The plan can’t overcome racial oppression in the status quo which dooms it to fail --- racism coopts and overdetermines their attempt at reparations

Now that I have provided a brief analysis of metaracism, current patterns of racial oppression and repression, and contemporary racist culture, I can return to an analysis of the reparations movement. This movement is occurring at the same time that racial oppression and repression are intensifying and racist culture is expanding. The success of any political movement depends on its ability to construct a counterideology, effective enough to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant culture/ideology and its ability to build a coalition strong enough to challenge the dominant power arrangement. Counterideology In developing a counterideology, the reparations movement suffers from two critical flaws: it focuses too little attention on current oppression and it is tainted by the very dominant culture it is attempting to oppose. Focus Too Much on the Past Most scholars writing on reparations emphasize not just the horrors of slavery past, but the effects of slavery on the present. The following passage from Robinson's book on reparations illustrates this point: Well before the birth of our country, Europe and the eventual United States perpetrated a heinous wrong against the peoples of Africa.... In 1965, after nearly 350 years of legal racial suppression, the United States enacted the Voting Rights Act and, virtually simultaneously, began to walk away from the social wreckage that centuries of white hegemony had wrought.... But when the black living suffer real and current consequences as a result of wrongs committed by a younger America, then contemporary America must be caused to shoulder responsibility for those wrongs until such wrongs have been adequately compensated and righted... (Robinson, 2001: 230). Robinson's book provides one of the most thoughtful and persuasive arguments for reparations. He focuses not just on African Americans and past slavery, but also on Africa and the rape of this continent during the Atlantic slave trade and the era of colonialism. He elaborates on the continual exploitation of this continent today. He discusses how racial inequality today is rooted in the past of slavery and segregation. He adds, American capitalism, which starts each child where its parents left off is not a fair system. This is particularly the case for African Americans, whose general economic starting points have been rearmost in our society because of slavery and its long racialist aftermath. American slaves for two and a half centuries saw taken from them not just their freedom but the inestimable economic value of their labor as well... (Randall 2001: 231). Randall Robinson expresses bewilderment over his former Harvard Law professor's (Derrick Bell's) view of reparations. He quotes Bell, "Short of a revolution, the likelihood that blacks today will obtain direct payments in compensation for their subjugation as slaves ... is no better today than it was in 1866 ..." (Bell quoted in Robinson, 2001: 203-204). No doubt Bell understood the problems as clearly as Du Bois: Racism is still deeply imbedded in American culture. Robinson largely ignores current patterns of racial oppression and contemporary racist culture. A Movement Tainted by the Dominant Culture The perspective of a few leaders of the reparation movement has been tainted by contemporary racist culture. This point is evident in two areas: the Million Man and Million More Marches and the reparations literature. The theme of the Million Man March of 1995 was the atonement of the black male. The whole premise of the march was that black men had not been responsible as individuals, fathers or community leaders, and that the black community was plagued with drug abuse, gang violence, welfare dependency, and other pathological behavior. Black men were urged to reassert themselves as men, as heads of their families and as leaders of their communities. Most speakers acknowledged racism. A few, most notably Jesse Jackson and Hadi Madhubuti, discussed specific aspects of contemporary racial oppression: racial discrimination in drug laws, racial profiling, targeted enforcement, cuts in anti-poverty programs, inadequate health care, and others. However, most speakers focused on the sins and shortcomings of black men and their need to rise up and assume responsibility for their families and communities. The leaders of the Million Man March were disconnected from the members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The leaders of the Million Man March were struggling for the atonement of black men. The members of the CBC were fighting against new drug laws that would target black males and contribute to the dramatic increases in their incarceration rates and against the efforts to substantially cut welfare and other social programs that benefited low-income families, particularly African American families. The leaders of the Million Man March were successful in getting black males to confess their shortcomings, seek atonement and pledge to be more responsible. The members of the CBC failed, as more repressive laws were passed and anti-poverty programs cut. The Million More March of October 15, 2005 had a broader coalition and a more extensive agenda. The organizers of this second March invited women, civil rights leaders, and others. Many speakers talked about the racist response to Katrina. Some leaders demanded reparations. The march was successful in terms of the large number of people who attended. However, it had little impact on the efforts to cut Medicaid, food stamps, and other anti-poverty programs. Like some of the leaders of the march, a few prominent black scholars who advocate reparations reflect aspects of the dominant culture. For example, scholars offer a compelling case for reparations, with passionate and moving descriptions of the horrors of the past, the brutality of the slave trade and slavery, and the atrocities of the colonial era, but then proceed to describe African Americans today as having negative attitudes toward work, being disrespectful toward property, and having the propensity to clown. Professor Nuruddin provides this summary: Psychologist Na'im Akbar adds to Karenga's litany of negative cultural values when he states that black people possess a set of pathological attitudes that are a legacy of slavery. Included among the eight attitudes which Akbar lists are negative attitudes toward work and property, and a propensity to play the clown role.... Note that both Karenga and Akbar attribute these values to the black community in general, not to any specific underclass (Nuruddin, 2002: 103). Akbar and Karenga are brilliant social scientists and strong supporters of reparations. However, the characterization of blacks as having negative attitudes toward work and property and having a propensity to play the clown, with absolutely no empirical data, is not much different than saying that everyone knows that blacks are lazy, don't respect property, and act like clowns. Advocates of reparations reflected aspects of the dominant culture's negative characterization of blacks, except that they attribute these characteristics to the impacts of slavery. For these impacts they ask for reparations. The Future of the Movement The reparations movement has been successful in exposing and attacking old racism, in mobilizing large numbers and in establishing a coalition of nationalist organizations. It has attracted some support from a few religious and traditional civil rights organizations. A small white organization supports it, Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE). The legal arguments for reparations are compelling (see Corlett, 2003). Nevertheless, the movement suffers from several serious and interrelated problems. The first problem is a matter of priority. It is like the analogy of a man who is being beaten to death, asking for compensation for his injuries. He deserves compensation, but the beating must stop first, not as an aftermath, but as an immediate moral imperative. There is something almost perverse about the call for compensation at a time when human rights violations against African Americans are mounting, racist repression intensifying, racial oppression expanding and civil rights violations growing. The demand for reparations is overshadowing the mangling of the black body and the call for ending the beatings. It has practically muted the utter outrage over the executions, especially the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, the institutionalization of about a third of the black male population, the disproportionate sentencing of black teenagers to life without chance of parole, the unjustified police shootings and beatings, the dilution of the black vote, the growth of concentrated black poverty, the high infant mortality rates, the low life-expectancy, the blocked access to health care, the cuts in anti-poverty programs, the low minimum wage, and other aspects of oppression. The second problem is that the reparations movement is growing at the same time the color line is widening and racist culture expanding. Under diese circumstances, the movement has a choice. It can continue to push forward for reparations and fight for something that is opposed by 90 percent of whites in this country, partially because of the expansion of the racist culture, or it can launch a direct assault on that culture and on racial oppression. The former is doomed to begin with and the later requires a radical redirection of the movement into a true movement for social reconstruction and social justice. Redirecting the reparations movement into a movement for social reconstruction requires a deeper understanding of the dynamics of racist culture and the extent to which this culture dehumanizes poor blacks, legitimizes oppression, and normalizes repression. Social reconstruction can only come from an assault on the dominant racist culture and an attack on the prevailing patterns of racial oppression. The problem is that the reparations movement has failed to adequately address contemporary racist culture. This failure has made leaders of the movement susceptible to aspects of this culture and has impeded their ability to confront current human rights violations. The third problem is the weak reparations coalition. Even with its ties to CURE and a few traditional civil rights organizations, the movement is politically isolated. It has few ties with anti-poverty organizations, weak ties with labor, and few connections to the larger liberal religious community that made up the old civil rights coalition. It is almost as if the movement is lead by middle-class black nationalists who are cut off from the black poor. A connection with the black poor and the so-called black lumpenproletariat is necessary in order to develop a truly radical social movement. The final problem is the growth of the power of the dominant corporate class. This class has increased and consolidated its power through a strong alliance with the religious right. It now dominates both the political and ideological arenas. Thomas Frank provides an excellent discussion of how this alliance dominates the political arena and explains the rapid growth in policies benefiting major corporations and hurting the poor (Frank, 2005). David Brock offers a most insightful and well-documented discussion of how this alliance dominates the media and the construction of contemporary political culture (Brock, 2004). As Du Bois observed 100 years ago, the dominant power arrangements, the culture of racism, and the political isolation and powerlessness of African Americans make reparations a pipedream. Although reparations are justifiable, there are more immediate moral imperatives: the expansion of racist culture that promotes contempt toward the black poor; the growth of concentrated black poverty; the shifting of public resources from the poor to the rich and to major corporations; the intensification of state repression and human rights violations; the erosion of civil rights and civil liberties. Just as reconciliation came in South Africa after the fall of the apartheid regime, reparations must come after the end of the racially oppressive regime in the United States.