RESTITUTION AND REPARATIONS
Mood:  cool
As yet, no major group of white Americans has takes responsibility for the past and continuing negative impact of slavery, segregation, and modern racism on Black Americans. For the most part, white leaders and rank-and file whites have ignored or rejected proposals for large-scale reparations and compensation for those who have suffered from systemic racism. Indeed, in the late 1990s President Bill Clinton entertained, then rejected, the idea of a formal public apology to African Americans for slavery. Even the suggestion of an apology was attacked by many whites. Once there is a new constitution in place, a comprehensive antiracist stragegy would likely require an early addressing of reparations for the damage done by centuries of oppression to African Americans and other Americans of color. Let us consider here the African American case.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST RESTITUTION AND REPARTIONS: Recall how presidential candidate Bob Dole questioned whether white men should have to pay through programs like affirmative action for slavery and discrimination before they were born. Today a majority of white Americans would likely still answer "no." The common reaction would be, "Let bygones be bygones." The unjust enrichment gained by whites over centuries should be forgotten. Such collective forgetting is one way in which whites handle the tension between the values of liberty and justice and the long history of racist oppression. Unquestionably, this distancing of oppression is useful in the construction of a rationalizing ideology. However, there are major problems in the argument that whites should not be accountable for what their ancestors did, as many whites say, "hundreds of years ago." For example, slavery ended less than 140 years ago. Some Black Americans are only a couple of generations removed from their enslaved ancestors. Moreover, the near slavery of legal segregation only came to an end in the late 1960s, well within the lifetimes of many Americans alive today.
In the thinking of most white leaders and the white public, the actions of the founders and later political leaders that have benefited whites are given great weight and legitimacy. Such actions include the making of the Constitution and subsequent court decisions interpreting the Constitution in the interest of whites. However, according to the prevailing white view, the racially oppressive actions by the same white founders and later leaders should be forgiven and forgotten by those whose ancestors were victimized by their oppressive actions. Not surprisingly, a majority of whites do not see the earlier structures of oppression like slavery and legal segregation as relelvant to present-day racial inequalities. Nonetheless, these whites will insist that Black Americans accept the Constitution and laws established by whites as binding on them, even though they had no say in the laws' creation. Richard Delgado has summarized this point well in the form of a comment from a Black professor: most whites insist that Black, "owe obligations arising out of that social contract, but no obligation is owed to us arising from the abuse we suffered in connection with it. Historical young conservatives want the benefit of social compliance from Blacks with a system that provides young whites with security, schools, and liberty. But they don't want to pay for it by recognizing a debt they owe Blacks arising from their forefathers' wrongs.
Another common white argument against restitution and reparations is that societal discrimination against Black Americans is to impersonal and amorphous for the development of remedies. In several recent federal court cases, such as the aforementioned Croson case, the majority of judges have accepted the view that, while there may still be some societal discrimination, no one can determine who in particular is responsible and who has benefited. As a result, these judges argue, one cannot expect government officials to take action to redress the continuing societal discrimination. Martin Katz has pointed out the wrongheadedness of the majority opinion the Croson: if injuries from past or present discrimination cannot be remedied, then "whites will be allowed to retain an advantage which they did not earn, and Blacks will continue to lag behind as a result of acts which, although they may not be amenable to documentation, no one denies were performed in contempt of individuality. Racism has made race relevant to productivity. Treating race as if it were irrelevant will not help to make it any less relevant.

SPECIFIC PROPOSALS FOR BLACK REPARATIONS
Mood:  special
From the earliest days of abolitionist activity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Black leaders and their white allies argued that abolition of slavery and citizenship for Black Americans were not enough. Some restitution enabling those freed to provide for their families was required. At an 1865 Republican convention in Pennsylvania, one important congressional leader, Thaddus Stevens, called for the taking of 400 million acres from former slave-holders. Another leading abolitionist, Senator Charles Sumner {Massachusetts}, called for land grants to those recently enslaved. Legal equality was not enough, for that would not eradicate the "large disparities of wealth, status, and power. In 1866 and 1867 reparations legislation was brought to Congress, but it failed. After the southern oligarchy resumed control in the late 1870s, little was heard on the matter of assistance or restitution to those recently freed from slavery. Since the 1960s civil rights movement the idea of reparations has seen a major resurrgence. In a 1963 book Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for compensation for the slavery, segregation, and continuing discrimination faced by African Americans. He recognized the principle of compensation for stolen wages. Recall too the 1994 petition by the Nation of Islam to the United Nations for repartions for antiblack racism.
In 1866 and 1867 reparations legislation was brought to Congress, but it failed. After the southern oligarchy resumed control in the late 1870s, little was heard on the matter of assistance or restitution to those recently freed from slavery. Since the 1960's civil rights movement the idea of reparations has been a major resurgence. In a 1963 book Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for compensation for the slavery, segregation, and continuing discrimination faced by African Americans. He recognized the principle of compensation for stolen wages. Recall too the 1994 petition by the Nation of Islam to the United Nations for reparation for antiblack racism.
Over the last few decaded scholars and activists have developed several international campaigns for reparations to Africans or African Americans. In mid-1992 a dozen experts were selected by the Organization of African Unity to develop a campaign for African reparations like those provided by the German government to Nazi Holocaust survivors. Moreover, in March 1996 the British house of Lords had a serious debate on the impact of slavery on Africa and Africans, with a few members of that House proposing the idea of reparations to Africa from Britian and other colonial nations. Lord Anthony Gufford eloquently defended the idea that international law requires those who commit crimes against humanity, including enslavement, to make significant reparations to their victims or their descendants. He noted there is no statue of limitations for crimes against humanity. so the still-harmed descendants of earlier victims of oppression deserve reparations.

Racist America
Mood:  cool
Topic: Racial Oppression Daily
To many white observers racial oppression no longer seems important because it is no longer a matter of legal segregation. Racism seems to be gone or declining because there are at least a few African Americans in numerous professional or managerial positions in many historically white institutions. However, one can recognize the modest changes in white racist domination in the United States without downplaying the strong relationship between being Black and being a target of serious racial discrimination. In one way or another, all Black Americans continue to suffer discrimination because white domination of Black Americans and other people of color remains a major organizing principle for group life in the United States. The racial hierachy is supported by a range of dominant-group prejudices and stereotypes, yet it is perpetuated most centrally by the discrimination carried out by many whites on a recurring basis. Age old patterns of racial inequality-of unjust enrichment and unjust impoverishment-are reproduced by the daily routines of antiblack discrimination.
Mainstream social scientists have often examined the paired ideas of racial prejudice and racial discrimination. The explicit model has typically been one of individual bigots acting out their attitudes in discriminatory ways. In recent decades, however, some scholars have argued for a different emphasis in looking at prejudice and discrimination. They prefer to accent the institutional and societal racism that surrounds individual acts of discrimination.
In it origin, this institutional racism viewpoint comes from a long line of Black scholars and activists. going back at least to the mid-1800s. The 1960s civil rights movement brought a renewed emphasis among Black intellectuals and activists on the social and institutional contexts of individual acts of discrimination. For a time the pressure of the civil rights movement also enabled Black activists, Black intellectuals, and other Black Americans to get their perceptive views on white racism-honed in considerable personal and group experience-into mainstream discussion of racial issues.
While in recent years numerous mainstream white scholars have moved away from a critical institutional-racism perspective, it remains the most important approach to understanding the U.S. system of racism. Today, Black Americans experience discrimination not just as the actions of individual white bigots in one social arena, but rather as everyday, recurring actions of white actors across many of life's arenas-actions that are backed gy a multifaceted and powerful system of context is very important, for that is where the beliefs, norms, and proclivities perpetuating racism are institutionalized. Individual acts of discrimination activate the underlying hierachical relations of power in which whites generally dominate Blacks.
Since the 1960s, it is interesting to note that the international attack on all forms of discrimination has accelerated. The United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, implemented in 1969, defines discrimination as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or imparing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an euqal footing, of human rights. It underscores the costs associated with being the target of discrimination. In another passage, the Convention adds that the "existence of racial barriers is repugnant to the ideals of any human society."
Being Black in U.S. society means always having to be prepared for antiblack actions by whites-in most places and at most times of the day, week, month, or year. Being Black means living with racial oppression from cradle to grave. Until whites quit thinking and acting in racist ways-and thereby maintaining thier racial privilege-the system of racial oppression will persist.

PROBLEMS
Mood:  celebratory
Supremacists

Supremacists are unquestionably a big part of the problem. Klan-types, new-nazis, and other open advocates of white power should not be ignored, dismissed, or taken lightly. They have the power to inflict damage on Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, Jews, lesbians and gay men, and others whom they define as the enemy. They have a strategy, pursued through a wide variety of tactics, to promote a genocidal race war in this country, as a way to reimpose naked white power. Whether they seek to enter and influence the mainstream, like David Duke, or espouse openly racist revolutionsim, like Tom Metzger, they share fundamental philosophical underpinnings and a vision of the society they want to create, a society that is the exact opposite of human liberation.

A HOSTILE WORKPLACE
Mood:  cool
When Black America workers do get hired, then they often face differential treatment in the workplace. For example, the overwhelming majority of employment complaints made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission{EEOC} on racial and ethnic grounds are for barriers beyond the hiring stage. There are several major types of barriers. Sometimes, white male workers are given better access than black {or white female}workers to job assignments and training programs that enable them to climb the employment ladder. In addition, in some workplaces Black America workers face more disciplinary actions. One study of postal workers in a northern city found that black workers were twice as likely to be fired as white workers-even after controls for job tenure, job title, union protection, absenteeism and disciplinary actions were factored in.
Recent research in other government settings has found that Black employees and other employees of color face a variety of discriminatory incidents. For example, the aforementioned survey of 40,000 military personnel found that three quarters of the Black military personnel had faced offensive racial encounters during the last twelve months. In that period 52 percent had been told offensive racist jokes or stories; 49 percent had suffered unwelcome attempts to draw them into offensive discussions of race; 46 percent had endured acts of racial condescension; 37 percent had encountered hostile racial stares, 28 percent had endured racist comments or epithets; 23 percent had been excluded from social activities because of race; and 20 percent had been confronted with racist periodicals or other materials. Smaller percentages of these Black military personnel had faced very severe incidents. Nine percent were threatened with retaliation if they did not go along with racially offensive actions against them, and six percent had been physically threatened or intimidated because of their race. Not only did they report discrimination in the military workplace, a large percentage {69 percent} of these Black enlisted people and officers also reported racial harassment or discrimination from people in the civilian community.
A number of recent reports have indicated a hostile work climate at major corporations. In various workplaces, many whites who do hiring and promotion harbor the deep stereotypes {for example, "blacks are not hardworking"}noted previously, racist views that make these whites less comfortable with-and less likely to promote-black employees. Because of these negative images, and positive in-group images, whites are more comfortable with, and thus inclined to favor, other whites. In many employment settings whites often use overtly marginalizing and categorizing language and looks. Black employees may, periodically or routinely be categorized and marginalized as "you people" or "one of them." The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in one case that such categorizing phrases were enough to prove that a workplace had a racially hostile climate.
In 1996 the New York Times revealed that some top executives at Texaco, an international oil company and the nation's fourteenth-largest corporation, had met in 1994 to discuss a discrimination lawsuit filed by Black employees. According to a tape of the meeting, the white executives did not take the discrimination complaints seriously and discussed destroying important documents. Black employees were termed "black jelly beans" who all agree with this "diversity thing" and who "seem to be stuck to the bottom of the bag." The executives may have used the word "nigger" though this has been denied. One executive says on the tape that he is "still having trouble with Hannukkah, and now I have Kwanzaa" {the African American winter festival}.
Moreover, in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit, a white manager in a midwestern office of Texaco reported to his boss, a senior executive in Texas, about a discrimination complaint made by a black employee. His boss reportedly told the manager that he would "fire her black ass." When the manager pointed out that company policy protected her from dismissal, the senior executive reportedly said, "I guess we treat niggers differently down here." In addition, a New York Times report noted, "Scores of Texaco's nonwhite employees contend in the court papers that they were subjected to racially hostile behavior but did not report the infractions for fear of losing their jobs." Court documents also showed that among the 873 highest-paid executives as the company there were just six Black executives. A Department of Labor audit of a controller division at the company found employees of color got less desirable job evaluations and were promoted much more slowly than whites.
In 1996 the EEOC found that Texaco had discriminated against Black employees in promotions. The company eventually agreed to a $176 million settlement with its Black employees, the largest award ever in a class-action dicscimination lawsuit. Still, the lead plaintiff, Bari-Ellen Roberts, has written of Texaco's top executive, "He claimed that the bigoted acts that led to our suit were aberrations, not the product of a corporate climate of racism. I believe the evidence we gathered in our suit proved otherwise.
Texaco is of course not unique. One veteran consultant who works with corporations on diversity issues, Michele Synegal, has reported little change in corporate racial climates in her recent experience. From observations of corporate clients, she has estimated that among minority managers and employees, depending on the workplace, 18 to 36 percent report blatant discrimination, such as a denial of promotion, and 40 to 49 percent cite other discrimination such as lack of mentoring and exclusion from networks. Some 30 to 50 percent of the Black employees encounter racist jokes and slurs at work.

White Privileges and Black Burdens: The Negative Impact on Black Health
The stress, and rage created by everyday racism can generate serious pyscial health consequences. When asked in interview studies about the costs of the discrimination they fact, Black respondents cite a broad range of problems-from hypertension and stress diabetes to stress-related heart and stomach conditions. One recent research study examined stress and blood pressure for mofe than four thousand Black Americans. Those reporting substantial discrimination tended to have higher blood pressure than those who reported less discrimination. One study that Mr. Feagin and his colleagues conducted involved focus group interviews with a number of middle-class Black Americans Several participants in the focus groups gave details on how high blood pressure and other health problems were linked, at least in part, to discrimination.
Modern racism literally makes people sick. Similarly, other research studies that have conducted in-depth interviews with middle-class Black Americans have found that they associate the discrimination they encounter with such physical problems as chronic fatigue, back pain, insomnia, and recurring stomach problems and headaches.
Demographic data on longevity indicate the physical harshness of racism in cold statistical terms. In the United States Blacks average significantly shorter lives than whites, a situation probably true for centuries. Thus, historian James Oakes reports that most Black slaves died by the age of forty, and other historical studies suggest that on the average white slaveholders lived more than forty years. By the year 1900 the life expectancy for an average Black person was still only about thirty-two to thirty-five years, some sixteen years less than that for the average white person. Today, this Black/white gap haas closed somewhat but is still large. The life expectancy for Black Americans is now about sixty-six years for whites. The system of racism costs the average Black American about six to seven years of her or his life. Thus, for many deceased African Americans, everyday racism could be listed on their death certificates as a major cause of death.
The racist reality of the United States remains harsh, brutal, and largely the responsibility of white Americans. As we have seen, systemic racism has had, and currently has, profound human consequences. This is even recognized by international agencies. A recent United Nations report calculated a Human Development Index{HDI}. The HDI is an evaluation of quality of lie and incorporated data on education, income, and life expectancy for various countries and for subgroups within these countries. For all countries and groups examined, U.S. whites ranked first in overall quality of life. In contrast, Black Amercians ranked only thirty-first in the list of all groups and countries, next to people from the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The quality of life for Black Americans as a group remains relatively low, and that of white Americans quite high, by international standards. Today, Black families average about 60 percent of what white families earn and survive on about 12 percent of the wealth of average white families. As individuals, they can expect to live six to seven years shorter thn whites.
Even these damning data tell only part of the story. To these statistics must be added centuries of uncounted pain, suffering, psychological damage, and rage over injustice. Only be adding all these factors together can one assess accurately the long-term impact of slavery, segregation, and consinuing racism. The total cost of nearly four centuries of systemic racism has been extrordinarily high-one likely reason the majority of white Americans spend much effort in denying the real causes and sources of Black inequality.
While whites pay some price for the ancient system of racism, that price pales when put up against that paid by Black Americans. Black Americans-and many other Americans of color=typically pay a direct, overt. heavy, immediately painful, and accumulating price for racism while white Americans pay a more indirect, usually unseen, and long-term, price. Moreover, most w hites get manor advantages and privileges from the operation of systemic racism that much mo9re that offset these costs.
Black inequality.

Solutions and Problems
Mood:  energetic
This blog is dedicated to a chilling overview of white supremacy and its power in the U.S. This powerful book, White Lies White Power explores the lasting power of racism in daily life. Novick places most of the blame on the economic and political systems that the U.S. has firmly in place. While racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, can attract attention {and new adherents} by making easy scapegoats of certain peoples, Novick argues it would be wrong to think of such groups as representing a "fringe". They exist precisely because they reflect feelings deeply held by the society and the state. Governments often create racist policies because the nations they represent "grew up in the context of racially justified conquest and colonialism." Indeed, the policies often are not even viewed as racist. Likewise, Novick contends that our society is based on a strong foundation of racism. He offers a number of solutions to these problems, though Novick's own fine job of exploring the depths of racist thought and action in this country may give few any hope of change. PROBLEMS In order to find solutions, we must first clearly understand the true nature of the problem. One of the appeals of the racist right forces on the march today is that they offer simplistic solutions for the problems of our society by providing scrapegoats - Blacks, immigrants, Jews, gays, women. They draw adherents because many of the liberal solutions of the past have not only been inadequate, but have proven to be part of the problem. In the '50s and '60s, many identified the problem of racism simply as "segregation." But the solution, "integration" had the unforeseen consequence of destroying most of the independent economic and social institutions in the Black community. In the '70s and '80s, the problem was seen as rooted in economic discrimination, but neither the liberal solution of "Affirmative Action," nor the conservative solution of "color-blindness," has had much impact in improving matters. In the '90s, racism has been reduced to the problem of hate crimes, of which any racial or ethnic group might be the victim at the hands of any other. But the solution,preaching "tolerance" doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the causes of violence. So what are the fundamental problems, and how can we solve them? My next posting will discuss Supremacists, State Power, and society as problems that confront us.