I must say that “Pay one group, pay all,” (ODE, March 13) is an uneducated attempt to explain what reparations are truly about. First of all, to deny the existence of white privilege, institutionalized racism, extralegal means of social, economic and political control over nonwhites, is to deny the fact that whites have and still benefit from slavery today.
The convict lease system, installed after the “end” of slavery during Reconstruction, was even worse than slavery. Southern whites could pay 70 cents for prisoners, predominately freed blacks who were incarcerated for violating unjust “black codes” such as “being visibly unemployed” or “being saucy to white folks,” and put them to work for a day, and eventually work him or her to death because there was no longer a $500 investment in the enslaved African body.
Post-World War II benefits, such as the G.I. Bill, were the biggest affirmative action program for white male veterans, distributing more than $4.5 billion for housing, education and employment, which nonwhites were systematically denied access to, making up only 2 percent of the beneficiaries. We all know that owning a house and obtaining an education are key to social and economic mobility through the accumulation of net worth over time. Ask yourself: “Has my grandfather or any other member of my family benefited from the G.I. Bill?”
The Jim Crow South during the ’50s and ’60s used violence and extralegal means to intimidate black Americans fighting for economic, social and political justice. If you don’t believe me, consider James Meredith, the four girls killed in a Birmingham, Ala., bombing, the Little Rock Nine, and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Not to mention the black working class struggle for political power in their own communities facing voter registration questions like “How many bubbles are on a bar of soap?”
Now, in 2003, the prison system still feeds off racial profiling and fear is distributed through crime-related TV shows and the media, leading to the criminalization of people of color, targeting our communities to fill up prisons and
turn prisoners into slave laborers. This is just a brief synopsis of the institutionalized racism still present in our American society that is constantly promoting freedom, justice, equality and democracy for all.
We must not look at reparations as a monetary solution. America needs to fix our public schools in the inner city, fund more social services and provide decent housing to those who have the self-determination to succeed but who are denied the same access to benefits as white Americans.
One might say, “I’m not responsible, I didn’t own slaves.” However, we must realize that the racism we face is systematic and not individual, and for as long as you live in this society
that promotes equality and freedom, you
are responsible.
Reparations are a right, not a privilege. If the information I have put forth seems illogical or biased, examine yourself and challenge yourself to discover information other than what you see on TV and prove me wrong. Or you can be like Salena De La Cruz and prove me right.