GENEVA – A United Nations human rights panel says the United States continues to treat African Americans poorly, as it allegedly has for centuries through slavery and mass incarceration, and recommends immediate action to correct the problem, including possible reparations.
Despite some positive measures here in America over the years (Civil Rights Act among them), a U.N. Human Rights Council said in a report that it remains extremely concerned about the human rights situation of African Americans:
A legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching. Impunity for State violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The history of people of African descent in the United States is well documented. The first enslaved Africans were brought to the American colonies in the early part of the seventeenth century. Slavery became an entrenched institution, with Africans making up one fifth of the population of the American colonies by 1775. The issuance in 1863 of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all enslaved persons within the rebellious states were free, was followed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, which outlawed the practice of enslavement, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in 1868, granting full United States citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including African Americans, and the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in 1870, prohibiting denial of the right to vote on the basis of race.
Despite these legal and constitutional developments, the prevalence of “Jim Crow” laws — laws at the state and local levels that enforced racial segregation and persecution, primarily in the southern states — perpetuated political disenfranchisement, social and economic exploitation, violence and the overall subjugation of people of African descent until the 1960s. Lynching was a form of racial terrorism that has contributed to a legacy of racial inequality that the United States must address. Thousands of people of African descent were killed in violent public acts of racial control and domination and the perpetrators were never held accountable.
The civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968 was another important era in the struggle for rights by people of African descent in the country. The Montgomery bus boycott, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and many non-violent protests and acts of civil disobedience throughout the country led to further legislative developments, including but not limited to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited, among other things, discrimination based on race or colour; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which sought to overcome the legal barriers to the exercise of voting rights by African Americans; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in the purchase or renting of property.
The 2010 United States census indicated that there were 43.21 million African Americans, constituting 14 per cent of the United States population. The July 2015 estimates indicated that there were 46.28 million African Americans, constituting 14.4 per cent of the United States population.1 Despite substantial changes since the end of the enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, a systemic ideology of racism ensuring the domination of one group over another continues to impact negatively on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today.
(D) Representative from Michigan’s 13th District, introduced the bill on Jan. 6, 2015
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group encourages Congress to pass H.R. 40 — the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act — which would establish a commission to examine enslavement and racial discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and to recommend appropriate remedies. The Working Group urges the United States to consider seriously applying analogous elements contained in the Caribbean Community’s Ten-Point Action Plan on Reparations, which includes a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities, an African knowledge programme, psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.
It’s not a defined plan but an idea which is better. It tackles the issues at different points although everything can be viewed in different ways. An apology might be useless to some but for others it shows responsibility and acknowledgement of past and present situations. Medical and education is just to seek an atmosphere that’s inviting and teachers that are experienced with the individual in which they teach. Viewing a public school and in comparison will show you a difference. Another example would be the location of your job with a window or top floor this all makes a difference in our society. It only makes since that a victim demands money is that not the way America works. Money seems like the only thing that’s in stone. I mean they asked for equality rights laws and where has that gotten them now that’s pointless to me. Income will not help these people they need wealth to stand like everyone else. They have no gand father or family member to hand down riches. They all start at in the negatives and end in poverty. But seriously why ask your abuser for money as if it’s really going to be handed over. why let this other party make you feel guilty about violence. Who wouldn’t say that violence is not the way upon their particular race. Yet more cruel things came from that same party. Still letting the abuser make the rules.
OMG How long are we going to be held accountable for something WE had no part of? A large majority of the Afro Americans in the US are already receiving the perks contained in the Caribbean Community’s 10 pt. Action Plan on Reparations. If in fact the history of the people of African descent in the United States is well documented then it is also documented that the key players in the slave trade were themselves black. Those who continue to live in the past will never have any kind of future.
Im very sad that every single comment in this thread is racially charged. I dont agree that money is the answer, but i sure as hell wont jump to putting people down because of their color of their skin. Go back to where they came from??? How many people actually know someone who was born in another country? How can someone go back to an area their ancestors came from? Logical thinking is hard when hate is clouding your mind. Helping rebuild broken down neighborhoods, and assisted child care would be a huge help. That goes for anyone who needs it, not just one ethnic group. In order to get rid of this learned stigma, we must first aknowledge there is an issue. Second is to figure out common ground. Everything after that is easy. The color of your skin should never influence the way you treat or even judge one another. Ive met gang bangers that are as white as snow, as well as some of the most caring and giving individuals who were born with a darker pigment in their skin. Life choices, and upbringing have a huge impact on everyones futures; no matter what color of skin they have. How long will we fight amongst ourselves? How many times can we blame others who look or talk differently than ourselves? What change are you expecting, if you aren’t even willing to change yourself? Love one another, i promise life will become easierly
P.S. if you truely mean what you say, dont hide behind fake names. Ive had my share of issues in my life. Ive grown up and have accepted i dont know everything. If i expect others to not judge me based on my past choices, i shouldnt judge others based on how they look. Everyone has their struggles, its a lot easier to deal with lifes negatives when you have help from the community and those around you.
Easier*
The same racist pricks who put boots on their necks all throughout this country’s shameful history are the same racist pricks writing on NIT today. Their ” Blodgett ” genetic history has passed down one generation to the next. I live with a black male as my apartment mate. I see only a kind and gentle furniture salesman who likes Nintendo and cooking shows on TV, none of the stereotypes these racist NIT pricks would attach to him. Good post Joshua. Racism is fading though. After these deplorable baby boomers pass away, it should be fairly clear sailing into the future. And like any crime…the perpetrators must pay. Reparations absolutely should begin immediately. The white cavalry of the Union Army were murderous racist sons of the devil, of which the current Army spawned from.
Wake up America. All this globalism will eventually take away all of our right to be a sovereign nation. This movement is designed to take away our borders so we can all be ruled as one big nation. I am tired of being blamed for slavery. It was wrong and in the past. Reparations still wouldn’t be enough for some. Maybe the members of un should start paying their way instead of mooching off us and they could use that to pay for reparations.
They will always be “victims”. As long as they think they can receive some sort of payment for doing nothing at all, they will be “victims”. If anything, blacks owe America for putting up with their crap all these years, filling up our prisons and running down property values!
My father was shot during the war in Germany. That shot scared/ruined his life, and mine, until he died. I want Germany to pay me for not having a father.
Democratic BULLSHIT – America! – like it or leave it – you low lifes of any color can kma
If you don’t like it, why don’t you leave it for your native land. Which was?????
Hell let them all go back to Africa if they feel offended. The Native Americans (Indians) in case you dont what they are should be the ones o pissed off. If your Black and think your being mistreated go back HOME.
They need to stay the hell out of business.
Pure BS.
Not the article, the UN is pure BS, and the topic itself is pure BS.