Reparations -- Yes? (was Re: Joy In Horowitzville)

[Dennis]

> We are not talking about a "case" (it's a political not a judicial
> claim) and we are not talking about "slavery reparations." Didn't anyone
> on LBO bother to read what Art said in his posts.
> 
> Carrol
> 
> Here is Art's original post.
> 
> *****
> 
> Subject:  Re: Horowitz/Reparations for slavery
>      Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 23:51:07 -0800 (PST)
>     From: Art McGee <mcgee at well.com>
> 
> Damn,
> 
> I try my best to just lurk and not say anything, because I'm
> too busy doing real activism work and not just chatting and
> talking bullshit on mailing lists, but as is the case when
> white folks try to comment on things that Black folks are
> doing, they are so off track that someone has to speak up:
> 
> 1. Reparations, as defined by EVERY major reparations
> organization and activist, are NOT simply about slavery, but
> about slavery AND the institutionalized discrimination and
> terrorism that has been inflicted on Black people over 400+
> years. It's NOT either or but AND. Understand? We don't
> think of it as a BINARY opposition. It's NOT slavery only 
> or current discrimination only, but BOTH. Got it? Good.
> 
> 2. Among those of us who are RADICALS, which includes those
> who are REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISTS as well as MARXISTS,
> reparations is only one part of an overall strategy for the
> restructuring of society. There are NO radicals that I know
> of who think that reparations are the solution in and of
> themselves. Only ignorant white folks, some of them who call
> themselves Marxists, think that the reparations campaign 
> is a "misguided" or "potentially disastrous" political
> strategy. These people simply don't know what the fuck 
> they are talking about, and they obviously have little
> understanding of the Black radical tradition, or contact
> with Black radicals for that matter. If they did, they
> would understand that reparations is a single piece in
> the overall strategic puzzle of societal transformation.
> 
> 
> Art

Nice rhetoric. What are the specifics?

DP