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Message to the White House (fwd)
From: Henry Hitz <hhitz@muse.sfusd.k12.ca.us>
Subject: Initiative on race
I just sent the following message to
http://www.whitehouse.gov/admin/OneAmerica as a contribution to the
president's initiative on race. This might be a good forum for people to
try. Don't know how many messages they actually will print.
"As a white educator teaching in the African-American communities of San
Francisco for 30 years, I think resolving the race issue is actually
simple. Race as a concept was invented as a justification for the
enslavement of Africans. Racism against blacks is the lynchpin of the
entire racist construct in the United States. In 1990, the net worth of
white families in the US was $40,000; of black families: $4000. This huge
discrepancy is a direct consequence of slavery and subsequent
discrimination. Much of the initial wealth of this country was made, not
merely in the exploitation of slave labor (which benefitted the northern
textile interests as well as the plantations) but in the capital produced
by the slave trade itself. White people did not have to own slaves to
profit from slavery. While whites were accumulating this wealth, blacks
were systematically denied access to it by slavery and 130 years of
post-slavery discrimination. This wealth was effectively stolen from black
people, and is therefore part of the debt we, as whites, inherited from our
ancestors, just as we inherited the wealth. To me, reparations are the
only way to finally resolve the fratricidal issue of racism. Why is it so
hard for whites? Our ancestors messed up, we're sorry, here's what we owe
you, now let's move on. Sure, it might cost $360 billion to pay off the
debt, but paid out over ten years, this would be less than 13% of the
defense budget. Let's solve the problem. "
Love, Henry
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