usem essay

Gustavo LaRotta

USEM Pre-Class Essay

Congressman John Conyers describes the institution of slavery well by describing it as the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery” (201). This institution and injustice of slavery is very much different from the other unrightable wrongs that we have studied in class. Slavery is different from the other examples in that the injustices lasted much longer, the injustices occurred side by side with everyday life and also different in how the wounds from these injustices are being mended.

The injustices of slavery itself as an institution in the United States lasted between 1619 and 1865, with its aftermath continuing even today. African Americans were denied the basic rights of life for over 240 years and are still being discriminated against. The problem with the injustices with the African Americans is that it is still ongoing, albeit in a lesser level. The racism and ethnic prejudice during the Holocaust towards the Jews had an element of finality to it when Germany paid individual Jews and the state of Israel (204). With this reparation, there is an element of finality and the sentiment that this has been put behind them. With the situation with the African Americans, nothing like this has occurred, there has been no finality. Why is this? Why could the US simply not care about something like this? It is very much possible that this has to do not with the individual act done, but with racism and unjust prejudice and discrimination. Since slavery had existed for so long, it could be that these ideas just stuck in the American conscience and many just accepted it as a part of their everyday life. The problems here are indeed structural and, unfortunately, clearly have to do with the color of one’s skin. This is seen in the fact that although Germany attempted to repair the wounds with the Jews, little to no effort was given to attempting to repair the wounds to the African Americans. After inflicting and essentially looting Africa, no reparations were made after taking much of the value of Africa’s land.

This is absurd. How could one justify helping out the Jews, but at the same time justify not helping the Africans? It has to do with the fact that the states act out of their own rational self-interest. This goes back to the idea that Samantha Power describes in her book, that the US in particular acts out of its own self-interest, particularly in intervening in genocides. The same idea is applied to the reparations, or lack thereof, to the African Americans. During the Civil War, President Lincoln supported a plan during to compensate slave owners for their loss of property (204). Instead of helping out the ex-slaves, the government attempted to help out the slave owners against whom they were fighting. This again, is absurd, as this was done purely out of self-interest so that the government would gain support from southerners. No reparations were made to the ex-slaves, the reason they were fighting the war. This raises the question of why did the North decide to go to war against the South? From what we have examined, it is clear that even the North didn’t really care about the slaves themselves, as they made little to no effort in aiding them after the war. The only help came in futile attempt to aid ex-slaves own land. This was described on page 205 as the Southern Homestead Act, where ex-slaves were given about six months to buy cheap land. However, the land that many were able to buy was awful, as the soil was poor and could not be farmed.

The fact that the slaves produced much of the money that enriched the plantation owners, entrepreneurs and thus, the government through taxes is overlooked (207). As Robinson asks, “where is the money”? The rich who gained their wealth directly or indirectly from slavery are indebted to them. But for some reason, this debt has not been paid or even attempted to be paid. This differs from the other instances that we have studied, as those who were abused directly made money for those above them. But the question has to be why have reparations been made to Native Americans, Japanese Americans, but not African Americans? One could certainly argue that this was the most heinous crime committed by the US. The African Americans were set back years due to 246 years of a lack of rights, education and compensation for their hard work. If one had to pick which of the abuses we have studied deserves the most monetary compensation, it would be very difficult to argue against the African Americans getting the most.

There have been memorials dedicated to slaves who died and who suffered, but what does this mean for the victims themselves? How does this directly benefit them? It seems that the dedication of memorials seems to benefit not those who it is dedicated to, but to the community as a whole as a form of remembering what was done and to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again. It would be interesting to ask African Americans where memorials dedicated to slavery are located and if they have visited them. What does a memorial do for them? How much satisfaction do they get from this? I personally would rather have direct monetary compensation or some type of compensation for the debt that would be owed to me. However, the biggest thing that has to change is the racism and unjust prejudice that persists today. I am not claiming that I have a solution to this, but acknowledging the fact that in order to repay the debt, there must be a reduction in racism and prejudice.

DMU Timestamp: February 06, 2014 20:23