>Delivered-To: brc-news-outgoing@lists.tao.ca
>From: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz <rdunbaro@pacbell.net>
>Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Slavery and the Genocide Treaty
>Sender: worker-brc-news@lists.tao.ca
>To: brc-news@lists.tao.ca
>X-Sender: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz <rdunbaro@pacbell.net>
>List-ID: Black Radical Congress - General News Articles/Reports
>List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=unsubscribe%20brc-news>
>List-Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news>
>List-Digest: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news-digest>
>List-Help: <mailto:worker-brc-news@lists.tao.ca?subject=brc-news>
>List-Archive1: <brc-news@lists.tao.ca">http://www.mail-archive.com/brc-news@lists.tao.ca>
>List-Archive2: <http://groups.yahoo.com/messages/brc-news>
>List-Archive3: <http://www.escribe.com/politics/brc-news>
>List-Post: <mailto:brc-news@lists.tao.ca>
>List-Homepage: <http://www.blackradicalcongress.org>
>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 04:54:54 -0500 (EST)
>
>The Pioneer (CSU Hayward)
>
>April 12, 2001
>
>Opinion
>
>Slavery and the Genocide Treaty
>
>By Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz <rdunbaro@pacbell.net>
>
>In addition to my academic research and teaching during the
>past 27 years at Cal State Hayward, I have researched,
>lobbied government representatives, and assisted in writing
>international human rights law, particularly as it applies
>to indigenous peoples, ethnic groups, and migrant workers
>all over the world. Currently, I am involved in preparations
>for the United Nations sponsored World Conference Against
>Racism, to be held in Durban, South Africa, in September
>this year. The issue of reparations for the enslavement of
>Africans in the United States certainly will be central.
>
>In looking at questions of reparations for slavery, one
>cannot begin with the conclusion, that is determining the
>remedy; rather the question arises from social movements of
>the aggrieved group and an objective investigation into the
>harm alleged must take place. Before the US Congress, there
>is legislation that calls for such an investigation that
>should be supported by all without prejudice to the
>conclusions and recommendations.
>
>My own thinking is that the issue of African slavery in the
>United States falls within the 1948 Genocide Convention, an
>international treaty that has no statute of limitations and
>is retroactive. Here are the provisions of Genocide
>Convention:
>
>Article 1. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide,
>whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a
>crime under international law which they undertake to
>prevent and to punish.
>
>Article 2. In the present Convention, genocide means any of
>the following Acts committed with intent to destroy, in
>whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
>group, as such:
>
>(a) Killing members of the group;
>(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
> group;
>(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
> calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
> whole or in part;
>(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the
> group;
>(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another
> group.
>
>Article 3. The following acts shall be punishable:
>
>(a) Genocide;
>(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
>(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
>(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
>(e) Complicity in genocide.
>
>Ordinarily, a nation-state that has committed historical
>acts that might be construed as constituting genocide would
>distance itself from former regimes that held power when the
>acts were committed. For instance the present Republic of
>Turkey eschews its responsibility for the Armenian genocide
>by claiming a break in the "succession of states," meaning
>that the acts (which in fact the contemporary government of
>Turkey denies as having occurred) took place under a former
>and now discredited regime, the Ottoman Empire that no
>longer exists.
>
>The contemporary United States government could also
>preclude charges of genocide by breaking its ties with
>regimes that existed before the Civil War. Although the
>introduction of Jim Crow laws in the former Confederate
>states and their legitimization by the US Supreme Court on
>the basis of "states rights" would possibly require severing
>the succession of states up to the 1954 Brown decision in
>the Supreme Court.
>
>In order to implement a break in the succession of states,
>the United States, among other things, would have to cease
>honoring its "founding fathers" and the founding documents,
>as well as each and everyone of the administrations that
>maintained the legality and constitutionality of slavery.
>Such revisions would have to be accompanied by apologies to
>the descendants of the aggrieved and possibly include damage
>awards or reparations. Certainly, the severance of
>succession of states would require the revision of approved
>US history textbooks, national monuments, and government
>rhetoric in much the same manner that Germany and Austria
>were required to do after World War II.
>
>In terms of reparations, the question arises as to who would
>receive and who would pay. That question should not arise
>until after an investigation that would recommend
>reparations. The recent example of the 1921 destruction of
>the African-American Rosewood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
>by a white riot that included Oklahoma National Guardsmen
>assisting the rioters, is a good example of procedure. After
>a thorough investigation, the investigative committee made
>its recommendations, including calling for reparations for
>the heirs of those who were killed or lost their property.
>It is now in the hands of the state legislature to determine
>whether to pay reparations and if so, how to do so and how
>much.
>
>In the case of Nazi genocide against the Jewish people of
>Europe, the anti-Nazi governments of Germany have been and
>continue to be required to pay reparations to the state of
>Israel. Paying to an institutional body, such as a
>trusteeship for African-Americans, rather than individual,
>per capita payments as in the Japanese-American
>incarceration reparations, would be the most likely solution
>regarding reparations for slavery.
>
>A great deal of extraneous questions and hypotheses (such as
>those voiced by David Horowitz in his infamous paid
>advertisements opposing reparations for slavery) get thrown
>into the discussions of the issue and cloud the matter.
>Questions of who captured and sold slaves, who transported
>them, who owned them, and the existence of European
>indentured servants in colonial North America, are
>historically interesting but irrelevant questions for
>determining United States genocide against enslaved
>African-Americans. Because a few Jews collaborated with
>Nazis does not invalidate the reality of genocide against
>the Jews.
>
>However the African slave trade and enslavement of Africans
>began, functioned, and proceeded, the fact is that the
>United States was founded on not only the legalization of
>African slavery but also on the sanctity of "property."
>African slaves were by far the most valuable property at the
>time of the founding of the United States. For those who
>argue that "in those times" everyone accepted slavery, they
>surely cannot mean the Africans who were enslaved, nor can
>they ignore the fact that slavery was debated, was opposed
>by most Quakers, and the international slave trade had been
>outlawed two decades earlier by the British under pressure
>by the British Anti-Slavery Society.
>
>Another indisputable fact pertinent to the Genocide
>Convention is that ONLY persons of African descent were
>enslaved in the United States. That fact does not diminish
>the horrors of Chinese contract laborers or Irish famine
>victims building canals and railroads, nor any other
>oppression that occurred historically. The question should
>not be "where will it all end?" but rather "when will it all
>begin?" When will we as citizens of the United States
>confront the fact that unpaid labor of African slaves (and
>the land stolen from Native Americans) produced the
>accumulation of capital necessary for the United States to
>become the richest and most powerful country in the history
>of humankind?
>
>[Anyone interested in reparations for slavery would be
>advised to read Randall Robinson's The Debt.]
>
>Copyright (c) 2001 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. All Rights Reserved.
>
>
>
>[IMPORTANT NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this
>list are solely those of the authors and/or publications,
>and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official
>political positions of the Black Radical Congress (BRC).
>Official BRC statements, position papers, press releases,
>action alerts, and announcements are distributed exclusively
>via the BRC-PRESS list. As a subscriber to this list, you
>have been added to the BRC-PRESS list automatically.]
>
>[Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other
>mailing lists, as long as the wording/attribution is not altered
>in any way. In particular, if there is a reference to a web site
>where an article was originally located, do *not* remove that.
>
>Unless stated otherwise, do *not* publish or post the entire
>text of any articles on web sites or in print, without getting
>*explicit* permission from the article author or copyright holder.
>Check the fair use provisions of the copyright law in your country
>for details on what you can and can't do.
>
>As a courtesy, we'd appreciate it if you let folks know how to
>subscribe to BRC-NEWS, by leaving in the first seven lines of the
>signature below.]
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News Articles/Reports
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=unsubscribe%20brc-news>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Digest: <mailto:majordomo@tao.ca?body=subscribe%20brc-news-digest>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Help: <mailto:worker-brc-news@lists.tao.ca?subject=brc-news>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Archive1: <brc-news@lists.tao.ca">http://www.mail-archive.com/brc-news@lists.tao.ca>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Archive2: <http://groups.yahoo.com/messages/brc-news>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Archive3: <http://www.escribe.com/politics/brc-news>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Post: <mailto:brc-news@lists.tao.ca>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
><www.blackradicalcongress.org> | BRC | <blackradicalcongress@email.com>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Apr 17 2001 - 04:49:48 EDT