Date: Feature Week of August 17, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Economic
Author: William Reed
Article ID: article_ema081703a

�If you are the son of a man who had a wealthy estate and you inherit your father's estate, you have to pay off the debts that your father incurred before he died.  The only reason that the present generation of white Americans are in a position of economic strength... is because their fathers worked our fathers for over 400 years with no pay... We were sold from plantation to plantation like you sell a horse, or a cow, or a chicken, or a bushel of wheat... All that money is what gives the present generation of American whites the ability to walk around the earth with their chest out... like they have some kind of economic ingenuity.  Your father isn't here to pay. My father isn't here to collect.  But I'm here to collect and you're here to pay.�  - Malcolm X 1964.

 Almost 40 years after Malcolm�s economic comment, the state of Black America statistics in 2003 illustrate its validity.  Blacks who believe the debt is still owed will be assembling at the United Nations in their �collection� efforts when the National Reparations Rally convenes September 13^th .  But, where will the �under 40� sons and daughters of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement generation be that day?  Most of today�s �successful� African Americans weren�t born during Malcolm�s time and don�t feel reparations for us is reasonable or realistic.  Well ensconced in �the present generation of American whites� � wealth establishment, millions more of Black America�s �under 40� middle-class will probably prefer to view Marci X than acquire knowledge of Malcolm X�s veracity. 

 The median age of Black America is 29.5 years - meaning one-half are above 29.5 and one-half below.  With the �mainstream� mindset of Black Hip-Hoppers, �Showtime� will mean millions more butts in seats to see Marci X, a hip-hop generation movie punning Malcolm.   Born since Malcolm died in 1965, large populations of young Blacks differ with Malcolm and prefer to side with their white bosses� position that �the past should be left to the past�.

 Black America�s �under 40 population� falls into two distinct categories: some college-educated and  moving up corporate ladders, others are uneducated, unemployed, underemployed or incarcerated.  Blacks who economically benefited from the Civil Rights Movement by moving into Establishment positions, now shun reparations; while others of their generation illustrate what Malcolm would call �the inequity of American society.�  Both need to be educated about the issues that surround reparations and realize the realities of who and what made America the most prosperous land on the planet.

 A leading group in the reparations movement is the National Coalition of Blacks For Reparations in America (N�COBRA).   N�COBRA is currently involved with a "Year of Black Presence" lobbying initiative aimed at promoting H.R. 40, calling for a �Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans�.  H.R. 40�s sponsor, Congressman John Conyers, points out that �sufficient inquiry has not been made into the effects the institution of slavery has on living African Americans and society in the U. S.�  Not a bill for reparations payments, H.R. 40 asks Congress �to acknowledge fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, and make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies�.

Millions of middle-class African-Americans under 40 have mutated into Black faces with white minds.  They feel liberated enough with the prospect of integration; have abandoned critical economic roles they should be playing in Black communities, and fled to suburbia.  Whether they admit it or not, the Black women and men who are mangers and overseers in today�s public and private sector organizations and operations are beneficiaries of the propositions of people like Malcolm X.

 Members of the �over 40� crowd continuing in their struggle for equality should make preparations to be part of the National Reparations Rally on Saturday, September 13, 2003 at the U.N., 46th Street & 1st Avenue in New York City.   (For information phone � 718.398.1766 or visit www.ncorba.com )

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