6.19.00
The Coming Reparations Boondoggle

6.19.00
Death Tax Discrimination

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No Taxation without Justification

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Gas Pains

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Nobel Mind

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Cox for Veep!

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Loud and Clear

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Crime Makes a Comeback

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Trojan Horse Legislation

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Noah Pollak Responds

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Gore's Phony Accounts

6.14.00
Why Blast the NBA?

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Al Gore, Slumlord

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Packing the Peace

6/19/00 7:50 p.m.
The Coming Reparations Boondoggle
Despite the lunacy of the idea, reparations are on the way.

By Brett M. Decker, editor of the American Sentinel

hould we pay money damages — reparations for slavery — to today's African-Americans? At first glance, such a massive redistribution of wealth seems like nothing more than any other crackpot scheme that will go nowhere — but this movement is steadily gaining ground. The cities of Detroit, Cleveland, and Dallas have officially endorsed slavery restitution, and the Chicago City Council last month passed a resolution urging Congress to push forward with reparations.

Considering diverse levels of compensation, one alderman, Carrie Austin, weighed in that "there's not enough money in this world that would be satisfactory." Nevertheless, quite a few civil-rights leaders are willing to take a stab at a number. Demands include a multibillion-dollar economic-development fund for urban and rural blacks, $10 billion for all-black universities and the current market value of the 40 acres and a mule that Union authorities guaranteed former slaves at the end of the Civil War.

Approximating the value of the latter real estate at $25,000 per head, the tab to cover this nation's 35 million blacks would easily reach into the trillions.

Those who think the coming November election is a low-stakes affair, should consider the fact that Detroit Rep. John Conyers has vowed that reparations will be the first legislative item he will pursue if Democrats regain the House this fall. Conyers, who has introduced reparations bills every year since 1989, is the ranking member on Judiciary and will become its Chairman if the elections go south for the GOP.

Grassroots groups are also quickly organizing across the country. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), a lobbying umbrella group with dozens of local chapters, has drafted a blueprint for federal "down payments" on reparations that they plan to move through the courts and congressional legislation.

Last weekend (June 16th-18th), hundreds of black Americans traveled to Washington's Howard University for N'COBRA's 11th annual Reparations Conference. Dorothy Lewis, co-chairman of the event, blames the U.S. Constitution for today's burgeoning black prison population and is insistent that America's Founding Fathers are the real criminals.

Because black criminality is the fruit of a white conspiracy throughout history to keep persons of color down, Lewis's group demands the release of all "political prisoners" jailed for activities while members of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, or any other black-separatist group.

N'COBRA's membership is divided over whether they should demand an independent black state within the geographic bounds of the United States. As hard as it might be to believe, this is now a mainstream movement. These proponents of slavery reparations predictably point to the return of Nazi loot to Holocaust victims and the disbursement of federal funds to Indians for land confiscation and Japanese-Americans for their World War II internment as precedents. But the logic is convoluted at best--just as any system to distribute reparations funds would be fraught with complications. For example, in many cases it would be very difficult to separate blacks who are descendants of slaves from those who are not. Similar pitfalls arise when considering the huge influx of European immigration that flooded into America decades after slavery was abolished. Who is to pay for whom? There also is the inevitable slippery-slope question about what group will next ask taxpayers to pony up for past prejudice.

But none of these questions really matter because political power, rather than justice, is the name of this game. The reparations movement has powerful friends. During the Democratic primary debate at Harlem's Apollo Theater last February, Vice President Al Gore and his then-opponent Bill Bradley flatly refused to condemn reparations when the issue was posed. The jam-packed auditorium hooted and hollered its support when the issue was broached.

All this marks a significant turnaround for the civil-rights movement. Once dedicated to constructing a so-called color-blind society, many minority groups now seem not only content with racial separation but actually seem determined to exacerbate the racial divide for years into the future. After all, reparations would hardly bring the country together.

Despite the lunacy of the idea, reparations are on the way. The recent coddling of rabid racist Al Sharpton by Democrats simply emphasizes how far racial pandering has progressed in politics. And doom seems even closer when you consider where conservatives must place their hope. Would you bet the store that Speaker Denny Hastert or Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott would stand against reparations if it meant being called a racist on Meet the Press? I wouldn't.

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