Week 5/day 3 The case for Reparations -V. The Quiet Plunder
Week 5/day 3 The case for Reparations -V. The Quiet Plunder
1.
Slave ownership was aspirational -meaning that
not only was it normalized but it was pervasively part of our culture and
nation. It was the height of elitism
a.
They wrote books on how to breed the best servants,
extract labor, and proper and effective means of punishment.
2.
So fundamentally a part of America, that those
who sought to end it were met with violence and branded heretics worthy of
death
a.
Abe Lincoln comes to mind
3.
John wilkes Booth -wrote that This country was
formed for the white, not the black man -just before he killed Abe Lincoln
4.
Who were the Radical Republicans
a.
The party of Lincoln
b.
They tried to reconstruct the country providing
for universal equality
5.
They were beaten back by the Campaign of Redemption
led by White Liners, Red shirts and Klansman
a.
Bent on ensuring that America remained formed
for the whiten not the black man
b.
They institute wave of terrorism across the
south
c.
Blacks attacked for not removing hats, using
insolent language, disputing labor contracts, or refusing to act like a slave
d.
Sometimes attack simply to thin the ranks of
niggers
6.
When federal troops withdrew from south in 1877
the floodgates of violence opened and reconstruction died
7.
Political violence became the norm, special treatment
aimed at curtailing black ambition
8.
Black schools and churches burned
9.
Black voters an political candidates intimidate,
some lynched
10. When
black veterans returned from WWI, they were assaulted for merely wearing the
American Uniform
11. As
white and black veterans competed for the same jobs, whites responded with Red Summer
of 1919, a succession of racist pogroms against dozens of cities ranging from
Longview, Texas, to Chicago to Washington D.C.
12. Organized
white violence continued as Tulsa Black Walls street was raised, followed by
the 1923 destruction of Rosewood florida few if any were punished.
13. Even
as some praised the New Deal as a model of progressive government uplifting the
poor and affilicted and building the middle class
14. For
blacks they still ahd to contend with Jim Crow
15. What
is the difference between Jim Crow and Black Codes
16. When
Social Security Act in 1935 was crafted it benefited southern way of life..and
old age insurance (SSN proper and unemployment insurance excluded both
farmworkers and domestics -jobs heavily filled by blacks
17. When
signed by Roosevelt in 1935 -65 percent of aA nationally and between 70 and 80
percent of blacks in south were ineligible
18. The
GI bill also failed black Americans -Tittle III of thebill aimed to give
veterans access to low interests home loans but black veterans were again left
at the mercy of white officials at their local veterans administration and the
same banks that refused to grant mortgages to blacks.
19. Cold
War America -homeownership helped foster patriotism and served to civilize the population
a source of peace
20. What
makes us a democracy is owning a home, having financial security, and access to
education and training
21. When
the federal housing act sent millions ot tax dollars -to build public housing..it
was done in segregated neighborhoods creating a second ghetto -98 percent of
all family public housing units built in Chicago between 1950-1960 built in all
black neighborhoods.
22. A
result of high level of racism within Chicago targeting blacks
23. Feared
blacks encroachment and formed block associations for the principal purpose of
enforcing segregation
24. When
private banks could no longer restrict lending to blacks, when the government
no longer restricted fha loans, and when neighborhood associations were no
longer possible then racial violence surfaced
a.
Mob of thousands assembled on July 1 and 2 in
1046, Chicago Park manor neighborhood aiming to force a black doctor out of the
neighbord..they pelted his home with rocks and set the garage on fire he later moved away.
b.
When black veterans mofed into the Fernwood
section of Chicago in 1947 -three nights of rioting broke out, gangs of whites
yanked blACKS OFF STREETCARS AND BEAT THEM
c.
Two years later -when blacks attended union
meeting in Englewood rummers spread that a black had bought a home -blacks and
their white allies were beaten in the streets
d.
1951 thousands of whites in Cicero, just 20
minutes from downtown chicao, attacked an apartment building that housed one
single black family, throwing bricks and firebombs
e.
The cook County grand jury declined to charge
the rioters instead the Naacp attorney representing the family, the apartments
white owner, and owners attorney and rental agent were charged with conspiring to
lower property values
f.
When terrorism failed…white flight took over as
white homeowners fimply fled to the suburbs.
25. Redlining
destroyed the possibility of investment wherever black people lived
VII. A lot of People fell by the way
1.
Block busting -when speculators would make money
off of white panic
a.
Targeting communities on the edge of black
ghettos, they would hire a black woman to walk up and down the street with a stroller
b.
They would then cajole whites into selling their
property at lower prices, informing them that blacks were already moving in and
that their property values would soon plummet
c.
Then they would turn to the blacks wanting to
move into better neighborhoods and sell them the property at higher prices..
VIII: Negro Poverty is not White Poverty
1.
Many assume that all poverty,, white and black,
are the same
2.
It fails to see the long tradition of punishing
black success -a form of punishment
3.
We no longer have afrirmative action first there
was the supreme court case of California v. Bakkee which held that ou could not
revese discriminate.
4.
Then more recently …Obama care the results might
just surprise you
IX. Toward a new country
1.
The cost estimate for reparatons in 1973 was $34
billion
a.
Where each black would receive a check
2.
More recently Harvard law professor Ogletree argues
for job training and public works that includes poor of all races
3.
Hr40 -recognizes that full reparations will
never come about
4.
It is not about white guilt or but healing the
American psyche
5.
Jews received reparations, after much controversy
on both times, that lasted for 12 years.
Resulted in tripling the GNP, producing 45,000 jobs, but also provided
psychological and political healing
6.
It could not replace the lives lost, dreams
abandoned, or psychic harm
7.
At best they only provided partial compensation
for material losses
8.
Various lawsuits, even after Oklahoma
legislature affirmed that a riot had taken place, still the courts failed to
provide relief for its victims in 2004
9.
Lawsuit against insurance companies such as
Aetna which insured slaves or Lehman Brothers whose cofounder owned them have
also failed
10. John
Conyers hr 40 is a bill that attempts to start the debate
11. High
levels of segregation provided natural markets for subprime lending producing
riskier mortgages and foreclosures
12. Wells
Fargo, in 2005 took advantage of black and minority investors, arguing that
they could develop generational wealth, held wealth building seminars as a
front for wealth theft
a.
In 2010 Justice Department filed a discrimination
suit against them for predatory loans regardless of their creditworthiness
b.
Loan officers referring to black customers as
mud people were targeted with their subprime products or ghetto loans.
c.
In 201 Bank of America agreed to pay $466
million to settle charges of discrimination
d.
Next year Wells Fargo settled by paying $175
million
e.
But the damages done were never relieved
13. Half
of the properties in Baltimore whose loas granted by Wels Fargo between
2005-2008 were vacant
14. 71
percent were in predominantly black neighborhoods
15. Their
losses far exceeded the damages paid..
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