by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

The inspiration for this documentary came from a dream that I had on December 28, 1998 on the eve
of the day that J.L. Chestnut and Al Pires were to meet with 600 or more Black farmers in Albany,
Ga. to discuss the Consent Decree. The farmers had read this proposed Consent Decree on November 5,
1998 and some were organizing to protest its contents. So, unlike Dr. Martin Luther King’s
"dream", mine was about snakes.

On the next day, my instincts told me to shut my mouth and open my video camera lens. I recorded
that session and many other public sessions like this first one over a period of three years.
Indeed, "snakes" proved to be the most subtle characters in the Black farmers’ attempt
at receiving reparations.

Now, according to the USA Today’s article, "the reparations team has been extraordinarily
secretive" up until now. And when you read the list of members, one may understand why. Blacks
must now determine who this "Dream Team" works for. There is a difference between the
wisdom of "activists" infiltrated by "snakes " seeking gold and the wisdom of
one guided by God such as Minister Louis Farrakhan seeking freedom "in deed".

This USA Today article on reparations covered 2 full pages with subheadings like: "Proving
liability for events so far in the past could be tough", "Reparations activist; ‘We’re
still living with the vestiges of slavery’, "Insurance firms issued slave policies",
"Several media companies own newspapers that were essential to slave economy",
"FleetBoston: Traced to slave-trading merchant", "Brown Bros.: Loan gave planters
cash to buy slaves", "Lehman Bros.: 1 brother owned 7 slaves in 1860",
"Railroads: Slave ‘formed the backbone of the South’s railway labor force’", and
"WestPoint Stevens: Textile firm linked to rough ‘Negro cloth’ slaves had to wear."

The idea of reparations is not new, many other groups and leaders before this "Reparations’
Dream Team" was established fought for reparations including the Honorable Marcus Garvey, the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Dr. Brock, Minister Silas Muhammad, N’COBRA, etc. to name a
few. According to the article,

"Successive generations of African-Americans, starting with slaves freed in 1865, have
failed to persuade Congress to apologize and make restitution for slavery. Attempts by descendants
of slaves to sue the federal government for damages have been dismissed."

The old movement for reparations goes back to the ex-slaves desire for land. Now the modern
descendants of these slaves are now suing for "cash", not land. And since modern Blacks no
longer understand the value of land, the American government may lend an ear to that sector that
wants a cash settlement instead of land.

In 1995 a $100 million reparations case called Cato v. the United States was filed in the U.S.
Appeals Court in San Francisco. However the court could not find "…a legal basis for it. The
panel said descendants of slaves must go to Congress, not the courts, to get redress for crimes
against their ancestors."

However, when Blacks have petitioned Congress, it "… has stifled reparations legislation
sponsored each year since 1989 by Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich." Supposedly, the new strategy
of this "Dream Team" is to attack companies and force them to seek redress from the
government.

Therefore, the movement for reparations has been "subtly" steered from the government
into the private sector which requires an even more precise proof of damages, quantification of the
damages and who should be paid the reward for those damages. The companies are not submitting to the
evidence of past profiteering by saying that "…the current company isn’t liable for what
happened before the Civil War." And furthermore, "…slaves and their masters are dead.
Company records, though sometimes damning, are seldom complete. Damages may be impossible to
calculate. Most important, no company accused of profiting from slavery was breaking U.S. law at the
time; Slavery was not a crime."

However, if slavery was not considered a crime, then the responsibility goes back to the
government for authorizing this "crime against humanity". And of course this is precisely
why America did not want to participate in the World Conference Against Racism held in South Africa
in the summer of 2001. If slavery and the slave trade could be labeled "crimes against
humanity" and some western governments apologize, then these same governments that participated
and benefited from slavery could be held liable.

So the "Dream Team" has decided to go after the companies. However, the USA Today
article goes on to say, "..before broadening a tort case to a class-action lawsuit, reparations
advocates must find the descendant of a slave damaged by one of the defendants. Then they must
decide who qualifies as a slave descendant and who, in essence, is black."

Now this language is like "deja vue" for those who saw what happened to the Black
farmers in the class action lawsuit against the USDA. When accepted into the class, each Black
farmer had to find a "similarly situated white farmer" who had gotten the loans that he
was denied. He had to be very specific as to the "similarity" between himself and that
white farmer.

Class counsel, Alexander Pires who is on this "Dream Team", told Judge Friedman in 1998
that he would provide each "similarly situated white farmer" for each of the Black farmers
in the lawsuit. This would have been easy for him to do since he had access to USDA records that the
farmers did not have. Pires did not do what he told the judge and subsequently 40% of those who were
accepted into the class were denied. And now, Pires is "rewarded" by being at the right
place and the right time to have a major influence in another attempt at "reparations".

Now, how is the court to decide "who qualifies as a slave descendant"? Blacks in
America have mixed with every ethnic identity on the planet. One may only be related to a slave on
one side of the family. So what does that one get, 50% of the individual cash settlements? What will
one bring as proof of their "blackness", an old Bible or a genealogical chart? How about
having each applicant give some blood so that their DNA can be traced back to a slave ancestor? When
the government gets all of these DNA samples, what might they do with that information? Oh, well,
one can only speculate.(smile)

To top things off, the lawyers and activists on this "Reparations Dream Team" say
"…their work is likely to be done pro bono. By not charging, they hope to guard against
accusations they’re looking to get rich by conducting corporate shakedowns."

Now, when Al Pires and his band of lawyers went around the country pumping their Consent Decree,
they always told the farmers that "you all don’t have to pay us a dime." Well the
farmers did not pay Al Pires, but the farmers did not get paid themselves. Al Pires gave Judge
Friedman a bill for $38 million. Evidently, Mr. Pires was working for the government all the time,
because "he who pays the fiddler, calls the tune."

The Black farmers did not send Al Pires to court to get $50,000 worth of toilet paper with big
holes for the government to slip through. He was sent to protect the Black farmers land. Instead
Black farmers are still being foreclosed on and the media has looked the other way.

Who can we trust? In September of 2001 I attended the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend and
distributed a number of the "Snake in the Reparations’ Grass" video tapes. I gave a tape
to each Black member of the House Agricultural Committee. There was a forum on reparations which we
attended. At the end of that forum I gave a number of tapes to the panelists including Dr. Charles
Ogletree trying to warn them about Al Pires. Since Dr. Ogletree was responsible for selecting
members to this "Dream Team", we thought that he should be warned.

However, we found out at the "4th National Black Land Loss Conference" held in Atlanta
in February of this year that Dr. Ogletree had read the Pigford v. Glickman consent decree before
we, the Black farmers, got a copy. Judge Friedman used Dr. Ogletree’s endorsement of the document
as one of his reasons for accepting it.

The question now remains, did Dr. Ogletree approve the document because he trusted Al Pires or
did he know so little about agriculture that he could not interpret the language? In any case, this
causes great concern as to his ability to properly direct the development of strategy to achieve
real reparations for Black folk.

Now that the "snakes" are out of the woods and in the "reparations grass", we
might need a snake charmer or a good fat "stick" of truth to straighten them out. Before
40 million Black people get bitten by the same "snake" that bit the Black farmers, they had
better "ask somebody".

There are some that may argue that Dr. Ogletree and his "Dream Team" may not speak for
them or their organizations. However, when you are petitioning someone who has the power to accept
or reject your petition, that person or body determines who they will listen too, not you.
"Massa" always chose which set of slaves were his favorites and whom he would bestow his
favors upon. The dreams of the "house slaves" were not always in line with the "field
slaves", but guess whose dreams had the most weight with "massa"?