What Are Reparations?
Reparations are a form of compensation for harm done to a group of people in the past. They are typically awarded to people who have suffered discrimination and injustice due to their race, gender, religion, or another minority status. Reparations are meant to provide some form of economic, political, or social restitution to those who have been negatively impacted by past and current discriminatory practices. Reparations can come in many forms, including financial compensation, public services, or even symbolic gestures.
Reparations are important for those who have not only been discriminated against but who have suffered from physical and mental genocide. In order for a people to repair the damage that has been done and/or is still being inflicted, it is crucial that the injured or damaged group/people have the necessary economic, political, and social institutions put in place to provide meaningful restitution. Such institutions must be conceptualized, established, and operated by the Aboriginal Americans seeking said reparations.
Who Are the Aboriginal Americans
The Aboriginal Americans are the now misclassified African-Americans or Black people living in the United States and throughout the rest of the Americas as well as throughout the West Indies. According to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary – Amer’ican, noun A native of America; originally applied to the aboriginals, or copper-colored races, found here by the Europeans, but now applied to the descendants of Europeans born in America.
The so-called “African-American” have had numerous reclassifications stemming from the Indian, Negro, and Colored, to now Black persons living in the Americas. Currently, many aboriginals are remembering who they are and are now taking the necessary steps to repair the damage that has been done. Waiting for others to do this is no longer an option that is being entertained.
How The Aboriginal People of the Americas Will Get Reparations
The Aboriginal People of the Americas have faced centuries of colonization, exploitation, and taxation without proper representation, and it is only right that they receive reparations for the injustices they have endured. Unfortunately, reparations have become far too complex for many administrations to arrive at an acceptable solution.
The indigenous people of the Americas, however, are now working together of their own volition to begin the reparations process by remembering, redefining, reclaiming, restoring, and resetting – laying the groundwork today through an organization such as the Aboriginal Ministry of Justice, offering services, support, and the resources that are needed to heal and to rebuild.
There are other hardworking people who have paved the way for the conversations to even begin such as Chief Warhorse of the Choctaw Indians, The Indigenous 1, Dane Calloway, Tasha Xi, Phoenix Moon, Lisa Cyprus, and many others – calling on the unification of the Aboriginal Americans to shed the reclassified labels of Black and African-American that the colonizer has strategically given for reasons of stripping away the liberties and the land from the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Americas.
As 2022 comes to a close and the new year approaches, more gains will be made in the upcoming months to ensure the autonomy of Aboriginal Americans. Reparations will only be made when the Aboriginal Americans recreate their own – government and social, educational, and cultural institutions – paving the road to a better, sustainable future for the next generation of Americans.
For more information about the Aboriginal Ministry of Justice, visit the website to explore its resources.
