Understanding the Problem
This terrible, centuries-old legacy has led to a present-day situation in which the average African American net worth, according to a 2002 National Urban League study, is approximately 1/10th that of the average person of European descent. The rates of unemployment, infant mortality, poverty, poor schools, poor housing and other negative economic and social indicators are at least twice as high for African American people. Despite making up about 12% of the U.S. population, 35% of those in prison are African Americans. The number of African American farmers has gone from nearly one million in 1920 to approximately 20,000 today.
Addressing the Problem
Affirmative action has helped some people of color who have been historically discriminated against, but vast numbers of African Americans have barely been touched.
Reparations, by definition, is a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured by governments or corporations because of their group identity in violation of their fundamental human rights. Those groups that have been injured have the right to obtain from those responsible that which they need to repair and heal themselves. In addition to being a demand for justice, it is a principle of international human rights law.
The U.S. government has provided reparations of some kind or established commissions to study group discrimination for a number of other national groups, including a small number of Native American nations, Japanese Americans locked up in American concentration camps during World War II, Jewish Holocaust victims, and German and Italian Americans detained during World War II.
Supporting H.R. 40
A Congressional bill, H.R. 40, has been introduced every year since 1989 by Congressman John Conyers. It currently is co-sponsored by 40 other Members of Congress, but has never made it out of committee for a House of Representatives debate. Under this legislation, a national commission would be established to "examine the institution of slavery, subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes."
The Cobb-LaMarche campaign wholeheartedly supports H.R. 40, urges additional members of Congress to sign on in support of it, and calls for educational activities and events on local levels around the country to build support for this necessary step toward justice for those of African descent in the United States.
