United Nations: U.S. Owes Black People Reparations For A History Of ‘Racial Terrorism’

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The history of slavery in the United States justifies reparations for African Americans, argues a recent report by a U.N.-affiliated group based in Geneva.

This conclusion was part of a study by the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a body that reports to the international organization’s High Commissioner on Human Rights. The group of experts, which includes leading human rights lawyers from around the world, presented its findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, pointing to the continuing link between present injustices and the dark chapters of American history.

“In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent,” the report stated. “Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching.”

Citing the past year’s spate of police officers killing unarmed African-American men, the panel warned against “impunity for state violence,” which has created, in its words, a “human rights crisis” that “must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”

The panel drew its recommendations, which are nonbinding and unlikely to influence Washington, after a fact-finding mission the United States in January. At the time, it hailed the strides taken to make the American criminal justice system more equitable, but pointed to the corrosive legacy of the past.

“Despite substantial changes since the end of the enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today,” it said in a statement. “The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population.”

In its report, it specifically dwells on the extrajudicial murders that were a product of an era of white supremacy:

Lynching was a form of racial terrorism that has contributed to a legacy of racial inequality that the United States must address. Thousands of people of African descent were killed in violent public acts of racial control and domination and the perpetrators were never held accountable.

The reparations could come in a variety of forms, according to the panel, including “a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities … psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.”

To be sure, such initiatives are nowhere in the cards, even after the question of reparations arose again two years ago when surfaced by the groundbreaking work of American journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Separately, a coalition of Caribbean nations is calling for reparations from European nations for the impact of slavery, colonial genocide and the toxic racial laws that shaped life for the past two centuries in these countries. Their efforts are fitful, and so far not so fruitful.

When asked by reporters to comment on the tone of the American presidential election campaign on Monday, one of the panel’s members, Ricardo A. Sunga of the Philippines, expressed concern about “hate speech … xenophobia [and] Afrophobia” that he felt was prevalent in the campaign, though he didn’t specifically call out controversial Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“We are very troubled that these are on the rise,” said Sunga.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Ishaan Tharoor 

{Matzav.com}


16 COMMENTS

  1. What a disgraceful organization. They are everything LEFT: in fact they’re left er than left.
    That Arab countries and African nations still have slavery today is a non-issue! How about China!
    It’s only about censuring Israel and/or the U.S.
    The whole thing should be dumped into the sea: totally obliterated.

  2. Slavery was an abomination and President Lincoln’s idea of giving “Forty acres and a mule” to all former slaves should’ve been implemented. That said, there are a few good reasons why reparations aren’t now a good idea:

    1) It’s 150 years later. Is there a cutoff point? There have been innumerable historical injustices that will never be compensated for, e.g, do we seek restitution from the many, many countries that enslaved, persecuted and murdered us over the last two millennia?

    2) Logistics. How to determine who gets what based on their ancestry? In many (most?) cases it would be impossible to determine what percentage of “40 + mule” each person should get, let alone what the current day value would be.

    3) Unlike Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the U.S. fixed its own problem and at tremendous cost in lives and property during the Civil War. By any accounting that should weigh heavily as a reparation for slavery’s injustice.

  3. History is cute. If the United Nations cared, why do they understand none of the jewish people’s fate?

    Give them credit. Misted eyes are hard to dry with hard stares. The American responsibility can be discussed among Americans. Misty eyes for the bad day.

    They are not friendly to America of Israel.

  4. Are the black people whose families moved to the US after the mid 1860s and thusly never served as slaves allowed reparations?
    Do the decendants of families that have migrated to this country well after slavery was over in the US have to pay reparations?

    • Are the black people whose families moved to the US after the mid 1860s and thusly never served as slaves allowed reparations? No. They and their ancestors weren’t harmed by slavery within the U.S..

      Do the decendants of families that have migrated to this country well after slavery was over in the US have to pay reparations? Yes, because even today all citizens of the U.S. are getting benefits from slave labor performed many years ago.

  5. What about the slave dealers who captured the African people and made them into sLaves
    in the first place. They should above all pay back reparations. And for that matter what about the Indians and their stolen lands.

    • What about the slave dealers who captured the African people and made them into sLaves in the first place. They should above all pay back reparations. So should the Europeans who participated in the slave trade. That’s a separate topic, though.

      And for that matter what about the Indians and their stolen lands. American Indians do in fact get all types of benefits from the U.S. government as compensation.

  6. totally agree. slave owners should pay their slaves reperations. people who never owned slaves shouldnt pay people who were never slaves for something that an ancestor MIGHT have been involved in

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