In a message dated 12/7/2001 8:26:23 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> The last couple issues of Insight News covered the issue of reparations. > The issue two weeks ago talked about how the reparations committee was > working on convincing the African American community of the need for > reparations. Last week's issue covered the Lucille's Kitchen forum with > special guests Gary Schiff, Robert Lilligren, Natalie Johnson Lee and Dean > Zimmerman. > It wasn't so long ago that leading black politicians were saying that black people should stop looking to the government to solve their problems and pull themselves up by their boot straps. By putting reparations on the agenda, one is acknowledging that the government should be a part of the solution. That is a step forward, in my opinion. However, I do have a few concerns about putting forward a demand for reparations. I am not convinced it is an effective tactic. It seems to me that the demand for reparations could be used as a wedge to divide blacks from poor whites and isolate the black community. Here I will pose a number of the questions that I think ought to be addressed: If you bring the case for reparations before a court, upon what theory would you base your claim? Who is assessed for the payments? Is the concept of collective guilt applied to white people? Why not call for remedies such as the enforcement of fair employment and housing laws? What is the nature of the problem? Why were African People enslaved and brought across the Atlantic ocean in the first place? Why has the oppression of black people been perpetuated? Whose interests does it serve? Is it in the interests of the capitalist class to end racism, or to perpetuate it? Are the fundamental class interests of workers, including white workers, served by the oppression and super-exploitation of blacks? -Doug Mann, Kingfield Doug Mann for School Board <http://educationright.tripod.com> _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
