>i don't want you asking the snake who bit you for an apology, it's just gonna bite you again

This is exactly my problem with the reparations issue, and other ancillary problems like affirmative action, the welfare system and so on. Some sort of African-American community package like low- or no-interest loans/grants for charter schools, neighbourhood entrepreneurship, arts funding, low-income mortgages and so on would be great. But you can't trust a centralized government to do the right thing. Centralized government in this country represents the will of the controlling elite--the Giulianis and Safirs in NYC who don't have a problem with innocent Black folks being killed by 5-0. The alcohol, tobacco and firearms lobby that disproportionately favour communities of colour with their attention. The majority party of this government comprises dudes like Bob Barr who belong to well-known white supremacist organizations, and have refused to repudiate their ties. What they gonna do for you? Let's not forget that it was Nixonian Republicanism that instituted affirmative action in the '70s, and it's being taken away under the watch of a Clinton-led Democratic White House. What does that tell you? Two sides of the same flipping coin, bruh. Long as you do your bit to perpetuate wage slavery and ever-escalating corporate profits, they got no beef and no interest in you and your's. Not even a symbolic one. Investment in inner-city communities means setting up Old Navy and Starbucks in Harlem so that the private sector can make a killing through crazy tax breaks, while they hire another crop of young Black and brown bodies at minimum wage to count the dollars. The government officials get hit off lovely come election time, and the incestous cycle starts anew.

"I got a letter from the government the other day/
I opened and read it/
It said they were suckers/
...Here is a land that never gave a damn/
about a brother like me and myself/"

I luh the Tricky re-make.

I know y'all heard the rhetoric of revolution before (and Lord knows I ain't a revolutionary, 'cause I suckle at the corporate teat jes like everybody else), but asking the government to do for us is like tolerating slangers on your corner just 'cause they'll hand out turkeys at Christmas.