Before Reparations-Black America has a greater need

 To say that I was surprised to be directed toward an article titled “Evanston, Illinois to begin distribution of up to $25K in reparations to Black residents” written by DeMicia Inman for Yahoo News dated March 4, 2021 would be an understatement.  I guess my surprise came when I realized that this action, while maybe of good intentions, would clearly do more harm than good in the long run.

 

The article reported that “the midwestern city is the first in the country to establish reparations with a commitment of $10M over the next decade.  In Evanston, Illinois, eligible Black residents will receive reparations up to $25K as part of a commitment from the city. ABC News reported that the city, north of Chicago, will begin issuing payments this year. 5th Ward Alderman Robin Rue Simmons pushed for the legislation. She was inspired to work on closing the racial wealth gap through her own experience growing up Black in Evanston and still living there through adulthood.  “Early in my childhood I was invited to have a play date,” she said to the outlet. “My white friends never had a play date at my home.”

Rue Simmons continued, “The streets were wider. The trees were taller. The homes were bigger and brighter. As a young child, I recognized that difference.”

 

Although Evanston is the first city to make the historic move, it will hopefully not be the last. As theGrio reported, President Joe Biden has made plans to act on reparations for African-Americans. Senior advisor, Cedric Richmond, confirmed that the White House plans “to start acting now.”  “We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back, and especially African-Americans who were enslaved,” Richmond explained, according to the report. “We have to do stuff now to improve the plights, status, and future empowerment of Black people all around the country.”  Richmond continued, “I can’t tell you if, what the time frame on the bill is, but I can tell you this. If you start talking about free college tuition to [historically Black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way.”

 

I respectfully disagree with that premise because before reparations, Black America and honestly all America has a much deeper and broader need.  This country has been running by the idea that whatever problem exist, just throw money at it until it goes away.  We still have not learned our lesson because history is full of clear examples how that idea of throwing money at a problem will not make it disappear.  This issue of slavery goes much deeper than any amount of money will fix.  While money is part of the solution, it is never the total solution.

 

Mr. Richmond (mentioned above) speaks of free college tuition to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and free community college as an indication that “we are on our way” and while that is true, it is not our very first steps that we, as Black people and as a country, must take first. 

 

There is a deeper mindset, which must be dealt with first and foremost.  It’s that mindset which prevents all of us as human beings from achieving and portraying the best of ourselves.  Slavery did more than just lock down a community, it ruined a great nation, whose ideas of all men created equal was well before its time and had it not been corrupted by a few whose ideas was all about a defunct feudal system could have truly made this nation “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. 

 

As I wrote about once before in my article titled “Which do you prefer Generational Change or Feel-Good Change?, Ronnie Manns, www.mannsmedium.blogspot.com, July 9, 2020, “There are so many other things that is more intrinsic and deserve our attention more than this. The first I believe and as I previously stated we need a constitutional amendment to erase every mention of the word slavery or any reference to the word from the constitution. There are “11 clauses in the Constitution that deal with or have policy implications for slavery, 10 protect slave property and the powers of masters. Only one, the international slave-trade clause, points to a possible future power by which, after 20 years, slavery might be curtailed—and it didn’t work out that way at all.” If anyone can point to the very document that our laws are built upon and honestly use the verbiage of that document to project how “the founding fathers” felt it was okay, then we will forever have a society that clearly does not see “all men created equal”.

 

Step two is to change the very existence of our “American History Books” as distributed all over the United States and into every school, public and private, in the nation. Image being a white child and see people who look like you are having played major roles in the construction of this nation, image the pride you must feel, now image the black child not seeing people who look like you are having any part in the construction of a nation except for that very large section on slavery where, for the first time, you do find someone who looks like you. Now you may be able to get a glimpse into how it may feel to hear people telling you to go back to where you came from or how this nation belongs to them and only them because they built it. This new construction should be equally the contributions all made in the forming of this nation to include all races and sexes not just those who the former publishers only wished to promote. Now we visit a classroom where this book is viewed by all races of children and they learn together what those who looked like all of them contributed and the pride, from all the kids, glows like a beacon in the night.

 

This is what we should be focused on first because being a young black child seeing the history of this nation and no one who looked like me, did damage me and made me begin to believe that this was not my country because no one who looked like me contributed toward making it that beacon on the hill.  Only later in life and with the invent of February becoming Black History Month, did it ever dawn on me that those American History books were wrong but by then the mind had been set and events surrounding my new revelation did not do much to help me erase that mindset.

 

The issue is, we as Black people started to believe that we did not belong here in America, some of us were even told that Africa was our home, our “motherland” and therefore it was of no benefit to even attempt to make this country better.  Those who spoke in that fashion was wrong as well, but this nation has made minimizing its citizens for the sake of money, power, prestige, and privilege into an artform.

 

Perhaps the idea of justified slavery was taken from the Bible which has numerous mentions of the word and therefore, it provided those who viewed themselves as privileged or entitled the excuse they needed to not only push this way of life but to cost the lives of millions who fought to defend or abolish it.  This nation has done the same thing when it came to women, not allowing them to own any thing until maybe around 400 BC but then as soon as they married, their husbands took command and control of everything.  This nation did the same thing with Native Americans, using them to steal ideas for innovations from and learning how to survive in this New World until they were no longer useful before that changed their relationships from friend to now enemies.  Where they were first greeted as saviors but now only savages.  Show me a time where this nation did not do this to any race that wasn’t identical to those who saw themselves as superior, who was not treated with disdain, dismissal, and contempt.  There were the Jews, Italians, Asians, Hispanics, and any other group of people who look differently, acted differently, or worshipped differently than those entitled, snobs who considered themselves better, smarter, and more privileged than the rest.

 

Many wonders where this idea of entitlement comes from, well now you know but just as that it their mindset, ours are the mindset that we deserve less than, we are less than and we deserve no better than what they wish us to have.  If this is the mindset rampaging through, not only Black America but Hispanic America, Native America, Female America, Asian America and all the others, handing out money will not raise all boats.  It may raise a few but the majority will still be left behind and the only real card left to play, will have been played leaving no other option because if you start it without first fixing the mindset, the excuse of “well we tried that once and it didn’t work” would be true.

 

Throwing money at this issue first may only net you a few new cars in a rented driveway, fresh fingernail paint, new hair styles, a few steaks on the grill and an updated wardrobe but it will never come close to leveling the playing field or closing the wealth gap.