Descendant Led Reparations Organization Agrees with Nikole Hannah-Jones

The Colorblind Campaign to Undo Civil Rights Progress

SUDLERSVILLE, MD, USA, March 19, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD) supports the evolution of Nikole Hannah-Jones and her position in her most recent essay published by the New York Times…”we too must shift our language and, in light of the latest affirmative-action ruling, focus on the specific redress for descendants of slavery.” Hannah-Jones is not the first to publicly come to this conclusion. On the February 16, 2024 episode of “First Things First,” hosted by Dominique DiPrima, award-winning journalist, Thandisizwe Chimurenga, drew a similar conclusion as a Pan-African advocate. We must make space for growth in what we as an organization have attributed to a generational divide. The work that NAASD has done advocating for reparations has always started from the end goal of understanding Constitutional law and how that law would ultimately determine the success or failure of any federal reparations policy. It is why HR40 should be critiqued in its current form.

It is also why the advice of the most quoted constitutional attorney in American history, Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, Erwin Chimerinsky must be headed “If we focus on going forward, what law could be enacted that has the greatest chance of succeeding in the Courts in the future, lineage rather than race is the way to define the class of beneficiaries.”

NAASD met with Nikole Hannah-Jones in March of 2022 and there was a sense of hope. As the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University’s School of Communications, she is ushering in a new generation of journalists that will learn their craft through one of the prolific minds that challenges the status quo. Politics in Black by NAASD Los Angeles and the Black Civics Collective by NAASD, are two podcasts that intentionally present through the lens of the Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States to further the advocacy for lineage-based reparations.

NAASD has advocated for the OMB to create a specific ethnic category for the Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States. has petitioned for amendments to HR40, has publicly supported first in the nation California AB3121 Reparations Commission, have publicly supported NY Assembly Woman Nikki Lucas’ American Freedmen Task Force on Reparations bill, have called on corporate responsibility in the commercialization of Juneteenth, have charged the United States with acts of genocide, have challenged President Biden to use his executive powers in his first 100 days in office, and consistently maintain that lineage must be the constitutional standard in federal reparations.

Justin Hansford, Law Professor and Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University gave live testimony at the June 15, 2023 DC Reparation Foundation Fund and Task Force Hearing. He stated there were three legal classifications in the pursuit of reparations; 1) “enslaved persons” (Japanese Internment), 2) “Descendants” of Enslaved Persons (CA AB3121) and 3) a “class” of “race,” which must withstand the strict scrutiny standard of the Supreme Court. This was ultimately the standard that the Supreme Court used to strike down the Affirmative Action case with Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard University. Hansford called on creating a “Folsom report” to remedy the strict scrutiny issue in his testimony. Justin Hansford’s testimony provides a pathway to reconciliation and unity within the Modern Reparations Movement.

NAASD publicly calls on the leadership of NAARC and N’COBRA to meet with us like Nikole Hannah-Jones did. This is a pivotal moment that cannot be wasted. The advocacy for reparations must move forward in good faith.

NAASD also has a Black Experience Survey and ask readers to consider take the survey.

The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants was founded in 2019 to advance the National Movement for compensatory reparations for American Freedmen, the Descendants of U.S Chattel Slavery.

Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad
National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants
+1 202-503-4729
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