WHO ACTUALLY GETS REPARATIONS (HINT: NOT US)

Somebody asked about a small area in Chicago that was named for the concentration of Jewish businesses there. He asked if they "sold out their land". This was my response.

.........................

Their land? They own most of "our" land too. Ever wonder why even in "nice" Black neighborhoods, the main streets, are still blighted by boarded up buildings and bootleg businesses? I'm told (not confirmed, but it was explained to me), that while we were allowed to buy HOUSES in neighborhoods during the "white flight", Jewish property owners held onto the COMMERCIAL real estate. So all kinds of "south side" main streets, are languishing and not feeding the economy of those communities.

Now, the reason why this makes sense to me is because when my Grandparents (born in 1910 and 1911), decided to go into business in the 1950's, they determined to OWN the property they operated out of. Nobody believed they could because Jewish people owned all the properties any black business operated out of (Think Cadillac Records). It was UNHEARD of that Black's could OWN the commercial property they operated out of!

But my Grandparents did it.

At some point, somehow, the building caught fire, and the all white fire department came on the scene and hosed down the PEOPLE who tried to put the fire out! They let the building burn to the ground!

THEN,

The white INSURANCE COMPANIES refused to honor their CLAIM!

BUT,

Because my Grandparents had helped SO MANY PEOPLE in the community, through their business, THE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY, showed up with hammers, nails, bricks and fried chicken and literally BUILT THE BUSINESS BACK, BRICK BY BRICK!

And, because my Grandfather, had been the first Black Union President of Douglass Aircraft, during WWII, he strategically, persistently, eventually, got the insurance denial overturned and got the payout.

From there, they were able to expand their businesses, grow, and continue to help many people...

UNTIL, The Illinois Institute Of Technology determined to take my Grandparents' land for their expansion.

Among their tactics to do this, they sent Code Inspectors to come and trump up bogus code violations, and hauled my Grandmother off to jail EVERY WEEK.

UNTIL, my Grandfather eventually negotiated a deal to sell off The empire he and my Grandmother had built.

The notion of "selling out" among the Jewish population, is not quite like this so not quite applicable.

They get 100's of billions in reparations each and every day... TO this day, for the last SEVENTY YEARS... from Germany... Austria... France...The Dutch...The Swiss... Romania (NEW deal to pay in 2022!!)...

Presently, Israel is seeking $250 BILLION from 7 Arab countries and Iran for forcing them out IN 1948!...SOME of these BILLIONS are being demanded from Tunisia and Libya (African nations)... they get MILLIONS EACH day from America, through Political Action Committees (PAC Funds)... They have EVEN just THIS YEAR, been approved to receive BILLIONS in reparations for Holocaust victims in THE UKRAINE!

They have TEAMS of people who dedicate MONTHS and even YEARS of research to find historical reasons to seek reparations from different countries. They SEEM to just LOOK FOR countries who have "done them wrong" DECADES ago, to get billions from.

This is why they have the resources to build and own hospitals, nursing homes, establish and control entire industries, etc. etc. And, gratefully, some have been very good stewards of these trillions of dollars, benefitting mankind, in general. But, a big part of that success is tied to a rock solid, unbroken connection to their HERITAGE.

When I was a child in a high-school exchange program, I was amazed to experience a high-school in a wealthy, Jewish community, where Hebrew was a REQUIREMENT! Students HAD TO take Hebrew classes DAILY! This maintenance of their LANGUAGE, maintains their CULTURE, which maintains their UNITY, which maintains their forward ADVANCEMENT.

And every, single, Jewish child, under the age of 18, can travel to Israel ANYTIME, for FREE under the "Birthright" program (One young lady told me that there really is NO age limit! In her 20's she can still go anytime she wants!)

So....

Do you see how the term "selling out " doesn't quite fit?

My GRANDPARENTS were forced to "sell out" under threat of death! And WE have to reinvent the wheel over and over with ZERO reparations (which every "defeated" people get after a war... Japan... China... Korea... all economic POWERHOUSES now as a result of reparations... Yugoslavia, Greece, The Soviet Union... Burma... Indonesia... the list goes on and on. BILLIONS.

Yet, we have been victims of a hundreds year old war, THROUGHOUT the diaspora! And so many were party to it! Sephardic Jewish people owned many of the slaveships... Indians were the middlemen... Some African tribes hunted and delivered the slaves... The Portuguese STARTED the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade....The Papalcy condoned it.... MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of Africans were piled on ships and sold off throughout North, South, Central and Latin Americas... all the British, Dutch and French Colonies... The West Indies... then WALKED across hundreds of miles to the different plantations in different states and parishes... our homeland (Africa) raided and ravaged of EVERY, SINGLE, VITAL NATURAL RESOURCE KNOWN TO MAN (Why do you think there is so much blight and starvation in Africa?... Because the rest of the world cut it up like a cake and bled it dry!)

Even if our reparations were tied to the COMMODITIES EXCHANGE for all the COTTON we picked in America... SUGAR CANE in the islands... PORK BELLIES for all the livestock we raised as slaves and sharecroppers... even if we just got ROYALTIES from COMMODITIES, that would be FARRRR less than we deserve, because, as the theft of my Grandparents illustrates, the thefts didn't end on "Juneteenth".

BUT, it would be a START at moving us from the perennial cycle of slavery we are still in.

Does this answer your question?