-Caveat Lector- Lawyers planning suit for African-American slave reparations (11/04/00)** (Associated Press) - "A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves. "The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American blacks compensated for 244 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere. "We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,'' Ogletree said. "We want a change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized, raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.'' "Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. "This country has never dealt with slavery. It is America's nightmare. A political solution would be the most sensible but I don't have a lot of faith that's going to happen. So we need to look aggressively at the legal alternative,'' Ogletree said. Harvard's ultra-liberal Charles Ogletree indicated that the group's lawsuit will be directed against the federal government, state governments, corporations, and other institutions that allegedly have benefited from slave labor. "Ogletree said the Reparation Assessment Group includes attorneys [Johnnie] Cochran and Alexander J. Pires Jr., who won a $1 billion settlement for black farmers who claimed discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Richard Scruggs, who won the $368.5 billion settlement for states against tobacco companies; Dennis C. Sweet III, who won a $400 million settlement in the "phen-fen'' diet drug case; and Willie E. Gary, who won a $500 million judgment against the Loewen Group Inc., the world's largest funeral home operators. "Also in the group is Randall Robinson, president of the TransAfrica Forum, a think tank specializing in African, Caribbean and African-American issues. Robinson recently wrote the book "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks,'' which argues for reparations." Supporters of the reparations boondoggle cite recent, largely irrelevant, noncomparable cases where groups have been compensated in cash for discrimination by governments. For example, the Reparations Support Group cites the $20,000 award granted by the U.S. to the Japanese-Americans who were interred in concentration camps in the U.S. during World War II. Reparations advocates fail to acknowledge that the Japanese-Americans who received the $20,000 award were direct "still living" victims of the government's discrimination. This is not the case in the proposed "slavery reparations" debacle. Many generations -- and trillions of dollars in welfare payments and minority set-asides and racial preferences in the U.S. -- have already been awarded to "blacks" in this country. Many citizens and politicians also argue that it isn't fair for taxpayers and corporations who never owned slaves to be burdened with possible multibillion dollar settlements. (AP, via FoxNews, based on the Associated Press story 11/04/00 by Paul Shepard) [Last known link http://foxnews.com/national/1104/d_ap_1104_65.sml ] The Coming Reparations Boondoggle (0619/00) Despite the lunacy of the idea, reparations are on the way. "Should we pay money damages -- reparations for slavery -- to today's African-Americans? At first glance, such a massive redistribution of wealth seems like nothing more than any other crackpot scheme that will go nowhere -- but this movement is steadily gaining ground. The cities of Detroit, Cleveland, and Dallas have officially endorsed slavery restitution, and the Chicago City Council last month passed a resolution urging Congress to push forward with reparations. "... Detroit Rep. John Conyers has vowed that reparations will be the first legislative item he will pursue if Democrats regain the House this fall. Conyers, who has introduced reparations bills every year since 1989, is the ranking member on Judiciary and will become its Chairman if the elections go south for the GOP. "Grassroots groups are also quickly organizing across the country. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), a lobbying umbrella group with dozens of local chapters, has drafted a blueprint for federal "down payments" on reparations that they plan to move through the courts and congressional legislation. [In this paragraph, author Brett M. Decker uses sarcasm in referring to the 'racist nature of criminal justice' in this country.] "Because black criminality is the fruit of a white conspiracy throughout history to keep persons of color down, Lewis's group demands the release of all "political prisoners" jailed for activities while members of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, or any other black-separatist group. "But none of these questions really matter because political power, rather than justice, is the name of this game. The reparations movement has powerful friends. During the Democratic primary debate at Harlem's Apollo Theater last February, Vice President Al Gore and his then-opponent Bill Bradley flatly refused to condemn reparations when the issue was posed. The jam-packed auditorium hooted and hollered its support when the issue was broached. "All this marks a significant turnaround for the civil-rights movement. Once dedicated to constructing a so-called color-blind society, many minority groups now seem not only content with racial separation but actually seem determined to exacerbate the racial divide for years into the future. After all, reparations would hardly bring the country together." (National Review, 06/19/00 by Brett M. Decker, editor of the American Sentinel) [Last known link http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment061900f.html ] Reparations is a hot topic, but no dollars in sight (06/15/00) "Several hundred blacks will gather in Washington this weekend to plot strategy for reparations, a hot topic among some black activists. They want the government to pay them for injuries they say they suffer as a legacy of slavery, which ended 135 years ago. "It's an example of white supremacy and the climate it has created," says Dorothy Lewis, co-chairman of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. The group is hosting the 11th annual Reparations Conference and expects between 300 and 400 people at Howard University. "The conference dovetails with a Sunday rally at the Lincoln Memorial that is themed "The Final Chapter in Black Reparations," the last of five such events that have been held in Florida and Texas. "History may not be kind to such arguments. Historians note that forced servitude has at one time included all races; indeed, the slave catchers in Africa were black and a few blacks owned slaves in America, and many whites came to America as indentured servants, which was little more than a form of slavery that many such servants never escaped. "History is filled with injustices, and if we want to track every one down and, Clinton-like, beat our breasts and apologize, we can," says Myron Magnet, an editor of the urban policy publication City Journal and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. "Or we can focus on the fact that we succeeded in expunging the stain of slavery from our society and passed the heroic Civil Rights Act of 1964, and opened society. To me, the reparation mongers are making themselves part of the problem." "... Others put fanciful dollar amounts on reparations, ranging up to $1.6 trillion, citing [inaccurately] as precedents reparations paid to Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II, or the Indian tribes who received $1.3 billion for land taken from them. "... But even many blacks oppose the very idea of reparations. Some scorn those who seek a payoff. "Thomas Sowell, an economist, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and a newspaper columnist, argues that reparations are based on revisionist history, and "anyone who wants reparations based on history will have to gerrymander history very carefully. Otherwise, practically everybody would owe reparations to practically everybody else." "Short of establishing racial-classification boards, such as those in South Africa during apartheid, there might be no conclusive way to determine eligibility for the payoffs. Since few slaves were legally married, Americans regarded as white might claim a slave ancestor, and disproving such a claim could be difficult." (Washington Times, 06/15/00, by Steve Miller) [Last known link http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000615222511.htm ] Group seeks reparation for slavery (06/13/00) "WASHINGTON -- Despite stiff opposition and 13 years of failed efforts, a group is continuing to press the federal government to pay trillions of dollars to blacks to compensate them for what it calls the lingering effects of slavery. "... The Washington D.C.-based group contends that the federal government owes about $8 trillion to the descendants of slaves. "The 13-year-old coalition ... plans to raise its profile beginning today with a seven-day conference in the nation's capital and a rally on the National Mall this weekend. "Despite what the coalition calls newfound momentum for its cause, the likelihood that Congress will approve any reparations money -- let alone $8 trillion -- appears slim. "Federal lawmakers have not even acted on a relatively benign piece of legislation that calls for the creation of a seven-member commission simply to study the issue of compensating descendants of slaves. "... It is for the memories of our ancestors, the quality of the lives of the living and the destiny of the still unborn that we work diligently to close this chapter of history in a just way, giving voice not only to the wrong but to the remedy," the coalition says in a mission statement. "... Robinson added that he does not hold living white Americans responsible for slavery, noting that none has legally kept slaves and most abhor that the practice ever existed. "... The coalition, in defense of its request for compensation, noted that the federal government in 1988 issued a formal apology and paid $20,000 each to Japanese-Americans taken from their homes and held in internment camps during World War II from 1941 to 1945. Descendants of the centuries-old American slave trade, which flourished from 1619 to 1865, are as deserving of compensation, the group said. "Not so, countered Stanford University professor Clayborne Carson. The Japanese-Americans compensated under the 1988 Civil Liberties Act were people who actually suffered the indignity of being uprooted in the name of national security following Japan's 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. But the slave descendants seeking recompense are many generations removed from their relatives who toiled under the lash, the U.S. history professor said. "... At the conclusion of its conference June 20, the coalition said it intends to file a lawsuit against the federal government to recover compensation for descendants of slaves." (Houston Chronicle, 06/13/00 by Steve Lash) [Last known link http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/page1/578397 ] Additional News Links and Background: OLDER Reparations Stories LINK: http://www.adversity.net/reparations/news2.htm Johnny Reb, A Game of Racial Envy (FrontPagemag.com/June 7, 2000) LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/reb06-07-00.htm Robert A. George, David Fights the Racial Goliath: Salon's House Provocateur, (National Review/June 2, 2000) LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/david06-06-00.htm Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Debt Wrong: David Horowitz is Incorrect. It's Time for the United States to Pay Up for Slavery (Salon.com/June 5, 2000) LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/hutchinson06-05-00.htm David Horowitz, Reparations Are Still a Bad Idea: Reply to Earl Ofari Hutchinson, (FrontPageMag.com/June 5, 2000) LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/david06-05-00.htm David Horowitz, Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks are a Bad Idea for Blacks, and Racist Too (FrontPageMag.com/June 5, 2000) LINK: http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/dh05-31-00.htm <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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