UN Working Group Suggests US Work on Racial Reconciliation

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

UN Working Group Suggests US Work on Racial Reconciliation

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Jan 29, 2016, 4:36 PM ET

The United States should consider reparations to African-American descendants of slavery, establish a national human rights commission and publicly acknowledge that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity, a United Nations working group said Friday.

The U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent released its preliminary recommendations after more than a week of meetings with black Americans and others from around the country, including Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, the District of Columbia and Jackson, Mississippi.

After finishing their fact-finding mission, the working group was "extremely concerned about the human rights situation of African-Americans," chair Mireille Fanon Mendes-France of France said in the report. "The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the U.S. remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent."

For example, Mendes-France compared the recent deaths of unarmed black men like Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police to the lynchings of black men in the South from the post-Civil War days through the Civil Rights era. Those deaths, and others, have inspired protests around the country under the Black Lives Matter moniker.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/working-group-suggests-us-work-racial-reconciliation-36605544

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Why just America as it relates to

The United States should consider reparations to African-American descendants of slavery, establish a national human rights commission and publicly acknowledge that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity, a United Nations working group said Friday.

The Nations The Benefitted The Most From Enslaving African People
http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/10/01/nations-that-benefited-the-most-from-enslaving-african-people/3/

USA
According to Harper’s magazine (November 2000), the United States stole an estimated $100 trillion for 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent.

England
Between 1761 and 1808, British traders hauled 1,428,000 African captives across the Atlantic and pocketed $96.5 million – about $13 billion in value today – from selling them as slaves.

France
With over 1,600,000 enslaved Africans transported to the West Indies, France was clearly a major player in the trade. Its slave ports were a major contributor to the country’s economic advancements in the 18th century. Many of its cities on the west coast, such as Nantes, Lorient, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux, built their wealth through the major profits of triangular slave trade.

Netherlands
Slave labor created vast sources of wealth for the Dutch in the form of precious metals, sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee and cotton and other goods, and helped to fund the creation of Amsterdam’s beautiful and famous canals and city center.

Portugal
Portugal was the first of all European countries to become involved in the Atlantic slave trade.  From the 15th to 19th century, the Portuguese exported 4.5 million Africans as slaves to the Americas, making it Europe’s largest trafficker of human beings.

Spain
Starting in 1492, Spain was the first European country to colonize the New World, where they established an economic monopoly in the territories of Florida and other parts of North America, Mexico, Trinidad, Cuba and other Caribbean islands. The native populations of these colonies were mostly dying from disease or enslavement, so the Spanish were forced to increasingly rely on African slave labor to run their colonies.

another post on this topic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/118736992

The UN's intent is positive. I'm glad they are looking at it. But if we are looking at Reparations and statements of Apology -

1. There are five other countries that they are letting get away with ten kinds of murder. I don't care about their financial issues now, their instability, their focus on thir colonialist behavior in Africa, Asia and the old New World, their refugees from Africa and the Middle East etc etc. Dodge, deflect, defer - IF they are allowed to Deny the blood and misery on their OWN hands at the UN.

2. They in their high and mighty we are so above it all approach aren't understanding what will really help black Americans when any discussions of Reparations for American inflicted oppression should start. We need to start in the 20 th century.

If we start there - then again they are forced to hold a mirror up to themselves - From their causing the Rwandan genocide, to the Rape of Nanking, to 11 million Jews, Gypsies, Gays, "undesirables" in Europe etc etc to their ignoring Apartheid , etc etc.

Start when it matters or don't start at all. And we all know this is just grand standing. No country will ever come to the rescue of black Americans.

We are on our own here. Nice symbolic gesture but - they won't help us.

[Kind of Blue]

4. Excellent points! And I need to add the debts incurred

by so many developing nations after their independence. Stripped of people and resources and yet have to borrow money used to completely enrich the West, and then expected to pay their debts, with huge interest rates, before they can organize their economies. So that paying the debt overrides healthcare, education, and infrastructure. What a nightmare.

"Although the World Bank and IMF aim to help countries reduce the amount of debt that they owe, their ridiculous interest rates, guidelines and conditions force countries to become even more heavily in debt then they were previously. This then causes a vicious cycle of economic instability and unsustainable development." https://internationaldebtcrisis.wikispaces.com/African+Debt+Crisis

#t=75

Here's a series of articles from a few years ago illustrative of one of the powers' constant lust for resources, "The French African Connection: This series explores the dark and dramatic history of France's relationships with its former African colonies. This three-part series tells the story of 'France Afrique': a brutal and nefarious tale of corruption, massacres, dictators supported and progressive leaders murdered, weapon-smuggling, cloak-and-dagger secret services, and spectacular military operations." http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201387113131914906.html

"Countries that once depended on us still ask us for help today. But why should we help these countries if it isn't worth it for us?" General de Gaulle, the president of France between 1959 and 1969

"There are times, you know, when policy passes before morality." Maurice Delaunay, former French ambassador to Gabon

[Number23]

2. Good luck with that!

It's a valiant recommendation. It will also go nowhere.

[Kind of Blue]

3. Agree that the recommendations are basically nice

symbolic gestures. No matter how ineffective though, the added pressure from the organization can only help as they, and more institutions, stop ignoring the problem. Pressure has proven to work time and time again. The more the better.