In the last six months, I have discovered some startling facts about my family's history, and I also first learned of the reparations movement for and by African Americans, and CURE. The purpose of this article is to share some personal history, and some observations and feelings about both.

Some say it took three generations to make the negro. The first generation having memory and knowledge of self were the hardest to subdue and break in; the second generation, however, was born in slavery and twice removed from their original culture, except through oral transmission by elders in the secret recesses of their huts and gathering times. The third generation was born in slavery, thrice removed, and the umbilical cord severed in their minds. Some calculate this from 1555, their first arrival, to 1619, the American version of their first arrival. These are the 64 years lost in the history pages that in actuality were the years of processing time, "seasoning" and "ripening" the enslaved Africans, and deprogramming and reprogramming in the interests of white economic success.

Technically, slavery was ended, but where could these people go? What could they do? Freed slaves had no wealth, no land, nor human rights. There never was 40 acres and a mule. Home of the brave? Land of the free? The only thing black people could do is walk back to their white masters and beg for food, clothing or shelter. It is still the white mans world. We own and/or control; the land, courts, industry, and the banks. Less than 50 years ago blacks had to step off the sidewalk if a white person came along.

Imagine this: a man kidnaps a woman and makes her his wife, abusing her daily for, say, thirty-five years. She lives in a shack behind his mansion, growing thin while he grows fat. He takes her children from her as soon as they can work and keeps their earnings. When they rebel, he locks them in an airless closet for months, or years (depending on his mood). One day, this fine fellow has a change of heart and comes home, roses in hand, to apologize.

Can the marriage be saved?

I've been giving special attention for 25 years to noticing, thinking about, and living in the midst of racial tensions. This seems to me an important concern for U.S. Christians who are willing to be God's hands for peace on earth, who take to heart their role to bring reconciliation between conflicting parties. I've tried to hear and talk with those who are concerned and to get direct information.

The author is concerned about “sparking waves of racial resentment.” I doubt that he would have argued against the civil rights efforts in the 50’s and 60’s on that account. History shows that nonviolent action towards social change often gives rise to violent reactions by the oppressive forces, as they seek to preserve the disrespectful status quo that they feel is threatened.

First of all Reparations is not a recent notion nor is it something born out of the 60's civil rights movement. Reparations advocates (both black and white) have been around for over 100 years. Reparations is a verb and not a noun. The movement is a process of exploring the damages inflicted upon the descendants of those who were kidnapped and held captive in the United States throughout a period of several hundred years and dialoguing about potential compensatory remedies. Also included in this exploration are all the corporations and governmental organizations who benefited from the slave industry and who are prosperous today because of their practices.

Can our inability to fully perceive the subtle giant of our “privilege” be considered racism? It does in me.... I can say that by challenging my socialization I began to see the edges of my own limited thought.... Although this astounding realization was terrible, it was worth the discovery. I can only work with what I know... Racism to me is the projection of the human experience based on lifelong assumptions - taught or acquired through socially accepted behaviors - that there are ‘classes of people’... I challenge all White people that already love and respect our fellow African Americans to take a closer look.

The international stage has taken issues of reparations much more seriously than we have. The Jews received statehood as a form of reparations for their brothers and sisters who were exterminated. Coincidentally, many Jews who immigrated to Israel and benefited from reparations were not even close to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau. Although millions of those whom the reparations were intended for died, that didn't mean that their death equaled an expired statue of limitations for their descendents who were left to deal with the psychological consequences and the nagging fear of what it means to be hunted down and collectively violated because of ethnicity.

Given the immiserated and embattled condition of existing federal and state institutions meant to serve the black 'body politic', the claim that Black Reparations is nothing more than a revival of '60s Black nationalism is an argument that cannot seriously be sustained. The radical implications for the Reparations movement do, however, have precedents in Black social movements of the 1960s in one very important way, and that is the real possibility of class solidarity.