you’re really, truly interested in addressing the issues caused by racism and the evil institutions (poverty/crime/etc) that accompany it, would those dollars do more good spread around untold individuals or pooled together in social programs, increased support in education, prison reform, etc? Keep in mind, everyone appreciates a few extra bucks in their pocket but it doesn’t necessarily do much in addressing the long-term issues raised by centuries of institutionalized racism and brutality.
You see, from my perspective, it isn’t that I’m not willing to pony up some cash to try to affect a positive change. It’s just that I don’t view handouts as the best way to do it.
Posted by g-love on Jul 21, 2005 at 10:15 PM Today, 75% of the federal prison population, and 35% of state prison populations are there for the crimes of drug possession and/or sales.
THAT is a national disgrace.
Posted by Lefty on Jul 22, 2005 at 7:49 AM I agree too. The “War on Drugs” has caused the biggest swell in prison population and now the system is entrenched by the profiteers of prisons. If this country wasn’t so damned unreasonable concerning consensual “crimes” we wouldn’t have so many families being wrecked by forced incarceration for non-violent offenses. Disgraceful indeed!
Posted by pick of the litter on Jul 22, 2005 at 10:54 AM The “War” on drugs has got to end! If there ever was a bigger waste of time and money on the part of the Department of Justice, please tell me. We have so many men (read: black men)and women too that are serving 10+ years for in my opinion acts that deserve rehabilitation, not incarceration. Like pick of the litter said, it is overwhelming to think of all the families destroyed by federal criminal policy. We need to look toward Canada as a model upon which to base our criminal justice system. Up there, all criminals, from the petty thieves to the murderers, undergo rehabilitation in the hopes that they can learn from their mistakes and once again become productive citizens. In America, we just lock the door and throw away the keys. How does that help a society?
Posted by Liberal on Jul 22, 2005 at 11:24 AM This reminds me of an issue I have. Why aren’t convicted felons allowed to vote? Everybody was outraged that people were incorrectly listed as felons to be purged the vote count in Florida but nobody cares that felons aren’t allowed to vote in the first place?
Posted by NYC-Insurgent on Jul 22, 2005 at 12:27 PM The neverending campaign to disenfranchise rolls on.
Posted by pick of the litter on Jul 22, 2005 at 12:58 PM Dear Mr Salim Muwakkil and In These Times:
I have been a loyal reader of your news magazine for about 2 or 3 years now and cant say enough about how much I appreciate it. However I am not writing about this currently. Time after time I read articles about the prison industrial complex (usually authored by Mr Muwakkil) and its racist implications, and while these articles are well intended and well writen they always seem to miss the main point.
WHEN WILL ANYWAY AT INTHESETIMES UNDERSTAND OR STATE THAT IT IS THE DRUG WAR THAT CAUSES THESE PROBLEMS????
Why does inthesetimes.com never ever cover the longest running war in American History(the war on marijuana has existed since 1937 and is putting new victims in jail each and everyday). Yes this country has many racist tools we all know that but the drug war is the single largest reason why so many American Blacks are in prison and will be put in prison. Until liberal outlets like inthesetimes begin to preach against this treacherous War on Drugs little will happen.
PLEASE SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE WAR ON DRUGS:
www.norml.org (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
www.ssdp.org (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
www.drugpolicy.org (Drug Policy Alliance)
www.christiansforcannabis.com
www.votenader.orgThanks and please everyone ask www.inthesetimes.com, the Democratic Party, and other supposedly liberal organizations why they are ignoring this nations wretched Drug War
Vote Nader in 2008
Posted by NaderRaider on Jul 22, 2005 at 2:20 PM Another thing all of you calling for affirmative action think about this. Affirmative action has been proven to mainly help two groups middle class blacks and white women. Now while helping these groups is a good thing and respectable it will not solve the problem of racial inequities in our country as helping those who have already reached the middle class will leave the poorest of blacks farther behind.
Here is what is needed:
A comprehensive change to the American Public Education System! We must no longer allow the property tax system pay for public education as this perpetuates the cycle of poverty and leaves the rich and middle class children with good well staffed schools and the poor with schools in bad repair, oversized classes, outdated books, and overstressed staff. The best way to redress racial differences is to spend on education on the poorest of districts in the United States to upgrade these schools (and concentrate particularly on districts that are heavily black). While doing this we must also institute a national endowment that will ensure that anyone no matter what their social class may be can get a university degree. Write your representative in your state and in Congress and tell them to finally address the education needs of the nations poor.
ThanksVote Nader in 2008
Posted by NaderRaider on Jul 22, 2005 at 2:30 PM Pretty much, Nader… it’s all about education. I have no problem with property taxes being used, but they should be used FAIRLY - which at present time is hardly the case.
Posted by g-love on Jul 22, 2005 at 2:33 PM I have to hand it to NaderRaider on this one. The federal war on drugs is the worst way to deal with substance abuse in this country. Clearly, the fact that certain substances are illegal does not limit their use. We should do like the Dutch in Amsterdam and legalize pot! That substance is not abused in that city, and I can attest, I have been there. Anyways, back to the prison-industrial complex; the worst thing our country can do is place something as sensitive and consequential as criminal justice into the hands of private corporations. All that does is ensure that there will be a permanently abnormal incarceration rate in this country.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 22, 2005 at 3:20 PM It’s interesting to note that when Bush was booed last year at the Martin Luther King memorial day observance, Bush’s immediate reaction to this personal rebuke was to use his executive recess appointment authority to install Judge Charles Pickering, one of the most anti-civil liberties and racist judges who was recommended by none other than Mississippi’s U.S. Senator Trent Lott.
Mr. Pickering eventually withdrew his name, preferring to avoid the filibustering by the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings of his permanent installation.
Bush’s and the Republican’s hostility to blacks in this country is well-documented if anyone cares to follow the paper trail of abuses which they use to continue their insults and contempt for minority groups.
Another example: Bush won only about one in 11 black votes in 2000 and “improved” to one in 10 in 2004. He is on record as saying he is “puzzled” by this sorry number of black support. But he fails to give anyone an ounce of credit for intelligence when all they have to do is look at the unending attacks against minorities that his justice department pursues in the courts in their attempst to end affirmative action and where they fight tooth and nail to have discrimination suits dismissed.
As we all know, Dick Cheney, another typical racist Republican, sought to cut off aid to Head Start, an early child development program that is highly successful in helping minority and economically disadvantaged children. While a congressman he also voted to keep Nelson Mandela in prison and voted against imposing sanctions against the racist, apartheid government of South Africa.
Bush also launched IRS investigations into the NAACP, the sole purpose of which was to trump up false charges and use his bully pulpit to “catapult the propaganda” (Bush’s words) that the NAACP is violating tax exempt privileges by using funds to promote political ideology repugnant to and critical of the Bush
administration.Never mind that his faith-based, evangelical, Christian-only programs promote political ideology which is in lock step with the Republican exegesis. Their tax exempt status is safe.
Even though legal scholars for years have accepted the 1978 Bakke Vs University of California decision in which racial quotas were declared unconstitutional, Bush plowed ahead anyway, knowing full well he was “catapulting the propaganda” when he falsely accused the University of Michigan school of law of using racial quotas for admission. The purpose of course, was to tear apart affirmative action, an all-out attack not to advance educational opportunities, but the exact opposite, to make admission policies so rigid that only those of his money, pedigree and noblesse oblige could qualify, while still including legacy preferences, the standard he used to get himself into Yale.
There is nothing ambiguous about the Bush mob’s disdain for minorities in this country. They seek out some of the biggest violators of human rights by outsourcing the decent paying jobs in the U.S. to Third World and developing countries where subhuman standards of living contribute to abject poverty. Of course, the main purpose is to increase the bottom line profits for their corrupt, corporate Republican CEOs and political campaign contributors who exploit the cheap labor and turn the other way while inhumane treatment of workers continues unabated.
Apologies and reparations? I think you’ll find those in the same place where Bush was looking for WMDs under his desk in the Oval Office.
Posted by Richard2 on Jul 22, 2005 at 4:39 PM Another excellent post Richard2. You sum up the sorry state of affairs quite well.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 22, 2005 at 5:08 PM Richard2 said: “Another example: Bush won only about one in 11 black votes in 2000 and “improved” to one in 10 in 2004.”
How do you know, with private corporations, like Diebold, that openly support Bush and the GOP, taking and counting the votes - helping Bush and the GOP to cheat.
I’ll go on record and say that I have grave doubt that GWB has ever won an election.
Posted by Lefty on Jul 22, 2005 at 6:17 PM NaderRader,
I love Ralph Nader. He gave a lecture at my school. I think he is one of the smartest persons, and greatest liberals, in America. I think he would make a great President, at least in terms of public health, safety and welfare - THE core liberal values.
But, the reality is that unless he runs as a Democrat, or unless the Democratic party falls apart, he has no chance to be elected. And I won’t waste my vote on a candidate that has no chance.
Posted by Lefty on Jul 22, 2005 at 6:24 PM Meanwhile… “culture deep” waters are being muddied by the black conservative. Blackwashing” also comes to mind: black conservative journalists who are paid off to sell White House programs to minority communities, and so on.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment represented one of the worst cases of gov’t involved racism of the 20th century and yet perpetrated under the umbrella of a leading black institution, the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington.
Nurse Eunice Rivers, a black woman, later explained her role in the infamous syphilis experiment as one of passive obedience: “We were taught that we never diagnosed, we never prescribed; we followed the doctor’s instructions!” But even after the study was finally exposed and condemned, nurse Rivers still didn’t feel that she had done anything wrong. Is this the original Conoleezza Rice, or what?
And what has the donkey done for the black farmer lately? The Democratic Party’s failure to embrace minority communities, in any meaningful way, only serves to further disenfranchise it’s constituency and thus maintain inequality in perpetuity. For me, the most appalling scene in Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 911’ was Al Gore banging his gavel in the U.S. Senate—where not one U.S. Senator came forward in support of the black disenfranchised voters of Florida—what ultimately tipped the election to Bush in 2000.
Lynching the Black Vote:
http://blackvoternetwork.com/blackvote.htm
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jul 22, 2005 at 11:34 PM I couldn’t agree more, Tim Christopher. The Democratic Party is in danger of losing the black community if it continues to ignore them.
Posted by Liberal on Jul 24, 2005 at 2:07 PM If only the black community would wake the hell up and flex it’s considerable voting muscle, things would be a lot different!
Posted by g-love on Jul 25, 2005 at 8:19 AM The funny thing is that the Mississippi and other Southern states are referred to as the “Bible Belt”. They repeatedly call themselves the states with “moral values”. The lynchings do not seem moral to me.
Posted by tim4 on Jul 26, 2005 at 3:33 PM From Mr. Muwakkil’s article:
“This new thrust for retroactive racial justice is also, I suspect, a muted reaction to African Americans’ increasing push for reparations. The logic of reparations—that historical wounds worsen unless repaired or redressed—is apparent in many of these contemporary efforts.
But even supportive senators seem oblivious to the connection between our past of anti-black brutality and the racial disparities of today’s criminal justice system. And although the resolution wanly concedes Senate complicity in mob murders, it does little to compensate victims of a racist terrorism that was culture-deep.”
Perhaps the rhetoric in the resolution was less about actually redressing the crime of the lynchings and more about, well, rhetoric. Something like a verbal band-aid applied to a severe historical wound. Then they can say, “See, we’re trying to move forward, away from the oh-so-ugly racist past.” No more attacks of conscience then, eh? Excuse the cynicism, but when one looks at the figures on income disparity per racial category, prison inmate demographics, figures on school funding per locality, etc etc, a voice-vote apology just rings rather hollow. If they really wanted to improve the lives of African-Americans, or anyone for that matter, it would go a lot further if they’d devote more resources to improving schools and setting up job-training programs, interdicting the flow of weapons into inner city neighborhoods, and fostering the creation of jobs that can actually sustain families (without that 2nd or 3rd job, I mean). So very sorry, but what is a decades-late apology worth, really?
I also have to throw in my chip against the illusion of race-based reparations. Where, exactly, would the money come from? Who, exactly, would be eligible to receive any of it? Upon what basis would, say, the descendants of victimized immigrants or (as in my own case) indentured servants, who were also treated abominably by American law and power, be excluded from receiving any? And of course the Native Americans were cited above, as also being profoundly victimized. Shouldn’t they get paid too? By whom, though? Should the US government borrow the money to pay reparations? Should they raise taxes to do it? Should it be subtracted from revenues now devoted to social programs? Should they just print it up?
I feel that the only way to begin getting past the race-based victimizations of the past is to 1) incarcerate for life those still around who can be proved to have murdered, lynched, bombed, etc, and 2) rather than spend another erg of energy on the (unresolvable) reparations debate, use the resources in hand today for the benefit of living people, and particularly to set the stage for the upcoming generation of youth to enjoy a better life when they come of age, e.g. schools etc. The horror of human enslavement can’t really be rectified. It was too big, too blood-drenched, too long-lasting in its consequences. Invest the money into channels that might allow today’s people to make their lives better. A few hundred bucks handout per capita won’t accomplish anything.
Posted by Kuya on Aug 1, 2005 at 12:36 AM Well-stated, Kuya! It’s sort of like that proverb, I can give a man a fish or I can give him a fishing pole and teach him how to catch his own.
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