By Pastor Rasheed Z Baaith
“And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians. 6:9)
In 1787 the 700,000 enslaved Africans in this country were worth 210 million dollars. By 1860, Southerners owned close to 4 billion dollars’ worth of slaves. The average cost of a slave at that time was $800.00. In today’s dollars that would be $24, 683. 57.
What are these numbers about, why the list of money figures? To help us understand why we will never get reparations.
At least not in the form of a check. We are owed too much money. We are due billions of dollars. This is not even taking into account the profits made from the international trade of sugar and cotton, produced off the unpaid labor of African slaves. Nor has account been taken of the monies still being generated for those whose financial legacy has slavery as the foundation of its inherited largess.
So we can, with complete justification, demand payment for all the labor, the loss of family history, the taking of our children, the exploitation of our skill sets and so much more. At least 5.5 million Africans came unwillingly to the Western Hemisphere between 1491 and 1776.
Is someone going to find their descendants and give them the unpaid wages of their ancestors? I believe not.
But my brother Dr. Kenneth Williams said this: Here is what they can do. The government can develop a real financial aid package for HCBUs that will put those colleges and universities on solid financial standing that will take them to a fiduciary standing. Advance a scholarship program for students who want to attend college but have just a 2.0 GPA. Fund a business incubator for aspiring entrepreneurs with no age limit, they could be as young as 12 and as old as 90. There should be opportunities for scholarships in training programs like those for LPNs, or barbering or cosmetics or tattooing. What of plumbing and tile laying and home remodeling? All of those careers require training and pay very well. We need government sponsored training facilities for those professions.
To say nothing of our children who have been gifted in the arts. Those who would be poets and writers and visual artists. Those who have music in their minds and movement in their limbs, they all need a place to take their potential and make their potential an expanding element in their lives. They need professional mentoring. Make all of this part of a reparation package.
Even more, we need the capability to purchase property and homes. We never did get the 40 acres and a mule. Give us access to owning land as reparations. They’ve made it easier to buy a new house than buy a house. And most of our folks would rather have a house than a new car.
I am not saying give up the fight or the discussion regarding reparations. I am saying to think outside the box.
