United Nations panel says U.S. owes reparations for slavery, mass incarceration

[ezgeze]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ays-u-n-panel/

The history of slavery in the United States justifies reparations for African Americans, argues a recent*report by a U.N.-affiliated group based in Geneva.

This conclusion was part of a study by the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights. The*group of experts, which includes leading human rights lawyers from around the world, presented its findings to the*United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, pointing to the continuing link between present injustices and the dark chapters of American history.
"In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent," the report stated.*"Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching."

Citing the past year's spate of police officers killing unarmed African American men, the panel warned against "impunity for state violence," which has created, in its words, a "human rights crisis" that "must be addressed as a matter of urgency."
The panel drew its*recommendations, which are nonbinding and unlikely to influence Washington, after a fact-finding mission in the United States in January. At the time, it hailed the strides taken to make*the American criminal justice system more equitable but pointed to the corrosive legacy of the past.

"Despite substantial changes since the end of the enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another, continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today," it said in a statement. "The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population."

Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France, chairwoman of a United Nations working group for people of African descent, reads findings about institutionalized racism after an official visit to the U.S. (Youtube/UN Human Rights)
In its report, it specifically dwells on the extrajudicial murders that were a product of an era of white supremacy:
Lynching was a form of racial terrorism that has contributed to a legacy of racial inequality that the United States must address. Thousands of people of African descent were killed in violent public acts of racial control and domination and the perpetrators were never held accountable.

The reparations could come in a variety of forms, according to the panel, including "a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities ...*psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation."
To be sure, such initiatives are nowhere in the cards, even after the question of reparations arose again two years ago when surfaced by the groundbreaking work of American journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Separately, a coalition of Caribbean nations is calling for reparations from their former*European imperial*powers*for the impact of slavery, colonial genocide and the toxic racial laws that shaped life for the past two centuries in these countries. Their efforts are fitful, and so far not so fruitful.
When asked by reporters to comment on the tone of the American presidential election campaign on Monday, the working group's chairman, Ricardo A. Sunga of the Philippines,*expressed concern about*"hate speech ... xenophobia [and] Afrophobia" that he felt was prevalent in the campaign, although he didn't specifically call out Republican candidate Donald Trump.

"We are very troubled that these are on the rise," said Sunga.

Seriously, who are these fucking idiots anyways. So they recommend that because 6% of the white population in the south owned slaves (as compared to 30% of free blacks at the time), everyone has to pay reparations? Get real.
What I found particularly troublesome was the statement

"The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population"

as if punishing the vast majority of current US citizens for a perceived wronging they had no part in (many non-blacks moved to US after slavery was abolished) in order to pay the descendants of possible slaves is going to somehow not going to create an inhibition to social cohesion?

I have yet to see any serious character who think is this is a good idea other than an occasional professional race hustler. Since these people want to correct the past wrongdoings, how about reparations for all men as they were duped by Eve into taking a bite from the forbidden fruit.

[Berengil]

The UN can go blow it out their arse.

And I'm a lefty, btw.

[DJ117]

Has the UN ever been good for the West and White people?

[Nitro Fun]

Who cares what the UN says?

[Netherspark]

No one can be forced to pay for a crime committed by their forbearers or neighbours.

[Synadrasa]

Can the UN stay in their territory ie the poor countries.

[Kraenen]

Did they comment on Turkey (Barbary Corsairs of course) or many African countries currently?

[Independent voter]

Didn't Clinton apologize for slavery? Seems like he was apologizing for everything for a while there.

[Kalis]

It is all well and good saying that the US should pay reparations, but as nobody can force them to do so, they may as well have not bothered and spent their time doing something more useful.

We have similar calls every now and then for Britain to pay reparations for one thing or another, we are not going to pay them, so it seems a bit pointless asking. Maybe some people get off on rejection, who knows?

[Belize]

Did they comment on Turkey or many African countries currently?

Of course not, that'd be racist.

OT: The U.N. has been a joke for a while. Not really sure why what they say is important, they have no power.

[Mafic]

The US pays to keep the lights on for the UN as it can act as a way to pacify the nutjobs.

[Deleted]

Of course not, that'd be racist.

OT: The U.N. has been a joke for a while. Not really sure why what they say is important, they have no power.

The only reason the UN has no power over the US is because the US is a permanent security council member. The UN has plenty of power over lots of countries, it's the legal framework for most international sanctions against countries.

would be great if they did away with vetoes or at least re-evaluated them every couple of decades.

[Kellorion]

Yes yes we do
And the English should free N. Ireland and the Chinese should free tibet

[Revi]

The psychological rehabilitation sounds like a great idea.

Should offer it to every living slave immediately.

[xact4]

We tried to charge all those filthy slave owners, but turns out they're all dead! Then we tried to do the right thing and pay reparations to all the former slaves, but they're all dead too. Who knew.

It is all well and good saying that the US should pay reparations, but as nobody can force them to do so, they may as well have not bothered and spent their time doing something more useful.

We have similar calls every now and then for Britain to pay reparations for one thing or another, we are not going to pay them, so it seems a bit pointless asking. Maybe some people get off on rejection, who knows?

Someones cousins friends uncle needs a few hundred thousand dollars, so they contract them out to do this "research" and put together a statement that's designed to look ridiculous and fail but also push a certain message... is what's going on.

[Kalis]

And the English should free N. Ireland...

Firstly, you presumably mean the British not the English and secondly, nobody is holding the Northern Irish against their will in the Union. If the majority of them want to leave, they can, but they don't.

[Ooid]

I agree, we should offer reparations to every slave in America at this very moment.

[GennGreymane]

Who cares about what the UN says?

[Shinzai]

...So... Are we going to go into the part, where it was African tribal leaders selling the slaves to other countries for money and goods? After all, Europe was buying African slaves long before America was colonized.

The maritime town of Lagos, Portugal, was the first slave market created in Portugal for the sale of imported African slaves - the Mercado de Escravos, opened in 1444. In 1441, the first slaves were brought to Portugal from northern Mauritania. Prince Henry the Navigator, major sponsor of the Portuguese African expeditions, as of any other merchandise, taxed one fifth of the selling price of the slaves imported to Portugal.

The 15th century Portuguese exploration of the African coast is commonly regarded as the harbinger of European colonialism. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery which legitimized slave trade under Catholic beliefs of that time. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex bull of 1455.

By the year 1552 black African slaves made up 10 percent of the population of Lisbon. In the second half of the 16th century, the Crown gave up the monopoly on slave trade and the focus of European trade in African slaves shifted from import to Europe to slave transports directly to tropical colonies in the Americas - in the case of Portugal, especially Brazil. In the 15th century one third of the slaves were resold to the African market in exchange of gold.

Do we even touch upon the number of native Africans that literally slaughter each other year on year and have done for centuries?

According to David Stannard's American Holocaust, 50% of African deaths occurred in Africa as a result of wars between native kingdoms, which produced the majority of slaves. This includes not only those who died in battles, but also those who died as a result of forced marches from inland areas to slave ports on the various coasts. The practice of enslaving enemy combatants and their villages was widespread throughout Western and West Central Africa, although wars were rarely started to procure slaves. The slave trade was largely a by-product of tribal and state warfare as a way of removing potential dissidents after victory or financing future wars.

However, some African groups proved particularly adept and brutal at the practice of enslaving others, such as Oyo, Benin, Igala, Kaabu, Asanteman, Dahomey, the Aro Confederacy and the Imbangala war bands. By the end of this process, no fewer than 18.3 million people would be herded into "factories" to await shipment to the New World.

The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery, who otherwise would have been killed in a ceremony known as the Annual Customs. As one of West Africa's principal slave states, Dahomey became extremely unpopular with neighbouring peoples. King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s:

"The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery…"

Like the Bambara Empire to the east, the Khasso kingdoms depended heavily on the slave trade for their economy. A family's status was indicated by the number of slaves it owned, leading to wars for the sole purpose of taking more captives. This trade led the Khasso into increasing contact with the European settlements of Africa's west coast, particularly the French.

Benin grew increasingly rich during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe; slaves from enemy states of the interior were sold, and carried to the Americas in Dutch and Portuguese ships. The Bight of Benin's shore soon came to be known as the "Slave Coast". In 1807, the UK Parliament passed the Bill that abolished the trading of slaves. The King of Bonny (now in Nigeria) was horrified at the conclusion of the practice:

"We think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself."

The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. Obviously, Europeans did not TAKE Slaves in Africa, they BOUGHT Slaves in Africa. These expeditions were typically carried out by African kingdoms, such as the Oyo empire (Yoruba), Kong Empire, Kingdom of Benin, Kingdom of Fouta Djallon, Kingdom of Fouta Tooro, Kingdom of Koya, Kingdom of Khasso, Kingdom of Kaabu, Fante Confederacy, Ashanti Confederacy, Aro Confederacy and the kingdom of Dahomey. Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa, due to fear of disease and moreover fierce African resistance. The slaves were brought to coastal outposts where they were traded for goods.

The majority were slaves before they even left the country. The only thing that changed was their master.

[May90]

Who cares about what the UN says?

The UN does!