"NO nation can enslave a group of people for hundreds of years, set them free "bedraggled and penniless "pit them, without assistance, in a hostile environment against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines begun parallel and left alone can never touch (Robinson, Randall)."" Reparation to African-Americans is not a new topic, but it has never been this hot before, and it's only going to get hotter. The underlying, lingering effects of slavery still exists today, and it's time that we as a nation acknowledge its existence. How can we deny something that is staring us right in the face? Blacks have high infant mortality, low income, high unemployment, substandard education, capitol incapacity, insurmountable credit barriers, high morbidity, below-average life span, overrepresentation in prison and on death row ."" We must give reparations to African American descendents. .
This issue is currently being debated in states across the country. Just recently, California's legislative assembly, along with other municipalities in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Cleveland are calling for federal action on African American reparations. Jet Magazine states that "The California resolution also calls on Congress to apologize to Black Americans for the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery. It also called for a national monument and memorial as lasting reminders of the centuries-long institution of slavery (July 30th, 2001)."" And so at the moment, the issue at hand for black representatives is calculating the meaning of reparations. .
U.S. Representative John Conyers, who first proposed the bill H.R. 40 in 1989, stated that what he wants to do is "establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery and economic discrimination against African-American to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies.
