Mashiki janza uh was uh Queen Mother she’s actually inst stooled in West Africa uh she was the past immediate female co-chair of the National Coalition of blacks for reparations in America a teacher a warrior a pragmatist a pan africanist a mother sister daughter uh help represent our people in
2001 at the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa a member of a number of organizations the Council of independent black institutions um the national black united front and so many others Queen Mother mashariki just a remarkable sister and representative of a freedom fighter from the black power era so we
Lift the name of mashariki janza who made transition on the day of immani the last day of Quanza the 1st of January welcome back to the black table we’re here at the Black Star Network my name is Greg Carr your host and each week we take a topic an author a conversation a theme and do a little bit of a deeper dive to help the community stay informed
This week we have decided to focus on a topic that is making headlines all over the world and has had gained renewed interest here in the United States the topic of reparations we know that the first recorded case of reparations for uh slavery in the United States in terms
Of a legal petition uh was the former slave belinder Royal enslaved African in 1783 in the form of a pension and the reparations fight which began on the shores of Africa persists to this day we’ve all heard of special order 15 the 40 acres and a mule order in South
Carolina um sure that many people have found renewed interest because of the work of chi coats in the Atlant magazine the case for reparations and you may have even heard of recent conversations in California about the possibility of exing reparations and so we’re going to talk about all of that and more today
With two longdistance runners in the long reparations movement they inherited this movement from generations of African people who have struggled for reparations over the centuries particularly in the United States women like Queen Mother Moore and Cali house uh men like Omari OB obeli and so many
Others so we are joined today by Queen Mother mashariki janza who is the female co-chair of the National Coalition of blacks for reparations in America uh she is an educator she is an activist she is a community leader um she when we first met each other she was working for IND
Indianapolis public schools in the office of Multicultural education where she did curriculum development leadership development many other things uh welcome mashariki and we will also be joined by Sister Nichi tiifa founder and principal of the tafa group activist attorney black power Advocate Community organizer the sister who convened the Justice Round Table
Senior fellow the center for Justice at Columbia University uh she has worked with the ACLU she’s president of the DC chapter of the National Council of black lawyers uh also served as legislative commission co-chair for in Cobra the National Coalition of black for reparations and also serves on the national African-American reparations
Commission also the author of the recent Memoir black power black lawyer so we are joined today I had to hold it up very important book get this book sister in kichi tafa and Queen Mother mashariki janza welcome to the black table fill to be here with you Professor car and Queen Mother
Mashariki same Sant Sana I’m honored to be uh to be here I think it’s first time you’ve ever introduced me uh Kam yeah forly forly forly I introduce you yeah well we we we go back and forth I tell you what just before Co everyone uh
These two sisters uh were reached out to by Colombia University and they went to Colombia University for a conversation on reparations and one of the reasons that uh they were contacted and asked to come and join this conversation is because it’s become popular this topic
As we said so let’s just jump right into it um let’s just jump right into it when we think about reparations uh what what are we talking about mrii maybe you want to go first and theni you can jump in when we say reparations what should people
Know uh I always like to start from the beginning uh the fact that we were stolen as Africans uh through uh human trafficking we were brought to these shores as Africans uh and I’d like to uh always remind us we’re still Africans uh and so what reparations is
About is uh for uh this country and other countries to pay the debt that is owed for all the uhh awful things that they had done because we all know that uh kidnapping is a crime murder is a crime rape is a crime and they’ve committed all of these things uh uh Upon
Our People uh for numerous of years um I also like to point out you know we’re talking about the history uh to always uh spell the myth that uh African people are responsible for our enslavement we are not uh we have always resisted we have always fought uh you’d have to go
To Africa uh and talk to uh our people there who talk about uh the ancestors that died on those Shores defending us uh and trying to uh uh uh keep us were there collaborators of course there were we still have them today you know uh uh there’s always collaborators but the
Majority of our people fought uh uh uh to keep us um but here we are today uh um with the theme of reparation still uh in in the air uh because the the people here the government here has never owned up to its crimes and uh uh we are saying
That you have committed a crime against a people and we’re not going to stop with our demands that we are paid for our labor that’s Cali house was doing I mean I’m just I was just so amazed when I I found out about her uh right after
The enslavement uh period in the I call them concentration camps uh that she was in her and Isaiah Dickerson uh walked this land they didn’t have no cars or or anything they walked this land and they were able to organize over 400,000 people right after the enslavement
Period and how they wanted was pinion for the older folks cuz I think many of us don’t realize once the and and enslavement period was supposedly over uh a good deal of the people that were uh freed so-called were elderly people and so Cali house and Isaiah Dickerson
And their organization you know uh went throughout this land and uh uh people paid 25 cents of course it end up being their demise because the uh uh government accused them of male fraud same thing did to Marcus Garvey and uh uh imprison uh C house
So you know we we have this history uh uh reparations and the demand for reparations is not new it just didn’t pop up a few years ago it it has been here and uh I really um uh like to credit uh uh uh sister in kichi uh Baba
Hannibal uh imari oad Deli uh arra aror uh and all the ones who formed Queen Mother Moore and Cobra uh which has put it on the modern stage and uh uh we’re continuing their work that that’s our job uh as long as I’m here everyone that I had named work for reparation until
They died and they passed that on uh to me and I have no choice but to do so thank you Queen Mother uh in ki we heard uh Mas shrii talk about that narrative history of reparations before the Civil War as we mentioned in introduction but then picking up with that EXs slave
Mutual relief and pension fund folks Can Read Mary Francis Barry’s book my face is black is too true you want to know more about Cali house and Isaiah Dickerson and that and that fun she brought it right up into the 20th century with the garveyites and the Garvey movement of course mentioning
Queen Mother odley Moore could you uh because neither one of you are nearly young enough to participate in old enough to participate in any of those movements but to inherited this baton from a great many of the uh the folks that mashariki mentioned could you say a
Little bit about uh how this reparations movement saw Resurgence in the 1960s when you she mentioned Mari oeli and the Republic of new Africa and so much and so much you write about in black power black lawyer could could you take us through how the modern reparation
Movement emerges out of the 60s some of participated in yes thank you so very much and thank you Queen Mother for um for that very uh illustrious uh history and you spoke about Queen Mother Moore because she is the one who actually ushered the reparations movement into uh
The current ERA I guess you could say she started with the Garvey movement but she became active in every single reparations movement until her death I think it was in 1996 or 1997 uh she formed in the 50s the the Ethiopian women’s Association and other groups calling for reparation she called
For um um payment for the genocide that we have been suffering she influenced the Civil Rights Movement she influenced this South African anti-apartheid movement she influenced the Black Power movement she was the influencer with respect to the Republic of new Africa the Black Panther Party many of these
Organizations during the 60s in fact every single organization uh black nationalist Black Power movement during the uh 60s had as part of their platform their 10-point program or whatever platform they had the issue of reparations or restitution I remember myself being influenced by the Black Panther parties newspaper I’m 16 years
Old selling black panther paper newspapers on the streets of Washington DC looking at their point number three you know dealing with restitution mass murder and enslavement of black people uh the Republic of new Africa 1968 in its Declaration of Independence stated that we claim no rights from the
United States other than those rights belonging to oppressed people anywhere in the world and these include the right to damages reparations do us for the Grievious injuries sustained by ourselves and our ancestors by reason of us lawlessness and I know this like we learned wrote the Declaration the the um
U Pledge of Allegiance and all like that I learned uh our history uh what we call new African uh political science at the feet of these Elders such as the Mario bedelli and Cho lumba Queen Mother Moore and the like and you had organizations the nation Islam the African people’s
Socialist Party we have organizations of national black United up front we had civil rights groups we had James Foreman the senior not the junior who is currently a professor y but the senior James Forman interrupting Sunday service at church calling for payment for these past harms and actually some of the
Churches did in fact pay into a fund that was there around that time you had Dr Martin Luther King okay yeah he was talking about um coming to Washington to cash that check and I know it sounds metaphoric okay but he believed in uh uh recompense amends for the harms that had
Been um that had been done but what actually brought the reparations movement into what I call the actual modern era was the founding of in Cobra of which Queen Mother marshi serves current as female co-chair the National Coalition of blacks for reparations in America 1987 founding I was at that
Founding uh convention called for by the president of Republican new Al Mario bedelli upon the urging of sister Queen Mother Dorothy Lewis who had an organization called the black reparations Commission of brick and all of us were you know coming together saying you know we got to do something
About all of this madness so brother Mari was the one who issued the formal call for reparations loving people from across the country to come to Washington DC and to talk about at that time it was an independent black foreign policy and a do domestic reparations program here
And that was the birth of En Cobra and you know it wasn’t like everybody was up one mind some people were saying sure well we don’t necessarily need to follow a commission because at that time the um the Japanese Americans were in the process of um struggling for their reparations for their undue
Incarceration during World War II and in 1988 that bill passed a civil liberty act which granted reparations to Japanese Americans and we looked around in in coova which has been started a year early and said if they could give her permiss right right surely these centuy of our um uh uh maaa
Trauma you know genocide thinking of reparations to us so I’ll conclude it you know at that particular particular point but that was the birth of incra well let’s pause this is actually just we’re gonna take a quick break and when we come back let’s pick up right there
With the founding of the National Coalition of blacks for reparations in America because what you’ve both done in mashariki and uh in kichi brilliantly is frame this in an intern national panafrican uh perspective so when we return we’ll pick up right where we left off uh the black table Blackstar Network
Back in a Moment we’re all impacted by the culture whether we know it or not from politics to music and entertainment it’s is a huge part of our lives and we’re going to talk about it every day right here on the culture with me baraji Muhammad only on the Blackstar Network we’re back at the black table Greg Carr joined by in kii tafa and mashariki janza on the subject of reparations and I’m sure that folks are pausing this taking notes you are getting the primer you need to be able to have an informed conversation about
This so we know that it didn’t start with an article in the Atlantic by our brother tan coats it didn’t start with the recent uh social media phenomena known as the American descendants of slavery and it didn’t start uh with any of the uh kind of sensationalistic debates and conversations taking place
This is a long range movement and Ki when we left you had brought us to the founding of En Cobra of course and you and mashariki of course long time founding grounding members of En Cobra and leaders in in Cobra um we we know now that shortly well around that same
Time and I guess this we might call that Nation Islam calls their history the Detroit history Detroit playing this outsized role could you talk a little bit about the piece of federal legislation that just left committee hr40 and some of its roots and some of those Works in uh Detroit like
Reparations Ray Jenkins and of course congressman John kanyes give us the roots of for those of those watching you know that there is a reparation study bill uh that is working its way through Congress could either of you give us some of that Detroit history and talk
About where hr40 came from and what it what what it really is okay if uh if it’s okay with eni I I will start and and then I will like uh you know she can bring us up on where we are where we are now and we are at a very historical
Place you know but um uh uh and maybe I really should let her do it because she was there uh I came into in Cobra a few years uh uh after all this got started but uh the person I met was reparations Ray who was constantly constantly
Talking about uh uh uh reparations and constantly uh telling his friend John Conor you need to produce a bill you need to bring forth a bill and again uh in ki fill in the uh of the details of that and so when I came in that’s what
We were doing we were moving towards uh uh hr40 uh as as well as uh another lawsuit that was that was in the works uh and that came about and was always on the table reparations Ray made sure uh not only you know uh we say all the time
It doesn’t matter what you say is what you do as to who you are and reparations R rais the money he raised the money for us to have a lawsuit he raised the money for us to push hr40 uh and he did that until he died
And uh we have uh nothing but respect for for uh uh Congressman Conor because he kept it going over 20 some years he kept it going and here we are now with um I think about 218 signatures on that and we U still have a lot of work he’s a
Congressional co-sponsor 28 218 so far yes yes yes yes we still have have a lot of work to do and I know eni’s been right in the midst uh of that work so I’ll let her bring us on up to where we are you help us Ani in fact uh I
Remember a talk you gave a couple of years ago at your beloved how Howard University School of Law where you served of course for many years on the faculty and were the founding director of the Equal justice program and you really walked us through this multi-prong strategy Community activists
And Community workers but also battles in the courtroom you know as fascinating as as I’m sitting here listening to you sisters how many black women are involved in this you mention a a Toro When you mention yourself as lawyers help us understand this multi-prong strategy and where hr40 fits in it okay
So thank you um very much so it is multi strategy because we’re not a monolithic uh people and even when uh hr40 was H 40 was patterned directly off of the Japanese American redress uh bill which first called for a commission to study uh the issue and then it was to
Develop um a proposals the strategy was not 100% agreed upon by all the reparations loving people who came F folk some folk were saying we don’t need a commission to study we already know what this issue is and then other people were saying well this is the way the
Japanese did it if we go exactly that way there’s no way they can counter our uh demands and so uh those who disagree we just agree respectfully to disagree and those of us who agree to go along with the approach congressman John con did but it never devolved into
Disrespect or name calling or any some of these things that we’re seeing cropping up um now we um principally agree to let’s see how how this goes and so it was a strategy and it was a very successful strategy why do I say that because during that time it’s not like
It is now where it’s sexy and fashionable and hip to talk about reparations you know back then it was Fringe and it was um uh difficult to even get people to feel comfortable even just mouthing the word reparations we were really in a different time then so I said was successful because calling
For a commission to just study the issue during those early days allow in Cobra to really mainstream the reparations movement it wasn’t confined within the black power black nationalist um uh Arena of which I came in came of age of but it expanded to sororities and fraternities and religious and Faith
Organizations and uh civil rights the larger civil rights and civil liberties uh Community because it was easy how could you disagree with just a commission just a study and as I told t when he was writing his article hr40 did not give one red Cent to anyone it was
Just a commission to study the issue and so it allowed us to have quite a number of proliferation of municipalities across the country I’m not talking about within the last two years I’m talking about 25 to 30 years people to Illinois all over the country you had cities endorsing hr40 they were
Endorsing the concept of a commission to study so that helped to build the momentum California what’s going on today didn’t just drop from the sky EV Illinois with the reparations that they are giving out right did not just drop from the sky it dropped from 25 to 30
Years earlier when legislators upon the um um um the urgent in inspiration of in Cobra says yes we can get on board with a commission to study the issue so what’s come happening now it’s simply a continuation of what happened before you know it’s interesting as you talk and and again
And we’re gonna have to have you all back because there are so many figures that people know names they know that they wouldn’t connect to the reparations movement I mean working in John con’s office we know was Rosa Parks there’s the connection to the Republic of new Africa in Mississippi When you mention
Illinois Illinois Slave Trade Commission Conrad roel and so many other the city of Philadelphia New York so many places in kichi is so important um either you or Omar Shiki help us understand how this long struggle uh was not only considered perhaps Fringe In some ways but was met with open opposition think
About the state of Mississippi or the city of Jackson the federal government political prisoners folks I mean you know like you say it’s sexy now but what what was the cost that many these reparations activists paid for their advocacy well uh you know when you uh
Look at it brother Kam uh we’ve always had this uh uh uh uh resistance to uh to our freedom we’ve always had it this this this government all branches of government have have have been against that uh but I wanted to mention uh I
Want to get to your point but uh uh in you mentioned uh Dorothy uh Benton Lewis yes uh a a a true champion uh darthy really brought me into the reparations movement back in the early 70s and uh uh she never stopped she never wavered uh and so those mainstreams that we were
Able to bring in the sororities the churches D that was Dorothy’s Mission and Dorothy used to say all the time we are going to get reparations in in our life time and and and I believed her uh you know and I worked alongside her and uh no one worked any harder than than
Dorothy uh as I had mentioned some of the other uh uh uh ancestors that we have everybody work for reparations until they died they never stopped you know not not once Baba obad Deli was was was Ill he was coming to every board meeting raising hell you know trying to get us
To understand that it’s a Grassroots people that we got to get to that that we have to get to listen to us we have to have programs for our people um and uh as well as brother Hannibal who uh uh uh uh got his land had survival
Trainings for families to prepare us in fact uh yeah in Cobra’s uh convention is coming up uh in June June 23rd through the 25th in New England uh and we’re going to be talking about uh how do you prepare for reparations you know uh and
What needs to be in place and we need uh uh organizations that have reparations platforms to come in and uh share what they have because that’s what as in ki said that’s what in Cobra has always been about trying to pull together those organizations that have a reparations
Platform we don’t have to agree on everything do we agree that reparations are due do we agree that we need to demand reparations for our people uh um as long as we can agree to those things uh we should be able to work out uh uh
Uh anything else that that stands in our in our way well let’s pause here for a moment and when we come back let’s talk about the landscape of today we know that there is legislation empowering a California panel to make recommendations to the California legislature we know
That there has been a local reparations movement and as in kichi mentioned Evon Illinois being probably the most prominent uh place that is kind of made recent headlines let’s talk about this contemporary Ed uh reparations movement in that context so we’ll be back in a moment joined by inij tiifa and
Mashariki janza here at the black table back in a Moment hi I’m Dr Jackie Hood Martin and I have a question for you ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders well let me tell you living a balanced life isn’t easy join me each Tuesday on BlackStar
Network for Balan life with Dr Jackie we’ll laugh together cry together pull ourselves together and cheer each other on so join me for new shows each Tuesday on BlackStar Network a balanced life with Dr Jackie we’re back at the black table the Blackstar Network and we continue our conversation on reparations with eni tafa and mashariki janza in ki given the thrust that you all have led us through we’ve now seen uh a burst of interest in reparations and another wave of movement
And this wave of movement while certainly building on the momentum of the long reparations movement there are some other elements that have come into uh interview and I think about our sister Jam Amor and I think about the fact when you all convened in New York to create the national African-American
Reparations uh group uh certainly Ron Daniels playing a a major role in that another longtime reparations activist could you talk to us a little bit about what’s going on California what’s going on in Evon Asheville places like that local reparations how do you read this uh this current interest in reparations
And the push certainly legislatively to try to secure reparations for us okay well it’s a direct flow from the inactivity of HR 40 over the past 30 years uh while state and local U municipalities have been um picking up uh the banner the federal Bill uh has
Not had a vote on the full floor just recently there was a vote in committee which was phenomenal absolutely phenomenal and as Queen Mother said they’re now more committed co-sponsors than ever they’re actually 216 committed votes uh but what’s happening across the uh country is that F said we’re not
Going to necessarily wait on the federal uh government we can and must start doing this now the federal government was not the only culpable party there was also um state and local municipalities religious institutions academic institutions Industries corporations private uh Estates so all of these coupable parties need to have
Redress so the state of California recently passed a a bill pattern off of hr40 called um California AB 3121 they are engaged in historic hearings right now prior to that the City of Evanston Illinois used a very creative strategy using tax dollars from their legal cannabis industry to fund reparatory
Justice initiatives um that they deemed um essential in uh in that jurisdiction across the country there commissions just popping up from Asheville uh North Carolina to Massachusetts to Vermont to um uh uh uh in Missouri Chicago uh uh Minnesota I mean the list the list is
Growing almost uh daily uh there is a danger though and the danger is similar to the danger that happened with Cali house and with Marcus Garvey and with the Mario belli the the the activity the activism uh in the past and hopefully we I’m seeing um rumbling say the
Current is being criminalized and um interesting what do you mean by that in well uh if folk remember the coin TPO the FBI’s a secret uh one secret illegal campaign to disrupt and destroy the movement they don’t talk about reparations as part of that but the people that they were targeting the
Group organization the black party the republ new Africa the nation of all have reparations as part of their platform as Queen Mother Said Cali house went to prison advocating for reparation Marcus Garvey went to prison for advocating for uh repatriation not swimming in the ocean naked but with with with you know
Amends from from the US uh uh government and there are forces going on now that we don’t maybe 50 years from now we might see exactly what was going on and what was happening but there are disruptive forces happening and now that the ascendency of reparations has taken
CER for reparations is on fire it’s spreading across the country and we must not allow that fire to be uh extinguished let’s try this together actually this is good for both of you um you you struck on something Mash uh in kichi that is very important I thought
About you and mashariki in the same moment because I think about about I guess what 20 21 years ago the World Conference Against Racism in the fall of 2001 where the delegation from the United States and was able to push through not only reparations language but the the the assertion that this we
African people are subject to genocide even in the United States we saw that in 1951 crime against humanity absolutely I guess I’m thinking about this in the context of the recent uh hearings in California where the study Commission recommended to the California legislature that LE that reparations be
Restricted to those who could prove that they had an ancestor enslaved in the United States so including I mean excluding African people who came here after enslavement and what you just laid out for us really raises a question in my mind for either of you and that is
You know what is the value of the struggle for reparations in the United States being linked to the International reparations struggles what what have either of you seen and experienced as the strengthening of local reparations demands in terms of a of a US Demand by connecting it to these International reparations
Movements well the the international connection is extremely important uh because as I said uh they uh kidnapped us as Africans they scattered us all over the world uh uh uh more Africans uh uh in Brazil outside of Africa than than any any other place um and as as a
Result of that you know we are we are bound by our oppression um um and um uh there needs to be uh a payment there needs to be recognition uh uh uh of the pain uh that has been uh forced upon us as a people all over this world and so that that
That’s our connection as as a people now brother Hannibal at freak tells us that people here in the United States has to go uh um uh have to gain their reparations from the people here people in Brazil have to gain their reparations from the people there but we support that you know we
Work very closely with the reparations movement uh in London uh uh sister Esther uh uh uh Champions that um and I wanted to just speak briefly and I I’ll turn it over to uh eni about this this lineage you know there’s there’s nothing wrong with uh finding out your your
Lineage uh but when you base reparations only on that you know you displace a lot of people because we all is it’s the obscenity that our history has not been recorded that we can’t go back to understand where where we’re from uh and to use that as the only
Basis for reparations you really are displacing uh um uh uh many many of our people for folk who might not know when you say lineage of course we think about uh Scholars like Sandy Dar and Kirsten Mullen Dan North Carolina and many others who are advocating that lineage
You have to prove your descent from an enslaved person in the United States in order to file any potential claim for reparations is that how you understand lineage to operate oh that’s how I understand they are interpreting it you know but right and I’m saying that uh um
Uh we’re not limiting uh uh the our fight for reparations to to just that group uh no one is saying that you you shouldn’t find out where you come from for those that can that’s great uh uh but we have you know we we need uh institution building you know uh we have
To teach our people about self-reliance uh and and how to take care of themselves without being so dependent on these folks that we have been dependent on for all these years um uh there’s so many many things we talked about what’s going on in everon with the
Cannabis piece who has looked at all our brothers and sisters still in jail yes for possession of marijuana yes while these white folks are out here making millions selling legally marijuana and so you know that that’s a reparations case you know um and uh uh you know
That’s what we have to do we have to bring attention to those things that uh uh they are using you know uh to keep us down after all these years you know they still they still feel the need you know to put to keep their foot on our neck
And so you know we have a lot of work to do with our young people to understand uh their role in uh understanding who they are and that you know self-determination and self-reliance is uh where we have to be as a people so we we’ll take our final break thank you
Mashiki and when we come back uh in kichi maybe from there you can uh open our discussion in terms of where you see the reparations movement going forward from where we are right now now that has achieved a renewed prominence and we will pick up with that conversation in a
Moment after we take this brief break here at the Black Star network with the black table back at a Moment it’s time to be smart Roland Martin’s doing this every day hold no punches than you Roland Martin for always giving voice to the issues look for Roland Martin in the Whirlwind to quote Marcus Garvey Again the video looks phenomenal so I’m really excited to see it on my big screen
Support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told see this difference between black star Network and black own media and something like CNN I got to defer to the Brilliance of Dr Carr and to the Brilliance of the Black Star Network I am rolling with
Rolling all the way H to be on a show that you own a black man on the show folks black star network is here I’m real revolutionary right now Rand was amazing on there St I love yall I can’t commend you enough about this platform
That you’ve created for us to be able to share who we are what we’re doing in the world and the impact that we’re having let’s be smart bring your eyeballs home you can’t be black on media and be scared you Dig we’re back with our final segment here at the black table joined uh this week by mashariki janza the female co-chair of the National Coalition of blacks for reparations in America and in kichi tiifa found and principal of the tafa group and a founding member of in
Cobra and so many other uh so many other battles that she’s waged over the years and kichi help us understand because you have been non-stop over across platforms making these arguments and again the legal arguments just fascinate me how a lot of folks are relying on law that
Isn’t anywhere in the Constitution and that in fact is Judge made law and and I wonder what goes through your mind as you look at where we are now whether it be hr40 or the California proposed reparations model or the local reparations movement survey for us if
You can in a thumbnail where you see the reparations movement going from here well one of the things is that we really need some creative legal Minds you know we cannot rely on the Master’s tool to dismantle the master house I think that quote came from Audrey uh uh L we need
We need people like me who I was 30 40 years ago young curious Innovative Minds to um uh to be able to not uh uh sweep our claims under the rug not say well because the Supreme Court says you can’t use race and we’re not going to use race
We just you know we we have to come up with our own strategies we have to demand that International law uh shape things around how we want them to be as opposed to us always looking at what other groups have done and enshrined in international law our struggles need to
Be enshrined there as well at this stage now where we’ve gone beyond people being comfortable mouthing the word people are very comfortable with it now we need our strong Minds to come together and look at exactly what does reparations look like and as n says no am amount of monetary resources will
Ever um um compensate for everything that we’ve been through and I might add it’s not just about closing the black white wealth Gap that’s not the only harm that was a huge harm and en Koba has five injury areas which Queen Mother I spoke of once in terms of one in terms
Of the criminal punishment system and you have the black white wealth Gap and you have the health disparities you have the educational inequities and you have the peoplehood nationhood and each one of those need to be addressed so that’s what I see Professor Grant Carr going
Into the future looking at each of those injury areas and determining just what the amends for that will be and again it’s not just in monetary dollars I’m not saying that’s not a part of it I personally feel it is and should be but it’s much much much much much more than
Much More Much More and come can I U mention because you had mentioned um uh the World Conference Against Racism now one thing in terms of this whole International connection uh uh uh we were there and we talked to our people all over the world and we discovered not
Not that it was you know uh not in front of our face you know we all have been oppressed you know we we we all in in in the same boat you know uh uh with the same conditions wherever we were and and so there was a Unity that that came
Together among the people and really we were fired up ready to go and then of course as you know while we were there 911 happened uh and I think that’s that’s that that’s critically important for people to understand had it not been for 911 2001 that World Conference
Against Racism I think would have been much more prominent in the imagination so you saying while y’all were in South Africa huh yeah what kind of and and as we know of course Colin pal Secretary of State cona rice National Security adviser the United States government
Came out in opposition to much they all W they all walked out it was embarrassing to even have to admit that you come from the uh the United States and here some Progressive things were were trying to uh uh happen you know uh
Oh we we had we had so many uh uh uh issues I had a a sister that I know that was in the European block and uh they tormented that lady uh uh because she would not vote uh uh for Israel um so it
I mean I I learned a lot in terms of what our people are going through uh uh throughout the world and and guess what we all have the same types of uh of issues we are being treated as we always have been treated you know uh uh less
Than um and so uh I think we’re saying now in terms of the future reparations hey uh uh uh we are more than uh and we are going to demand what is rightfully ours you know acknowledge your mistake uh uh uh you know they’re just damn fools but they almost they could have
Been done with this they could have done 40 acres at a mu you know it’s it’s so much that could have been done but you know they’re so determined to keep us down uh which is why we’ve got to the the future is to organize our young
People uh for them to understand again who they are and what uh self-reliance and self-respect uh uh is all about and I look forward to uh uh continuing this movement with these young people uh and I am uh optimistic that uh and hopeful that uh uh we will see reparations In
Our Lifetime as uh Dorothy Lewis Venton has has has said yes well we’re almost at a time do uh you ra yeah it was so fast wor we gonna come back I mean that’s the beautiful thing about Blackstar Network uh is black own so we can always come we need to have
This conversation again I’m hoping that uh that mariy what you raised is so important in terms of the value of reparations for our people and also just in terms of society as you said they could have been done with this Ki when people say well you giving this to black
People how does this benefit me how does reparations benefit Society generally in your man in your mind well I just want to say something first is that it’s not like unit stes hasn’t paid reparations they paid reparations to the white folks in 1862 pursuing to the DC compensated
Emancipation act they didn’t pay it to us like Mar said they paid it to the white folks wa wait hold on counselor somebody may have missed that you saying that there was there was reparations paid somewhere in this country during enslavement but not to the people who were enslaved absolutely it was provided
Its incentive to the white folk to um to free us they paid them to free us not only that I recently found out that in 1892 the descendants of 11 Italian lynching victims in New Orleans received cash reparations from the United States government so it’s not like this is a
Foreign concept I’m I’m not even talking about the Japanese American reparation bill in um uh 1988 but I’m talking about all throughout history and then the giving of the land they took the land from our 48 in the MU they gave it to the white folks they took they they did
Not allow us to benefit from the Homestead Act we couldn’t benefit from the GI bill that we were subjected to um bed lining educational inequities Health inequities mass incarceration murders lynchings I mean everything but other groups get compensated but we got affirmative action about to go away very
Quickly it is old it is due it must be paid and that it’s the only way that there will ever be any type of healing in this country thank you thank you on that note um mashariki janza female co-chair of in Cobra and in kiji tiifa uh principal and
Founder of the tiifa group reparations lawyer and Warrior thank you both for joining us for this all to brief hour at the black table and I hope you all will come back soon so we can continue this conversation because it’s only going to get more intense from here thank you both thank you
Both of course priv being a long distance F of yourself I’m now come to New England June 23rd 25th help us hammer it out what’s the website uh uh in Cobra Cobra online.org online.org website to oh yes pleas reparation education project.org reparation no ask reparation education project.org reparation education project.org
And N I’m sorry NC o b r online.org okay so you all check both those websites out that is the point of departure start there for your point of entry into reparations we want to thank these sisters two Titans in the work of reparations now only in the United
States but globally thanks again Unity is the key Unity is definitely the key I sh I back in a moment we’ll clear the Table don’t you think it’s time to get wealthy I’m Deborah Owens America’s wealth coach and my new show on the Black Star Network focuses on the things your financial advisor or Bank isn’t telling you so watch get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network folks black star network is here hold no punching I’m real revolutionary right now support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told thank you for being the voice of Black America rolling I love y’all we have now we have to keep this going the video
Looks phenomenal see this difference between black star Network and black own media and something like CNN you can’t be black on media and be scared it’s time to be smart bring your eyeballs home you Dig Welcome back to the black table we’ve had a powerful hour spent discussing reparations and there are any number of quotes we could use to clear the table today there are so many ancestors that were evoked today by in kichi and mashariki Queen Mother Moore Dorothy Benton Lewis table that freak Amari
Obeli and so many others but we all all remember that all of these ancestors and all of these elders and all of the current Warriors and future Generations must always remember that while we are old as marrii said Unity is the key and at the center of unity is reconciliation
And self-repair self-determination that is the owering engine that drives reparations and the reparations movement so thank you for joining us here at the black table and we’ll see you next week on the Blackstar Network I’m Greg Carr your host and thanks again see you Soon
source
