Newspaper Page Text
e Maroon Tiger
Friday
September 6, 2002 Page 12
Will they ever apologize?
A two part series identifying the struggle for reparations
Christian Nwachukwu
Copy Editor
I don't support the move
ment for reparations. I listen to the
speeches; I stand in grave awe of
many of the speakers. One
woman, her voice biting with rage,
said that we can't depend on the
government to do for us what we
must do for ourselves.
One man, his voice liltingly
hesitant urged black Americans to
'hold their heads high' when they
receive a welfare check, because
the government can't pay blacks
enough for the atrocities of slavery.
I am tired. In the summer
of 1998, I attended Governor's
School of North Carolina. I yelled,
screamed and begged. I pleaded
with white people my age to rec
ognize that the evils of slavery
went well beyond 1865; that the
Hayes-Tilden Compromise of
1877threw African Americans into
a pit of despair and terror at the
hands of a merciless white race,
bent on breaking their spirit and
driving them in any direction
down.
I groped for an angry foot
hold screaming that white Ameri
cans still benefit from the after-
math—the period in America
whose legacy is black lynching,
black disenfranchisement, black
oppression, and black destruc
tion—a period which continued
overtly until the late 1960s. I got
angry responses.
"I am not to blame—You
were never a slave—My family
never owned slaves—Get over it."
I am tired.
I don't hear in the angry
rhetoric what I feel Harriet
Tubman or Booker T. Washington
or W. E. B. Dubois or Martin
Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X said
when they were fighting.
I recently finished 'Atlas
Shrugged' by Ayn Rand. Ms.
Rand said many things in her mas-
terwork, but primarily she said
that the thinkers, the dreamers, the
creators, the fighters and the liv
ers of life were the men and
women who moved the world. I
agree.
While black Americans
honor in word the accomplish
ments of ancient Egypt and sub-
Saharan Africa, the genius of the
Moors, the spirit of the children of
Africa in the New World, and the
character of the children of slaves
in America, their actions tell a se
cret voiced only to bare walls in
the dark.
We bought it. The inferior
ity, the propensity for crime, the
animalistic nature, the whole bit—
we bought it. White Americans
don't believe the great myth of
white superiority, that thirteen per
cent of the world's population
should rule it.
Every stock, bond, and se
curity of that gutless corporation
is held under the mattresses of the
African (the American African, the
Caribbean African, and African
African).
I hear in the movement for
reparations, 'We're due,' 'You owe
us,' 'If s justice.' These may be true,
but after careful deliberation they
prove inadequate at best and irrel-
evantatworst. In'Atlas Shrugged'
the thinkers and the movers go on
strike.
They refuse to think, assert
ing "My mind is not for sale."
There's a scene where the
hero, John Galt, is being held
prisoner by the government—a
collection of incompetents, death
worshippers, and self-deceiv
ers—in an attempt to force him
to save them from destruction by
placing him on television.
Galt is being held at gun
point, but when the camera
swivels toward him, he makes
a deft move to reveal the gun
of his captor, stands up and
yells, "Get the hell out of our
way!"
The movement for repa
rations is not demanding that
white America get out of the
way. I don't hear the call for
the ending of higher insurance
premiums for blacks, higher car
prices, higher home mortgages,
higher interest rates, and lower
wages.
I do not hear the call for
the enfranchisement of prison
ers, only the cry that there are a
disproportionate amount of
blacks in prison. I don't hear
the demand that black Ameri
cans inform themselves so as to
make rational, well thought de
cisions when we do exercise
our right to vote, only that
President Bush and the Repub
licans are evil.
I don't hear the plea that
African Americans invest in
their own communities, only
that the government should
help us build our communities.
I do hear the call that the
government and white
America feel guilty, own up to
its grave injustice, and pay
black Americans their due.
Why? Because if s just,
if s right, and Lord knows, if s
time. I hear groveling and beg
ging and pleading and I won
der when we will become tired
NSO from page 1
the responsibilities placed be
fore him, and if that was the
case, then he needed to get in
the car with her and go back
home.
Upon their arrival, the
new students were given his
tory challenge packets filled
with various facts about the
college. They were required to
have the questions answered
and obtain signatures from
upperclassmen in order to
participate in the remaining
NSO activities. These packets
were turned in on Friday
evening at the beginning of
spirit night. Directed by NSO
staff members and volunteers,
the students traveled from
King Chapel and assembled
in Forbes Arena for a pep rally.
On their way into the gymna
sium, students were given
Morehouse College t-shirts,
signifying their admittance
into the brotherhood of the
school.
The class came together
Saturday evening with the
other freshmen classes of the
Atlanta University Center
(AUC) for Operation: Olive
Branch, an effort to promote
unity throughout the AUC.
The most highly antici
pated event of the week oc
curred on Sunday morning,
when the students went
through the pearly gates of
Spelman College to receive
their Spelman sisters. After
being paired up, the students
convened in King Chapel for
convocation. Students wel
comed the new president of
Spelman College, Dr. Beverly
Daniel Tatum and Morehouse
president Dr. Walter Massey
brought the keynote address.
New Student Orienta
tion is a one-in-a lifetime
event that lives on in every
student and parent who par
ticipates in it. It's a unique ex
perience that teaches new stu
dents the history behind the
school, as well as what is ex
pected of them as a result of
attending the college. Parents
can comfortably leave their
sons behind, knowing that
they are in good hands and
that they are destined to be
here. C. Ramone Rushing, a
freshman Political Science ma
jor from Rocky Mountain,
North Carolina, enjoyed "the
sense of brotherhood, unity
and closeness" that resulted
from the various NSO activi
ties. The class of 2006 is ready
to assume the responsibilities
handed to them. They have
pledged their lives to Dear Old
Morehouse and have each
other's back.
ANGRY from p.10
it up. These must be the boy:
whose mothers still clean uj
after them at home. Well, yoi
ain't at home and your mam;
ain't here so man up and kee|
you own s*** clean.
And even if you don'
live here, I do. I don't knov
how they do it where you an
from but in Virginia (yes, VA
if a man comes to your houst
and drops trash on your lawn
you kick his butt. So my broth
ers, if you have any respect a
all for yourselves, the next tim<
you see someone drop a flye:
on this campus or any campu:
in the AUC, kick his teetl
down his throat. Peace
Read the next edi
tion to find out wh)
Scott is mad
A Spelman woman speaks for more unity and less disrespect
x * v ^ *
liBiilliili
Jessica Mcknight
Contributing Writer
"She's so fat, won't nobody
try to reach her mind." -Jill Scott
Loud whistles from pass
ing cars. Crude comments about
various parts of my body. Looks
that unciressed me coming from
all sides. These are everyday oc
currences for women in the Do
minican Republic, as I witnessed
during a semester there. In a
country known for its machismo,
I was thought of as nothing more
than a body.
Unfortunately, this was
one aspect of my study
abroad that was not too for
eign.
While the general re
sponse from White American
girls in my program was,
"This doesn't happen in
America," I, as a Black college
student, was ashamed to
know that it does.
Sadly enough, my ex
periences with sexism in the
Dominican Republic were
quite similar to all of
my other semesters in the
AUC, an issue that is often ig
nored.
Walking into the Olive
Branch Block Party at
Morehouse was analogous to
placing my body on a conveyer
belt as all eyes watched. I, along
with many other women who
were there that first night of
"AUC Unity" felt degraded and
objectified. But, actions were for
gotten and concealed the next
day with the Brother / Sister Cer
emony.
Since then, my experience
in what claims to be an en
vironment that stimulates stu
dents' minds and personal
growth, has been filled with
shouts, whistles, stares, and
even touches both at parties and
walking to class, all coming from
the mouths, eyes, and hands of
my "brothers."
Experiences like a senior
loudly announcing to me at a
get-together, "If I had known
you freshman year, I would've
fu**** you," are all happening in
the face of sister and brother
hood.
Brothers, the hidden as
sumptions in your words and
actions are demeaning and in
sulting. I look forward to my last
year at Spelman and wonder
this behavior is going to change.
I challenge the incom
ing freshmen, as well as my re
turning brothers, to adjust your
focus. Stop abusing your sistei
Stop fighting over whose fight
to know one another's minds.