Are We Free in 2000 or Are We Still in U.S. Slavery?

Editorials

Published: April 22, 2000

Are We Free in 2000 or Are We Still in U.S. Slavery?
Thoughts By Oscar L. Beard
Consultant in African Studies

Central to the definition of a Free People is control of land, water and other natural resources, production of their own food and the control of the means of production of all of their needs including import export activities, the creation and control of their world view and values, a system of mutual trust, i.e. a social system that applies to themselves alone, which makes it possible for them to have an economic system that they control, People who work for themselves within an economic system they control as opposed to People who work for some other ethnic group as a primary modality.

It was Frederick Douglass who stated that, "As long as we are not the direct beneficiaries of our labor, we are still slaves." Attorney Dr. Robert L. Brock patterns it in another manner. "The wealth of America is your legal property." A real citizen would have no need for Affirmative Action. Kill or work to death 100 million Blacks or Africans then make them your so-called citizen without asking them. In 1865-66 slave ownership changed hands from individual slavemasters to U.S. Congressional ownership of African slaves.

African slaves in the U.S. still have a per capita value to the U.S. economy. This value is about $10,000 per head per year by dividing our annual worth, some $437 Billion by the number of heads, some 49 million. The primary characteristic of a slave is that he works for someone else. During chattel slavery, we were not paid for our labors and are yet to be paid for the labor of our ancestors, including the gross revenues from their scientific innovations.

But even though we are paid for our labors today, though not up to par with Whites (citizens) for equal work and qualifications, we are in effect still working without pay in that the master-slave relationship has not ended; it has only transformed itself. Since we have not yet recovered from the destruction of our social and cultural systems by U.S. Slavery, we have not yet restructured a system of mutual trust amongst ourselves upon which any economic system may base itself. At the same time we continue to suffer under the illusion that we are part of the dominant American economy.

Yes, we are indeed an essential part of the dominant American economy, but as a consumer slave liquid economy, a liquid economy that most other ethnic groups are tapping into. This phenomenon is made possible , inter alia, by the fact that we consider ourselves U.S. Citizens but the U.S. does not consider us as Citizens in Real Law. The fact that our so-called Civil Rights, in which we had no choice at their inception in 1866, keep getting jacked around, does not seem sufficient to help most of us to realize that the U.S. does not consider us to be Citizens. Indeed, some of our best "intellects" are running for U.S. office. An objective observer from some other galaxy might well wonder how many times Africans in the U.S. will oscillate between slavery and so-called Civil Rights, to the dismantling of the so-called Civil Rights, what one might coin the Freedom Reconstruction Syndrome before waking up to the reality of our legal status in the U.S. as slaves.

It is not normal for Free People to work for some other People as a primary mode. Free People work for themselves within an economic system that they control based upon a social system of mutual trust amongst themselves. A primary objective of slavery was to destroy our social and cultural systems, separating mother from child, husband from wife, father from child, sibling from sibling. This practice was so effective that it is only in other parts of the Western hemisphere that we have seen successful Black Revolutions in the classic sense, Haiti, Brazil, though African slaves in the U.S. have a number of successful armed revolts under our belt, though these were ultimately put down, as were African Revolutions in other parts of the Hemisphere ultimately compromised. In the meantime, internationally accepted means have evolved by which one ethnic group may seek redress against another ethnic group for slavery, genocide and other forms of abuse. This is called Reparations.

Hence, the writer is not just being critical without offering a solution. There is a solution that other ethnic groups are and have utilized that we need to come up to speed about. It is Due Process in International Law where reside our true rights, our Human Rights in Natural Law and in International Law. But these real rights will never be realized until we get on our own case. It can start with you, by getting informed, or if you are already enlightened on these issues, by getting involved and stop making excuses about why it is not going to work. It will work as we work it baby! We built America under force. We can rebuild our own social and economic systems under the power of our own wills. Not to do so would be less than civilized.

Some Recommended Resources

Attorney Dr. Robert L. Brock's website at: http://www.directblackaction.com

My own Black Reparations website at: http://ReadingDoctor.com/slavery.htm

Also contact The National Reparations Commission at: rkarriem@webtv.net for an update on the distinguished work in International Law by The Honorable Silis Muhammad on behalf of African slaves in the U.S. If we receive a Forum in International Law at the United Nations in New York, as NCR has been pushing for some years now, what real good will it do if the International community sees that the very Class to which the effort refers, i.e. us, is disinterested in the cause, irregardless to how much they may understand or sympathize with how brutally and effectively we have been brainwashed. Ultimately we must act on our own behalf. No ethnic group has ever been paid Reparations without an effective demand for Reparations. And no ethnic group has ever demanded Reparations while at the same time assuming that the effort would fail.

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