Reparations may be an issue at GA
by John E. Harris
[4-24-01]
| Reparations for slavery gains
support from Disciples
of Christ. Assembly calls for national apology.
And the Wall Street Journal reports one
case of convict
leasing, where reparations seem very appropriate.
[7-18-01] |
A possible sleeper issue at this year's General Assembly, lost amidst
overtures related to human sexuality and the attacks on Dirk Ficca's
Peacemaking Conference remarks, might just be the issue of reparations
for slavery. The issue will be coming to the General Assembly by way of
a report from the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns. The
report includes a recommendation to form "a task force to study (in
consultation with the Advocacy Committee for Racial Concerns)
reparations for African-American, Native American and Alaskan Natives,
Asian-Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Rican and others who have experienced
significantly disparate treatment and report its findings and
recommendations to the 216th General Assembly (2004).
The reparations issue is nothing new. The issue of reparations for
slavery was first raised early in the nineteenth century and has been
with us in various forms ever since. In the early 1960's it was an issue
seriously debated within the African-American community.
More recently Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced H.R. 40: THE
COMMISSION TO STUDY REPARATIONS PROPOSALS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ACT. The
legislation calls upon the United States government "To acknowledge
the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery
in the United States and in 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865
and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery,
subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination
against African-Americans, and the impact of those forces on living
African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on
appropriate remedies and other purposes."
Rep. Conyer's introduction of H.R. 40 can be viewed as an extension and
outgrowth of the reparations debate.
Even more recently, a David Horowitz paid advertisement in Brown
University's campus newspaper, an advertisement that argued against
Reparations, ignited student protest and campus-wide debate. The
reparations debate has been heating up even more since the Horowitz ad.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) won't be the
only Reformed governing body asked to consider the reparations issue
this coming summer. The United Church of Christ and the Disciples of
Christ will be asked to consider it as well.
Even though the Witherspoon Society has not (as of yet) adopted a
position on the reparations issue, Witherspoon Society Issues Analyst
Christian Iosso has stated "I'm afraid that for most of the U.S.
population, even for many of the Black population, the reparations for
slavery arguments are going to be a hard sell." Hard sell or not,
at least discussing and even studying the Reparations Issue could go a
long way in helping our church come to terms with its own segregated
past (and present). Witherspoon Society members and all social justice
minded Presbyterians are advised to closely watch the reparations issue
at this year's GA .
