Economics/Poverty/Wealth
Legalized slavery occurred in the United States from 1619-1865 and was followed by another century of legalized racial discrimination. According to History Factory, Wachovia bank became a major participant in this racist oppression in 1781 with the founding of the Bank of North America. “This overwhelming oppression and terrorism of one group of humans by another allowed some to create wealth, while the oppressed group was forbidden and then harshly constrained from accumulating wealth” .
The continuing effects of slavery in the United States, according to Randall Robinson in his book, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, constitutes a “human rights crime without parallel in the modern world. It produced victims, ad infinitum; long after the active stage of the crime has ended. From 1619 to 1865 was “far and away the most heinous crime visited upon any group of people in the world over the last 500 years.” America improperly benefited from the immoral and inhumane institution of slavery in the World. America has been unjustly enriched at the expense of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) and their fore-parents. Congress and its corporations have failed to account for the profits and benefits America derived there from and Congress and its Corporations have concealed the nature and scope of their participation in the institution of slavery.
America, as a result of its wrongful acts and omissions, has been unjustly enriched On the cusp of the Civil War, the 10 major cotton states were producing 66% of the world’s cotton and raw cotton accounted for more than half of all U.S, exports. The numbers are almost impossible to grasp. The season that ended on August 31,1860 in the U.S. produced close to 5 million bales of cotton or roughly 2.3 billion pounds of cotton. Enslaved Africans were the savings account of America. In lieu of corn or trustworthy paper money, people were money in the slave holding states. Most economists will tell you, with variations in the wording that three conditions must be met for a commodity to be considered money:
• a means for conducting transaction (medium of exchange)
• an enslaved African might be handed over in lieu of a debt. from a land purchase or lost to a card shark as a thousand dollar bet in high stakes game
• retention of its worth over time (store of value) [Enslaved people were the most trusted form in which a slave owner might save his money. They not only retained their value over time by maintaining their value through reproduction, but increased by reproducing frequently, which is why slave owners insisted on owning children.]
• A way to keep accounts (a unit of account) $%^ [Slave owners kept account logs of enslaved Africans along with their mules, cows, chickens and various other items.]
Attorney Willie Gary states: “Think about this, in 1865 the federal government of this country freed 4 million Blacks. Without a dime, with no property, nearly all illiterate, they were let lose upon the land to wander, That’s what begins the aftermath of slavery.” Fast forward to the modern era Randall Robinson points out that until 1950 the federal government included in mortgage loans restrictive covenants preventing blacks and only blacks, no other group from buying houses in white neighborhoods. So blacks could not make their equity work for them. They couldn’t move up. Attorney Gary also states “banks kept denying loans to blacks, often by redlining, by which the financial institutions literally drew lines on a map around a neighborhood and not give loans to creditworthy people living there. That happened until almost last week.”
Today 27.1% of DAEUS live in poverty compared to 9.9% of whites; 73.8% of white Americans own homes compare to only 49.9% of DAEUS; the median white family has a net worth of $116,000.00, the median black family in America only has a net worth of $1,700.00. The legacy of slavery and discrimination won’t loosen its grip until reparations are paid. It’s the only solution!! [Reference: Osaze Osayeba, aka, Charles Mckensie, N’COBRA Northeast Region]
Reparatory Justice Outcomes & Impacts
a) The UN Working Group should support and urge the US to facilitate the establishment of Black banks where DAEUS cities live as the majority population.
b) The UN Working Group should support and urge the US to enforce existing laws of equal opportunity to deconstruct institutional racism.
c) The UN Working Group should support and urge allotment of funds paid over four generations in the $1septillion (24 zeros) to build wealth.
