African Americans want reparations, not affirmative action

First, let us make it very clear to all readers that the U.S. government owes African Americans reparations for the many years of slavery, legal segregation, its part in the lawlessness perpetrated against them and for the discrimination that it created or allowed to be practiced against them after slavery ended. For those reasons, we are demanding reparations now -- not affirmative action!

Most federal and state governments created and enacted an affirmative-action policy as a remedial measure to make amends to the African American people for the human-rights violations they were subjected to (i.e., denial of equal employment, denial of educational opportunities, mob violence, lynching, racism and discrimination) after slavery which interfered with their ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness.

Reparations are needed because the affirmative-action policy has been repealed and it wasn't an effective measure working to benefit most African Americans anyway. Affirmative action mainly helped white women and other minority groups that came to this country after its inception.

We are calling for reparations because they speak specifically to repairing the condition of the African American race that was caused by the human-rights violations of slavery and its aftermath. Affirmative-action policy does not do that. Affirmative action can be awarded to any group but reparations cannot.

The concept of reparations is simple. Reparations are payable when a crime against humanity has been committed by one people against another. And certainly, no one in their right mind would disagree that 246 years of slavery and 135 years of legal segregation constitute a crime against humanity. It is well documented in our history that African Americans have been subjected to these horrendous crimes. As a matter of fact, we are still subjected to daily accounts of racism and discrimination all because of our past condition of servitude. It is morally right that we be compensated for such acts.

People seem to have forgotten that there is a whole segment of our society that has not been able to share in the American dream without some kind of interference or obstacles placed in their path for no other reason than they are of African descent. Even though slavery was outlawed on paper in 1865, we still suffered through the Jim Crow era, the Black Codes era, the lynching era, the tar-and-feathering era and the Ku Klux Klan era, which were periods of terrorism and lawlessness.

Even today we are still victims of racism and discrimination all because of our heritage. Yes, this is a bitter pill for most moral and conscientious Americans to swallow. But America has to face up to that crime and acknowledge it and compensate those affected by it. For that very reason, special preferences (or reparations) must be given to African Americans (educationally, economically, politically, socially and culturally) so as to "make them whole," or to repair the damage that has been done to them.

For those of you who want to ignore or forget how African Americans were treated after they were given their freedom, hopefully, these are some reminders. Now, you determine whether we should be given reparations from the U.S. government or not.

Greg Carey is the president of Reparations Central, an online reparations clearing house with links to reparationists and their organizations throughout the world. You can view this site at www.reparationscentral.com.