REPARATIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

The solution is plain and simple in concept, although admittingly complex and comprehensive in its application and solemn and unwavering in commitment. The commitment requires meaningful change, including grievances and infringements where substantial damages and exploitation have been identified.

These can be self-identifying and voluntary admissions or exposed and involuntarily sanctions. The remedies should reflect the capacity and benefits of their participation.

War crime tribunals pursue individuals many decades past their crimes having been identified. Once their transgressions are exposed, their identity becomes known, their location secured, and their participation verifies their pursuit is relentless.

No matter how small or how much time has passed, whether they are remorseful or not, they are subject to the penalty of law for their actions. Countries, businesses, and institutions have the same moral and ethical societal obligations to refrain from crimes against humanity or become subject to redress and accountability. 

Under God’s law and moral righteousness, if not by man’s written law, this should be rectified since we have always known the what, the who, the excuses, the locality, and the refusal to be held accountable.

Man’s law and history’s alterations have always sought to indemnify these iniquities, manipulate reality, and contort societal structures protecting the guilty or claiming their immunity. Unadulterated chronicles of history have constantly spewed forth the guilty whose deeds were so openly practiced that a resolution would seem uncontested. Unbiased enforcement of the law does not require the guilty to consent or be remorseful, only to have committed the act.

The resolution should include the national and international companies and entities exclusively funding initiatives for Blacks and their communities because others have been funded at the exclusion of Blacks, so they have already essentially received theirs.

These profiteers of slavery should be compelled to mea culpa and commit to corrective measures. Their vile narrative as citizens of the world amended to reflect that the sins and fruits of those sins be acknowledged by redeeming actions to offset the destructive effects of their exploitation of Black people.

Let history then be the future measure to judge the actions and manner that these atrocities were corrected and a commitment to redress demonstrated. Avoidance of racist elements and the resulting harmful repercussions have been ignored, allowing the accumulation of and exacerbating a resolution.

Since access to wealth and equal opportunity were denied, fairness demands that it is now what must be provided. Let us not be naïve about what will or should be done, but the sincere objective understood in its undertaking. The details and implementation of the means to accomplish this are complex, but the need for a determined commitment is clear.  

Imagine if the United States of America is a house. The citizens are the house’s occupants. The leadership is the parents in a cooperative and committed relationship dedicated to keeping the family dynamic strong while working to overcome difficult times. Staying together for the occupant’s benefit realizing the value of the individual parts and any selfish interest will fracture the good of the whole house.

A house divided cannot stand as conditions worsen and the foundation begins to crack. One party cannot seek to minimize the problem because it is most slanted toward their benefit and convenience without consideration for the consequences, sufferings, or contributions that have contributed significantly to the success of the household.

If the other party being marginalized daring to cry out that they have a problem, then WE should have a problem, and a conciliatory resolution needs to prevail.

In America’s house, regarding the context of recriminations for racial discrimination, the establishment of a Declaration of Resolution must be incorporated into the societal structures to begin to rectify slavery and Jim Crow.

Only then can renovations begin to repair America’s inescapable history as proud purveyors of crimes against Black humanity on a national and global scale. The guilty parties were interchangeable, the occurrences countless, and the despicable actions beneficially incorporated; so, must it be with the impact of the resolution.

Any Declaration of Resolution must comprehensively consider the following points: principle-based and not relegated to a person, occurrence, or movement but an unwavering commitment. It must be implemented in a context devoid of grandiose individual acclaim but sculptured in collective indebtedness, not to be accusatory but factual, where everything must be on the table for examination.

Finally, anoint and elevate the necessity above all else, creating a force and not a target. The insanity of using failed divisible methods must yield to an effective consolidated sustainability resistant to sabotage and subjugation tactics.

To skim the surface of grievances that historically touches all levels of government and society, I have taken the liberty to offer these considerations with what has been my humble observation. It can be amended or supplemented to whatever the agreed-upon or negotiated redress is in the form of authentic actualized measures that resonate as vociferously as the indignations, exploitations, and atrocities have.

Government and legislative processes

Government and legislative processes compelling meaningful policy changes and enforcement. Focused statutory enactments and legislative imperatives to ensure proper implementation, established legal precedence and procedures inclusive of authentic fairness, actual unbiased application of representation, and accessibility in equal diligence to reflect Black inclusion, protection, prosperity, and participation across the governmental spectrum.

Educational content and teaching

Educational content and teaching need to be corrected regarding historical inaccuracies and perspectives to remove the racial superiority indoctrinations. Any exaggerated accomplishments, eugenics referenced and brainwashing propaganda, or religious misrepresentations thoroughly rebuked. The sinister intent of material concealments distorting the Confederate heritage, racist validations, and delusional impressions of condescension exposed.

Black history and African heritage should be portrayed in their truth, accuracy, and glory. Education should reflect the unadulterated truth comprehensively conveyed without propaganda purposes. It has to inform and depict an accurate illustration of knowledge and history. Access to this knowledge should be available and disseminated at any location inaccuracies have been dispensed.

Dispelling deceptions where an inquisitive mind exists to pursue it without undue influence but with an open mind to accept, reject, correct, or improve it through individual exploration. My personal approach to knowledge is to know it without the need to accept it or believe in it but only to know and understand it.

But debatably, one of the biggest detriments to blacks has been our lack of inclusion in various financial, economic, investment, insurance, annuities, and retirement fund management structures. Access to capital, general monetary instruments, and wealth-building opportunities and principles used for our advantage previously used to our disadvantage.

This lack of knowledge, emphasis, and exposure has historically prevented our compounded accumulation of wealth by a determined bias of fiscal design. When finally allowed to read, they could not let us count accumulating wealth. 

Law enforcement and criminal court

Law enforcement and the criminal court are beyond repair as it is currently constituted, but that is not to say it is not needed. What is required is an operational modernization, an ideological upgrade, with many procedural techniques, policies, and tactics revamped to not so readily lead to force that is deadly or otherwise.

A display of empathy for the situations and circumstances that those they encounter come from or are relegated to as a predisposition of their employment. The police should also understand and familiarize themselves with the people they police through prior community exposure and interaction as part of academy training.

Transparency and accountability need to be based on admitting improprieties, abuses, and damages when they occur and are apparent. The justifications and constraints used for actions, intent, fairness, and respect for the public should be the parameters that law enforcement must abide by.

Not blanket qualified immunity for misconduct or violations. Any consumer warranty or protection is voided after a disqualifying action or breach, so should it also be with qualified immunity. This standard should not be circumvented, subjective, arbitrary, or ambiguous.

Adjustments and changes to the expectations of policing and the reasonable execution of the law are required. Police immunity from their actions has come and gone. Appropriate conduct is demanded, and transparent recognition of misconduct is presumed where accountability is the paramount responsibility of police duties concerning the public. It must also be with themselves to maintain respectability and integrity of enforcement.

Blacks caught up in the criminal justice system are there for many reasons, definitely for some of our ill-advised decisions for one reason. But, these causes can often be based on limited choices and options that are frequently the result of economic desperation reflecting discrimination and lack of viable options.

This is sometimes a reflection of bias and the financial status and hopelessness created by purposeful default. Thus, making it seldom by choice but more by condition. Nevertheless, it is the best choice out of several bad choices that seem like a good idea at the time.   

When the only seemingly readily accessible choice is a bad choice when chosen by us but a similar bad choice or absent an option unavailable to us when selected by someone else, the judgment cannot be different. Not to justify poor decisions but to simply better understand their possible origins in thought and deed.

Who is arrested and for what crimes depends disproportionately on how and where law enforcement resources are directed. Lack of opportunity and despair often dictates the propensity for committing crimes. At the basis of many crimes, regardless of race, are economic ramifications and the lack of opportunities to avoid them.

It is part of cultural conditioning and reinforcement considering the accessibility of alternatives. Still, just as we expect others to be liable for their decisions, we must be responsible for ours. Therefore, the impartiality of the equal application of the law must also be applied.

Sentencing for crimes and assured due process of law should be statistically no harsher or restrictive where the race can be a discernable factor. The demographic percentages of arrest and incarceration for blacks sounds very few alarms but yields plenty of devious justifications and dubious convictions. The bail bond system aids in the process as a caste system more reflective of economic status than crime.

The bail bond system is a subtle system of prolonged incarceration and guilty plea-provoking motivations devoid of consideration of actual guilt. However, it often produces plea bargain inspirations for a guilty verdict. Lack of bail has been known to soften the resolve regardless of guilt.

Cash bail needs to be abolished as the antiquated racist system it has been and as currently constituted its application, because it is a straight-up inclination to penalize someone based on economics instead of the crime committed.

Bond money after the fact has no impact on the commission of your crime, your guilt, your return to court, propensity to commit another crime, or your willingness to intimidate a witness. How much money you have does not determine these things, but other considerations should including victim impact, criminal past, and ability to deter further illegal actions.

The law has proven to be only as good as someone’s willingness to respect and abide by it, not money for bond. The bond is intended as a surety note meaning a financial instrument of assurance, not guilt or a return to court because it does not assure either of the other two.

Property ownership and housing

Property ownership and housing conditions, geographic housing choices, and neighborhood investment and development often leave Black people in a stagnant spiral of declining or horizontal growth, which reiterates generational poverty and despair. Thus, never venturing outside the familiar confines physically or economically of the circumstance we have come to know.

 Sure, there will be those who escape this purposeful fate, but a vast number cannot stray too far away from its grip. Property ownership and property valuations have long been a primary method of wealth accumulation and the effective denial of such by discrimination.

Housing is also manipulated for redlining, gentrification, and gerrymandering affecting government services, bias-influenced redevelopment, and suppressive political or electoral representation. Property tax, abatements, and other government allotments impact everything from the standard of education and schools to the services received.

Lack of enforcement of housing codes, higher insurance rates, usuary interest rates, and many other fees and hidden barriers further absorb resources to impair black wealth. The social, financial, and political withholdings further the imbalance of resources that can be used for our own prosperity instead of those secretly siphoning from us.  

Banking and lending practices

Banking and lending practices further discrimination encouraging loan and credit denial. Predatory lending practices and the lack of fundamental capital investment creates property ownership barriers.

Obstacles to entrepreneurship, transference of wealth impediments, lack of wealth-generating opportunities, and restrictive scalability in equity positions limit avenues to participation that have not been customarily extended to the Black experience or available fiscal options.

Given the number of banks, insurance companies, and other organizations, including Wall Street, who profited from human trafficking in the slave trade, there should be no shortage of remunerations and expertise to alleviate and change these prevailing harmful financial elements of the Black experience.

Being very familiar with balance sheets, accrued liabilities, accounts payable, venture capital contingencies, maturity dates, and the like, there should be no hesitancy to the existence of the obligation even if reluctant to the terms.  

 

 

Food

The nutritional value of food is the foundation of good health, especially in young children and older adults. Therefore, the affordability and availability of that food are the two primary factors in choosing what to eat or feed our family. Of course, convenience is also a significant consideration, but convenience can be overcome by discipline and the availability of better options.

Cultural preferences shaped by generations of lack of available, affordable choices led to a lack of options, concern, or awareness of what we are essentially consuming and the effect on our digestive system and organs, igniting a ticking time bomb. The quality, freshness, and mislabeling, along with the chemicals and ingredients, furthers any damages the wrong foods create.

The healthcare implications, illnesses, and associated diseases which heavily stricken the black community can substantially be attributed to our dietary choices. Our nutritional choices are directly associated with our economic condition and proximity to better choices.

Fast foods, low-quality foods, and sugary drinks are our main dietary health risks, and usually, the cheaper the food, the unhealthier it is to consume. Food deserts and lack of fresh vegetables and grains are nutritional considerations that affect our health as much as income inequality.

It is the combination and culmination of several things. Food co-ops and farmer markets are things blacks must undertake and support, denouncing the unhealthy choices synonymous with illness. Once supplied, it is incumbent upon us to make a concerted cultural shift to embrace a healthier diet.

Nutritional education correlates to health and wellness. Consider this, would you let your child sit and eat 12 teaspoons of sugar, not to mention the calories equivalent to a bottle of Pepsi? What about a 12-ounce Coke that has 10 teaspoons? Sugar is one of the prime addictive and destructive offenders hidden in drinks.

It is not only the food choices but the drink choices as well. Nutritional education is a must to offset the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries’ dependence on black suffering, much like the criminal justice system’s reliance on the black arrest.

Black farmers are not prioritized on the same level as other farmers on the food chain supply side, and capital for equipment and innovation is harder to secure or more challenging to get approved for. This is a method to coerce them into unfavorable financial conditions and land forfeitures.

The discrimination against the black farmer makes farming expenses unsustainable for them and their products less profitable while subsidizing the white farmer’s success. Elimination of food deserts and affordable quality food must be made available to the Black community.

Healthcare and medical conditions

Healthcare and medical conditions usually correlate with the quality of care, the timeliness of care, the coverage of care, the cost of care, and the continuation of care. These have all proven to be problematic for blacks, in particular impacting our quality of life.

The only way to secure these objectives for those unemployed or underemployed is to take a vow of poverty and remain under the threshold to qualify for assistance. To maintain healthcare, you then must remain unproductive.

Discrimination in the medical field has created disparities in routine preventive services, seniors’ medications, and senior care. Proper nutrition, mortality rates, childbirth, and prenatal care reveals a racially disproportionate exposure.

Mental health and substance abuse addictions are struggles criminalized, adding to our concealment and cautious skepticism of treatment. These are some of the primary afflictions gone underserved for generations. Furthermore, lack of affordability, medical access, and apathy to medical symptoms combines to account for escalating medical conditions that plague our community to date.

Lack of engagement from the medical community resulting in callousness and neglect has been insidiously infused, contributing to the Black communities’ mistrust. These patterns and practices have created mistrust, discouragement, misinformation, disregard, and lack of engagement. Comparatively, quality options, proximity to medical facilities, and integrity of medical personnel would foster less cynicism regarding discrimination.

Reparations and methods of payment

Reparations and methods of payment by the profiteers should include but not be limited to money, products, services, internships, trust funds, endowments, foundations, equity, credit, ownership, grants, management, and employment opportunity. Hence these remedies should be clearly defined and verifiable. Not readily susceptible to misappropriation, corruption, manipulation, overvaluation, or discontinuation.

It should be prioritized for at least three generations of duration with sustained and confirmed diligence. It should also be enforced by law and penalty if breached. Whatever the business or specialty of the purveyor should be the very least consideration that they can offer since we are sure that they at least possess that service, so cash is not the only option.

The government is not totally responsible for reparations since this as a nation of people and businesses that fully or partially participated in or benefited directly or indirectly in the atrocities by commission, complicity, or silence. They should also pitch in for the solution since they were party to the problem and benefits. The cry for reparations would have ended many years ago before the issue became so convoluted if racism had discontinued.

 Damn denouncing an act that has continued despite hundreds of years of broken promises and systematic abuses and discriminations. So, the biggest most valuable reparation is the discontinuation of the oppression of black prosperity since by now, it should be apparent that the days of breaking our spirit are forever over. Despite the tyranny and murder rained down on us, we have proven to be resilient.

Slavery, superiority, and discrimination originally were a matter of economics. Please make no mistake about it. Now, it is a matter of mental illness driven by delusional groupthink by everyone knowing it was nonsense, including you. However, still needed are others to believe it to preserve your privilege.

The terror of your white privilege no longer comforting you has led to this irrational masquerade claiming an unfairness to you and pseudo bravado afraid of a world without a rigged advantage to bolster your fallacy. It was justified by manipulated and deceitful nonsense, and you have enriched yourself enormously with the many benefits of this fallacy.

Many arguments are made against reparations, but the one that can not be made is that you did not commit the atrocities. That you didn’t do it. That it was not done. So next time an unarmed black man is murdered by law enforcement, or they decide to rest for 8:46 seconds on his neck murdering him, condemn the shit, and consider that as a down payment on reparations that only cost you your voice and having a soul. 

Acknowledgment

The lack of acknowledgment for the contributions of our service across this country causes patriotism to be used to imply whites were the only ones who defended or contributed to America’s preeminence.

Our contributions to invention, law, business, education, sports, science, entertainment, social and humanitarian efforts, literature, heritage, and politics need to be appropriately accredited to us without the whitewash of thievery or misappropriation.

Recovery, forgiveness, and grace all begin with admission and confession. There can be no prospects of redemption with persistent denial, excuses, and minimalizations.

Warring countries have been rebuilt, populations compensated, and even the treasonous rebellious Confederacy south rebuilt and welcomed back into the union. Yet, on the other hand, the leadership of the Republican party coddled an insurrection with overt racial overtones on the Capitol, threatening democracy.

None of these transgressions have been a part of the Black experience or nor have black people received this substantial generosity of consideration.

European immigrants were recruited and given land, resources, and encouragement to own slaves to assimilate with white America to help to maintain a disproportionate ratio of whites to blacks. Thus, white skin tone rather than origination took precedence over dark skin. 

Today to assimilate having white skin, you can call yourself Ted instead of Raphael or abandon your German heritage and grandfather’s name of drumpf, claiming the confederate heritage as your own despite your immigrant roots. Immigrants of a white skin tone from anywhere or of white European descent can stand at a distance and be considered white and sometimes even closer if they do not speak.

But no matter how distant within eyesight, a Black person can stand and not be considered anything other than Black on sight. You see, the dark skin tone is the sole determinant. All of this is still true today for European descendants who can brag about how they came to this country and got assimilated to being white and benefited from masquerading as such. 

Immigration of any darker complexion people is considered undesirable, while white immigrants are favorable to maintain and restock the white majority. Fortunately, that majority is waning along with their privileged white utopia.

Therefore, whites’ advantage and privilege enjoyed for so long now require that they pass the sugar. The taste of honey has long been hoarded and requires an equitable allocation of concessions and redress to be conceded. 

The implementation of equality and the resulting rise in the Black quality of life will vicariously benefit all races and all elements of society, including the Black one this time.

These gestures have been made before for immigrants, other countries, and other races. So, it is not unreasonable that the Black race that has suffered the most should now enjoy the same consideration and expectation. No longer subjected to malicious intent simply because of a darker hue of complexion.

Those who would cry far left-wing ideology, socialism, and socio-economic welfare, I would submit reparations is the most far right-winged proposal imagined. Demonstrated by your willingness to bail out the one percent, Wall Street, big banks, and big business for the overall good of the country and health of the economy as being too big to fail. 

Never know when you will need us again, and America you will. So it would seem wise and prudent that Blacks and equality are also TOO BIG TO FAIL too! The same actions are needed even if it is referenced by a different label or perspective, not called reparations. So you see, we are united in our prerequisite for this action if not in our method how. Consider it services rendered or a down payment deposit.

God bless America and the wisdom for America to change for its own salvation, preservation, and prosperity equally. Let us pray in honor of the Christian cloak of deceit that you have hidden under for so long, the nation’s tolerance for inequality, and the conditioning of the black race to beg for deliverance where it is expected to forgive you for you surely deny what you have done.

So, let us pray.

Forgive them, father, for they have sinned, but they have not repented or atoned for their sins. Instead, they have practiced and concealed these abominations cloaked in your name to not only discredit you but to discredit themselves.

Justifying their brutality and moral deprivation in your holy name by committing the most atrocious of sins against a segment of your people. Centuries corrupting all that should be held sacred according to your word.

They do not seek your judgment, for surely you are not pleased, and condemnation can only follow. Salvation has been leveraged for gold, silver, sugar, and cotton with no regard for humanity.

Even less respect for your holiness or the one you sent who surely cannot pay for these sins. Without repentance, they have been rebuked. So practiced by Britain and America in every corner of the globe since before the United States’ inception.

They have worshipped this idolatrous slavery obsession and the false prophets above you and the very humanity that they still refuse to recognize also as your creation.

They have borne false witness and even murdered in your name. The above-stated crimes against humanity for earthly riches have blinded them to your glory and caused them to pervert your word masquerading as a true believer forsaking your honor without remorse of their deeds.

They have neither been meek, merciful, pure of heart, or peacemakers. They have forsaken justice, are devoid of integrity, have offered exploitation to the downtrodden, and have broken every covenant of yours in spirit and action.

They cannot offer their tarnished soul for redemption but for eternal condemnation for freely choosing and committing these atrocities. By your word, you condemn them and with their actions and words, they condemn themselves!

The soil is drenched with blood, horror, and abomination from these purgatory fixations, steadfast commissions, and continued denial. We can only pray they repent acknowledging their transgressions and denouncing the evil they imposed through the oppression of our Black ancestry.

For their horrendous crimes against humanity and religion, I fear saying three Hail Mary’s and two Our Fathers is not sufficient for these trespasses. Confession, repentance, and reparations for damages would be a sign to humanity and God of their sincerity for salvation by not only word but by deed.

And, of course, to no longer practice or tolerate these repulsive transgressions ever again towards anyone as they have no justification. It might just be the difference between salvation, survival, or being judged harshly stricken by your wrath.

It might be said to practice what God’s word teaches, not the hypocrisy of scribes nor Pharisees worshipping the coin, politics, or a defeated President! Time to submit to a reckoning and atonement, for Christ’s sake and America’s, we can only pray.

P.S. This is not an indictment of religion, just how it has been and continues to be used to accomplish and justify evil intentions by self-proclaimed conservative, patriotic evangelical God-fearing racists.

This in no suggests a blanket accusation against all white past or present in America regarding slave trade involvement or racism. However, it does illustrate the factual account of who, when, and what it applies. I think we can all agree if the shoe fits, it can only be your shoe Cinderella.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz