Evaluating the condescending view of the Transatlantic African

Slave Trade

BLAINE ROBIN PHDOCTOBER 2015

Daniel Hannan MEP published an article entitled “The absurdity of demanding reparations for slavery” is a challenge to the minds of keen academics and policy analysts in what I welcome as healthy debate and discussion on a very important topic – The Reparatory Justice System.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-absurdity-of-demanding-reparations-for-slavery/article/2573258

I describe the above article as the condescending view of the crime against humanity that Transatlantic African Slave Trade became. This view which ignores the lasting social and economic damage to descendants of slavery (of which I am one). Slavery is not personal tragedy (for the descendants of slavery - many of whom are white) but a public hurt and pain which needs to be acknowledged on a par with international Treaties.

The crime against humanity that was the African Slave Trade was exacted and exercised to Holocaust proportions and is too serious an issue to leave to passage of time as a forgotten blot on the human landscape. When it ended Black Britons (Caribbean's) had to endure sustained racism from Indigenous Brits.

The first two paragraphs of the article describe how normal the system of slavery was to several past civilisations. The following is a quote taken from the article:

‘Slaves raised the Acropolis in Athens and the Pantheon in Rome. They piled up the ziggurats of Meso-America. Incas, Maoris, Apache: All accepted slavery as part of the natural order’ (Hannan D 2015).

My view is that Slavery was and is inhumane. Indigenous Caribbean's did not design commit genocide to Africans or Europeans. Slave practices developed by the Romans was inhumane. Ironically, The British copied this system to develop their own British Empire despite being a Christian nation. Christian practices mean loving one another and not exacting violence and other sexual atrocities – in return for economic gain. This is how most slaves were treated for several hundred years. Britain benefited immensely from this well organised economic system which I acknowledge in my biography as being a person of Slave Heritage (Black) – www.blainerobin.com.

The following line from the article is an allusion to the success of social (and sexual integration) of slave society in the Caribbean during the slave system. ‘The people paying up would be statistically certain to have both owners and owned in their family tree; so would the people accepting compensation’ (Hannan D 2015). The stories behind sexual encounters in slave society between plantation owners and their property (the slaves) whose offspring remain today are, in the main, tragic stories. The “One Drop Rule” (of blood legislation) in the United States is an example of how demeaning it became to be of mixed racial heritage as black people were unwanted and unemployable in several American states when slavery ended. Being mixed race also mean’t being cast into the realm of being unemployable in some US states.

Scotland signifying hope and civility in the Reparatory Justice System Debate

Perhaps it is a country with the population of a little over 5 million people that leads the way in the UK (perhaps putting England and the UK Prime Minister to shame in the process? ) signifying hope and civility in the Reparatory Justice System debate.

Professor Sir. Geoff Palmer and his colleague Sir. Tom Divine makes practical suggestions as to how Scotland can atone for its part in the Transatlantic Slave Trade by using the Malawi /Scotland project as an example.

‘Just as the links with Malawi had their roots in Empire and missionary activity, a similar Jamaica project could well develop educational and health links that could produce better long-term benefits, than a one-off payment to salve the uneasy conscience’ (Palmer G 2015).

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/13798644.Call_for_Scotland_to_atone_for_slave_trade_past/