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Can We Get Beyond the Reparations Symbolism?
 
Apr 02, 2026 – Apr 15, 2026
 
Publisher's Point

Baltimore Reparations


the debt


We have reported on reparation issues since the 1990s. At times, our readers paid close attention to the articles we published and the events we were involved in. That is not the case now.

I am amazed that the reparations lobbying mechanisms have not matured since the 1990s I am amazed that the strongest advocates don’t push back on fringe groups using divisive language such as Fundamental Blacks (FB) and American Descendent of Slaves (ADOS) in what appear to be an attempt to secure funds only for Blacks who can trace their America lineage to some arbitrary point in time.

Such thought is devoid of the reality of the many Africans who were born in the U.S. during slavery, but moved, for example, to Haiti. We have published stories on them. You can read them at www.portofharlem.net. Such divisive thought is devoid of the Blacks, who were born into slavery, but chose to pass as White.

Beverly and Harriet Jefferson, for instance, left Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in their early twenties and married White spouses, living openly as White people. Who would stop their “White” ancestors from producing the documents to prove their Blackness and claiming reparations?

Meanwhile, many Blacks know it would be a burden for them to collect the documents needed to vote if the Save American Act were passed. If they cannot find those documents or have the means to get them, how would they prove their enslaved heritage?

A lot of this talk is full of symbolism. What does it mean for San Francisco, California, to pass a bill to pay $5 million to each “qualified” Black, and the city is BROKE? What does it mean when Ghana leads the charge to ask for reparations from the United States of America when it accepts human beings dragged off the streets and from their homes, mostly without notice, as Kunte Kinte experienced, and deported by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America?

This campaign of symbolism overwhelms the reason we let Air Ghana fail. Its initial flight was in 1994 to New York’s Kennedy Airport. In the early 2000s, Maryland's Republican Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele played a key role in efforts to expand international flights from Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) to Ghana. However, by 2004, the U.S. Department of Transportation banned flights due to safety and licensing issues.

Today, though most African Americans have West African DNA, but only North and East African airlines benefit from having flights to the United States: Royal Air Maroc, EgyptAir, Kenya Airways, and Ethiopian Airlines.

If you really want to know about a reparations program that is not a pipe dream and is funded and working, read and share this: Baltimore Reparations 2026 Disbursements Planned (Only 11 percent of those who opened the Dec 25. 2025 – Jan 07, 2026 issue, clicked the link)

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