Repair Black America to Fix America

Understanding the Case for Reparations

Since 1865 America’s Freedmen, and their descendants, have been fighting for Reparations
for the atrocities the Freedmen, their ancestors and descendants have suffered and continue to
suffer due to their victimization by the American Slave Trade.

For Purposes of this plan American Slaves, and their descendants, are persons who were
referred to as Freedmen. This is the term that the United States government uses to identify
those Americans who were formerly enslaved and therefore “Freedmen” is the appropriate term.

Reparations has always been marketed as a Freedmen’s only issue since Freedmen are the
primary victims of “America’s Original Sin”. Moreover, if Freedmen are truly full American
citizens, then the case must be rebranded.

Reparations can no longer be a Freedmen’s Only issue; it must become an American

issue. A commonly accepted saying goes:

“In America, when the tide rises, all boats are lifted.”

In the Freedmen community the saying goes:

“In America, when the tide rises, Freedmen drown.”

A fair Reparations settlement will be the first time in American history in which ALL boats are
lifted.

The case for a Reparations settlement has always been perceived as a complex one.

It is only complex because some of the people involved in the quest for a settlement choose to
make it so.

Over the years many academics, economists, politicians, activists, and all in-betweens have put
forth well-reasoned, well thought out, well written but always competing positions.

Some positions state that American Freedmen would best be served by giving Freedmen
access to education and training. Another position supports funding institutions in the Freedmen
community. Finally, there are those that make the case that Descendants of American
Freedmen would benefit most from receiving direct payments. Again, these positions never
specifically state what Freedmen are asking. Instead, collectively, we continue to ask the
government what it thinks it should pay us.

The one thing all these positions have in common is they all agree that American Freedmen are
OWED Reparations.

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While many of those involved make excellent cases for Reparations few, if any, have ever put
forth a specific settlement offer.

Another impediment to achieving a Reparations settlement are the emotional distresses tied to
the atrocity that started with the American Slave trade.

This is a very important challenge to Freedmen securing Reparations because any settlement
must be agreed to by all of America.

With the involved parties unable or unwilling to discuss the issue, the fight for a Reparations
settlement will continue to be a non-starter.

The main challenges to reaching a settlement are primarily rooted in:

● Inherent White Guilt:

o Every American citizen white or black understands that slavery is the exact
opposite of our country’s belief in the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness.

o When a discussion of slavery comes up, white people must acknowledge as a

collective, they empowered our government to enslave U.S. citizens.

o The idea that they, in any way, participated is immediately triggers feelings of
guilt and defensiveness.

o Rather than see this as a government issue, many white people are unable to
separate themselves and immediately believe they are personally being blamed
which causes them to basically shut down.

o So, for many, it is simply easier to use a deaf ear when it comes to any
 discussions of racism, slavery, or reparations.

● Inherent Freedmen Anger:

o Since 1619, when the first slaves stepped of the ships, Freedmen, their ancestors,
and their descendants have looked to this country for recognition and redress of
the atrocities to which Freedmen, and their descendants, have been and
continue to be subjected.

o Since 1865, Freedmen have looked to this country to rectify the disadvantages
experienced as a result of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, land theft, mass
incarceration, the War on Drugs, the school-to-prison pipeline, and other
government sanctioned laws and regulations have been directed towards
Freedmen.

o Since 1865, Freedmen have had to endure our government addressing every
other ethnicity’s grievances while blatantly, and quite literally ignoring the
grievances of Freedmen - in many cases creating the narrative that Freedmen
are responsible for their condition.

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o Ignoring the trauma of a victim of any crime experiences can easily fuel what
becomes rage in that victim. Freedmen live with perpetual RAGE every day.

● Racism (individual and institutional):

o Rather than addressing the ramifications of slavery, our government has

traditionally, and continues to, create policy that foments inherent racism by both
black and white citizens.

o Our government goes out of its way to propagandize a narrative to

non-Freedmen that Freedmen are a threat to others. Many non-Freedmen are
socialized to believe:

▪ Male Freedmen’s sole purpose in life is to rape white women;

 ▪ Non-Freedmen people can’t get jobs or get into college because their slot
was lost to “Affirmative Action”; AND

▪ We only have crime in this country because of Freedmen.

o Where Freedmen are concerned, our government has spent countless decades
and resources convincing Freedmen to subconsciously buy into:

▪ The notion that Freedmen don’t have the ability to be anything other than
what white people will allow them to be.

▪ The notion that openly excluding Freedmen from government programs

designed to create wealth for American citizens is to be expected.

▪ The narrative that the Freedmen Community is nothing more than single
mothers, “deadbeat dads”, and children who are a drain on the country’s
resources.

▪ The notion that we are “African-American”, which psychologically

relegates us to second class citizenship.

● If Freedmen are “African-American” and the President of the

United States was allowed to call Africa a continent of “Shit Hole”
countries, what does that make us?

▪ The notion that ALL white people “hate” us or are to be feared.

▪ The notion that Freedmen have never contributed to this country or any
contributions we have made are minimal.

These points are just a small synopsis of all the issues involved.When all these issues operate
in concert, the opportunity for our nation to come together and put the horror of the American
Slave Trade and its aftermath behind us is lost.

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In other words, to achieve a fair Reparations settlement, all parties must recognize that ending
the division in this country due to American Slave Trade and its aftermath benefits all Americans
and creates new opportunities to thrive individually and as a country.

The following is a plan designed to:

 Create a comfortable platform in which all parties involved can safely, comfortably, and
openly discuss and negotiate the issue.

Take all the “competing positions”, combine them (to the extent that is fair), and create
one consensus position.

Take that consensus position:

I. Turn it into a plan of action the Freedmen community can agree on.

II. Use it as the point from which all parties involved begin earnest settlement
negotiations

After recognizing the inherent challenges, and reviewing the competing positions, it was
determined that to gain any traction, the interested parties must agree on what the terms mean.

In other words, everyone at the table must always understand the

conversation. The plan begins with the premise:

● The case for Reparations is well documented and irrefutable. The case for Reparations
boils down to two points:

1. It is a crime against humanity to enslave a human being.

2. The United States government is financially liable for damages when it

egregiously supports enslaving its own citizens.

Within the above two statements, The case is Made. The only thing left to do is quantify the
damage.!

However, it is one thing to agree that Reparations are owed, but it is quite another to agree on
what a settlement looks like.

The development of this plan started by answering the most basic questions: WHO, WHAT,
WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW.

WHERE is not a factor.

The answer to WHEN is Reparations is long overdue.

That leaves us with:

WHO are Reparations for?

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▪ Individuals who were classified as Freedmen, or living as Free Blacks in the United
States of America prior to June 19, 1865, and their descendants who have been
reclassified to or identified themselves within the past twelve years as “Mulatto”,
“Colored”, “Negro”, “Black”, and/or “African-American”.

WHO is responsible to pay the compensation?

▪ The United States government, who codified the laws which allowed for the inception
and existence of the American Slave Trade into the United States constitution, solely is
responsible for paying Reparations

WHAT is slavery!?

▪ When you separate the act of slavery from the methods that were used to create and
enforce the American Slave Trade, the answer becomes plain. Slavery is simply the
theft of labor.

✔ Brutalizing and mistreating slaves was the slave owners’ way of keeping the
industry operational and is a separate issue from slavery itself.

▪ This plan recognizes that there is absolutely no way to put a dollar value on the
inhumanity that the victims of the American Slave Trade and their descendants have
been subjected to due to slavery and its aftermath.

▪ To put a value on the inhumanity, we would have to determine:

✔ What is the value of a human beings’ freedom?

✔ What is the value of the emotional toll of having your child taken from you?

✔ What is the value of one lash from a bull whip?

✔ When a slave was murdered, how many children were lost because they were
 no longer able to sire / birth them?

✔ What would have been the value of their children?

✔ What is a single rape worth?

✔ What is a single castration worth?

Now, add all those values together and multiply that number by at least the ten million
times that those things occurred, it becomes impossible to put a dollar value on it.

▪ The plan also recognizes it is impossible to determine the dollar value of what individual
Freedmen have lost due to Heirs’ Property laws or the outright government sanction of
stealing Freedmen’s property.

Therefore, it is not productive to focus on those issues. By focusing simply on the value
of the stolen labor and lost opportunities, we can put forth a reasonable aggregate
compensation amount.

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WHAT are Reparations?

▪ For purposes of this plan, Reparations is defined as compensation to Freedmen for the
value of the labor which was stolen from them due to their victimization by the American
Slave Trade and its aftermath.

WHAT is covered?

The plan calls for 2 primary issues to be addressed:

1. The actual value of Freedmen’s stolen labor.

2. The estimated value of lost opportunities/capital from the loss of wages.

What is stolen labor?

▪ For purposes of this plan, Stolen Labor is defined as:

o The actual work performed by Slaves/Freedmen from their arrival in 1619 until
emancipation in 1865.
What does the work include?

▪ The estimated aggregate value of all skilled and unskilled labor performed by American
Slaves between 1619 and 1865

Approximately four million slaves worked conservatively an average 12 hour day prior to the end
of slavery. The Freedmen were providing a collective 48 million man hours of work per day.

WHAT is meant by “lost opportunities from the loss of wages”?

▪ Lost opportunities are what is lost by not having the opportunity to invest or save
because you are enslaved and not being paid a wage. For example:

o The home / property you cannot buy = Lost opportunity

o The business you cannot start = Lost opportunity

o The education you cannot pay for = Lost opportunity

HOW is the value determined for “Lost Opportunities”?

▪ It really is not possible to determine what each individual Freedmen’s lost opportunities
are, so;

o The plan divides Lost Opportunities into two categories, damages for “Lost
Property” and damages for “Opportunities Lost, Due to Lost Wages”

o These two categories will be each assigned an aggregate value

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o The aggregate portion of the settlement derived from these two categories, will
go into a Freedmen Community Fund, administered by the newly reconstituted
“Freedmen’s Bureau”.

o The fund will be used to build the infrastructure of the Freedmen’s community

HOW can a value for the labor be determined?

 This plan takes a common sense approach:

▪ Using the value of 2022 dollars. We simply multiply:

o The number of hours a slave was required to work per day (12); by

o The number of days a slave was required to work per week (6): by

o The number of weeks worked in a year (52); by

o The average number of years a slave would work (50)

***Please see The dollar value for the labor is outlined in the Reparations Formula
document

How will the Reparations Settlement be administered?

The settlement will include an additional $20 billion for the establishment of a newly
reconstituted “Freedmen’s Bureau”.

The Freedmen’s Bureau will have sole responsibility and authority to administer the
settlement while it will enjoy the full support of the U.S. government it will be 100%
autonomous (an independent federal agency).

The government’s or any government agency’s role in the administration of the Reparations
settlement is purely advisory.

All other issues will be settled as they arise in negotiations by the authority of The Freedmen’s
Bureau or its designee.

HOW are taxes to be collected?

● All Reparations payments / distributions will be one hundred percent tax free from
federal, state, and local income taxes

Research:

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/us-begins-paying-out-french-reparati
ons-to-holocaust-survivors-and-their-heirs/2016/09/15/87b1de56-7abb-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5
d_story.html

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https://theconversation.com/holocaust-victims-got-reparations-so-why-not-descendants-of-trans
atlantic-slavery-164478

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/27/slavery-reparations-holocaust-restitution-ne
gotiations-229881/

https://newsone.com/4293587/the-state-of-reparations-2022/
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