CHICAGO–On December 17, 2016, NCOBRA, Reparations Enforcers, the Black is Back Coalition and the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement held a press conference to announce a reparations demand from Rush University Medical Center.
Press Conference
The activist are determined in their efforts to be repaired from centuries of trauma, terror and illness resulting from their ancestors’ abuse in America.
The activists assert that Rush UMC’s predecessor institution, Rush Medical College, engaged in "Body Snatching" of Africans bodies (ROBBED THEIR BODIES FROM THEIR GRAVES) for experimentation & dissection.
As such, according to the activist, Rush UMC has an obligation to target their resources to understand and treat the current health challenges unique to the Black community that has resulted from the history of that period, and in which they have inherited the benefit.
“No one who is honest and understands human behavior can deny that the current mental, emotional and physical health of the Black community has been severely and negatively impacted by the crimes committed against our ancestors’ during the periods of enslavement and apartheid, in addition to the ongoing police crimes targeted at us today.
Rush was an actor in the injury and must be an actor in the repair. Simply stated, they harmed us; we are still injured, they must pay Reparations Now.” Kamm Howard of N’COBRA.
Although, NCOBRA began their dialogue with Rush in early August of this year, they welcome Brown University’s recent announcement to pledge $100 Million Dollars over the next 10 years to address racism. Brown University founders were instrumental in the creation, management and prolonging of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Although unware of Brown University’s efforts at the time of their initial contact with Rush UMC, their demands are slightly similar to that of Brown University. They too, want the repair stretched out for 10 years and also require an institutional component.
Specifically, they demand 100 scholarships awarded over a ten year period for Black doctors to be trained to address the legacies of trauma and nutrient deficient diets. For that aim, they determine a new autonomous medical department be funded by Rush for teaching and research.
Press Statement from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM)
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement recognizes that the call for Reparations is part of a revolutionary demand to completely overturn this empire built and existing on slavery and colonialism:
In point number 37 of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement Revolutionary National Democratic Program our position on reparations is very clear. Point 37 reads as follows:
“We demand reparations to African people from the imperialist countries and corporations for hundreds of years of parasitic exploitation of our labor, land and resources.”
We believe it is in the interest of all freedom-loving peoples worldwide to unite with African people, colonized within the borders of the United States, in our struggle for our basic human rights of freedom from state-imposed violence and oppression and for self-determination, liberation and reparations with economic and political control over our lives and communities.
The existence of police violence, terror and mass murders, mis-education and forced submission to an education that is hostile is genocide against African people.
Furthermore, these contradictions make our case for the United Nations to charge the United states with genocide and pay what is now estimated to be 14 trillion dollars in stolen labor from African people.
It is our duty to present to the world community compelling evidence documenting the U.S. and European colonial genocide, as defined by the United Nations.
This long-standing assault on the African nation began with the invasion of Africa and the kidnapping and enslavement of African people, persisting in various forms through the centuries up until the present time.
This violence and assault on Africans as a people and the theft of our independence, happiness, labor and resources is the very foundation of the wealth and power of the U.S. and Europe today.
We believe that despite the heroic struggle of African people for our civil and constitutional rights during the 1960s, African people exist today under conditions in which the U.S. state powers not only fail to protect our health and well-being as expected under full citizenship, but continually inflict state or state-supported violence and terror on us.
To substantiate our assertions we have developed a petition charging genocide against African people by the United states government and various institutions in U.S. society.
The following are the demands of the Africans Charge Genocide petition:
1 – Recognition by the international community and progressive and friendly states and peoples that European and United States powers committed genocide against African people during the times of colonial occupation, kidnapping, enslavement and exploitation, and that genocide against African people continues today inside of the United States.
2 – Support for an International Tribunal to pass judgment on the crimes of genocide against African people and solidarity with African self-determination.
3 – Reparations to African people estimated today at $14 trillion to African people inside the US alone, according to studies conducted at the University of Connecticut. (http://tinyurl.com/qf6tkvz)
4 – The right to self-determination and the liberation and unification of Africa and African people on the continent of Africa and those who have been forcibly dispersed around the world.
5 – Black Community Control of Police inside the U.S. and the end to U.S. colonial military occupation of the black community.
6 – The creation of an international monitoring body covering the daily police violence against African people in the U.S.
We call on everyone to support this petition by going to AfricansChargeGenocide.org and signing
Again, our organization wants to express our unity with the demands of N’COBRA and the Black is Back Coalition for Reparations from Rush Hospital.
