ally not how one spells the word, "was." Next year we will work
harder to lower the instances of spelling and grammatical errors
if not to uphold the integrity and credibility of the Black Ink, then
to prevent a repeat of this year's "regonize" joke free-for-all.
"A Special Shout Out"
If you've flipped through to the Fashionably Yard page already
(which I know you always do) then you know that Kelly gives
about 10,000 shout outs in her last column of the year. I'll only
give one. To the wonderful staff of the Black Ink, you're the best!
HOROWITZ CONT'D
FROM PAGE 10
7. Horowitz argues that the
existence of a black middle
class proves that all blacks in
America do not suffer eco
nomically from the conse
quences of slavery. This is an
invalid argument since the
wealth of African-Americans
was accrued despite slavery
and legalized segregation, and
because the wealth of the black
middle class pales by compar
ison to that of the white mid
dle class. Furthermore, the
argument for reparations does
not rest upon the present
financial status of African-
Americans but on the histori
cal fact of an inhumane, gov
ernment-sanctioned, system of
slavery and racial segregation
that existed in the United
States for more than 250 years.
You cannot steal the monetary
equivalent of billions of dol
lars in labor from a people and
say, "Well, you seem to be
doing okay now, so I don't owe
you anything." This line of
reasoning wouldn't stand up
in criminal law and it won t
stand up under the interna
tional law upon which advo
cates of reparahons are basing
their claim.
8. Horowitz claims that the
average income of West Indian
blacks in America is equiva
lent to the average income of
whites and nearly 25 percent
higher than the average
income of American-born
blacks of all classes. Horowitz
then goes on to ask, "How is it
that slavery adversely affected
one large group of descen
dants and not the other?"
This argument is rife with
errors. If one wants to get a
sense of how slavery has
impacted West Indian people,
one would do best to look at
the West Indies itself. Haiti,
for instance, is currently the
poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere and cities like
Kingston, Jamaica suffer from
both poverty and disturbingly
high rates of crime. In other
words, the economic well
being of Caribbean immi
grants to the United States is in
no way reflective of the eco
nomic situation of the
Caribbean as a whole.
Additionally, it is not that slav
ery adversely affected one
large group of descendants
and not the other, as Horowitz
suggests, but rather that it
affected African-Americans
and Afro-Caribbeans different
ly. Unlike Africans in America
whose traditional culture was
destroyed by white slavehold
ers, Africans in the Caribbean
lived in societies with majority
black populations and were
thus able to retain significant
aspects of African culture.
One of these retentions, the
susu or rotating credit associa
tion, has been crucial to the
success of West Indian immi
grants to the United States.
Commonly thought to have
originated in West Africa,
susus have enabled West
Indian immigrants to the
United States, Britain and
Canada to finance small busi
nesses, buy houses, grocery
stores, operate real estate
agencies and more by pooling
the economic resources of fam
ilies and friends.
9. The suggestion by Horowitz
that African-Americans have
already been paid reparations
in the form of "trillions of dol
lars" in welfare benefits and
racial preferences "all under
the rationale of redressing his
torical racial grievances," is
absurd. Contrary to
Horowitz's claim, welfare was
created to assist poverty-
stricken Americans during the
Great Depression and not to
redress racial grievances. The
largest recipients of welfare
are whites. Although affirma
tive action came into existence
as a result of the political
struggles of African-
Americans, the primary bene
ficiaries of these programs
have been white women.
American citizens from a vari
ety of ethnic groups that have
been historically underrepre
sented in the workforce, in
higher education, in the
assignment of government
contracts have also benefited
from these programs. Hence,
the "multi-ethnic" nation that
Horowitz seems to think has
reason to resent African-
Americans, would do better to
thank them for opening the
doors of opportunity just a lit
tle bit wider for everyone.
Furthermore, Affirmative
Action programs have been
under continuous attack since
the Bakke decision in 1978.
10.. Outrageously, Horowitz
accuses other people of being
ignorant of the history of slav
ery while yet again demon
strating his own ignorance on
the subject by claiming,
"Slavery existed for thousands
of years before the Atlantic
slave trade was bom.... But
in the 1,000 years of its exis
tence, there was never an anti
slavery movement unhl white
Englishmen and Americans
created one." Not only were
there anti-slavery movements
before the 19th Century aboli
tionist movement, there were
outright insurrections and
slave wars. For almost all of
the 17th Century, escaped
African slaves from Suriname
and Brazil maintained a feder
ation of quilombos that served
as centers for resistance from
which to help liberate other
slaves in their countries.
Anthropologist Richard Price
has referred to these maroons
as "the first freedom fighters
in the New World." From
1789-1804, Toussaint
L'Ouverture vanquished the
British, the Spanish and the
French during the Haitian
Revolution, the first successful
slave revolt in history. Finally,
Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey,
Gabriel Prosser, David Walker,
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner
Truth, Frederick Douglass and
many
other African-Americans com
mitted their lives to the
destruction of slavery. The
honorable whites who sup
ported these abolitionists'
efforts were the exception and
were considered to be fanatics
by their contemporaries.
In conclusion, the call for
reparations is an affirmative,
healing act rather than one
that perpetuates the "victim"
status of African-Americans. If
anything, our victimization
would be reinforced by passiv
ity in this matter, just as it was
reinforced by some blacks'
acquiescence to segregation
before the Civil Rights
Movement.
Therefore, we reiterate our
support for reparations for
African-Americans and all vic
tims of U.S. oppression.
May 2001
14