I Got My Reparations

Every book has an idea that gave rise to it: whether personal or otherwise. There was a guy in our ninth-grade class that was always good for a story. One day he recalled a teacher who told one of his students who was known for acting out and disturbing the class, “I’ve got mine; get yours.” The story he told the author never forgot almost sixty years later. This story gave him the idea for this book. This is a book of nonfiction in which the author details some of his past experiences. He goes from his isolated condition in East Texas to his home in a Chicago suburb. It seems that in the end we have always as African Americans, depended on the good will of other groups, but isn’t that what caused the problems we exist in today. Time is up for us continuing to depend on other groups. We should be able to see by now that we will have to make it on our own. To continue to depend on others is asking for our own destruction and demise. We must get off our behind and learn to love, have loyalty for, unite, and consolidate resources. To wait on reparations is a futile exercise. That means everyone will have to make a wholehearted and consistent effort toward liberating himself. We must begin with school and make every effort to meet the many and various challenges that life offers. This means that we must take advantage of every possible opportunity, and never take unnecessary chances. We will not get more opportunities until we learn to respect ourselves and each other. We must quit giving up, go to school, and get all the education we can. Nobody has it easy. Other groups must deal with some of the same problems we must deal with. We have gotten ourselves into a deep hole and have forgotten how we got there. We keep looking for relief from our situation when the only ones going to help us is ourselves. As they say, nobody is going to help us but us. It wasn’t easy but the author did find a way to improve his life. He’s not where he wants to be but thank God, he’s better off than he was. This is a great country, and with all the discrimination, racism, prejudice, and bigotry you can still achieve at a high level. The only thing that holds us back is our past conditioning. You must learn to ignore people when you can and continue to move forward with establishing your agenda. You must always have a plan. When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don’t wait on reparations, no matter how much you feel you deserve them. Go out and make a way for yourself. The author didn’t achieve greatness; but has two cars, a nice home, and he was able to send his two sons to college (who did quite well in life up to this point). He came from an isolated rural community. There was only a three-mile trail to his house until they constructed a dirt road to his house in first grade. He lived in a rusty-tin-roof shotgun shack. It was overrun with rats and leaked when it rained. You could feel a strong wind coming through the cracks in the house in wintertime. Most of the people in his community lived under similar conditions. If he had waited for formal reparations to help him, where would he be. Besides, there is always someone a little worse off and someone a little better off than we are, no matter how good or bad your situation. So, don’t sit around comparing yourself to other people. A bill recently went before U.S. Congress for the purpose of providing reparations to Blacks for slavery. They are in the process of considering it. He doesn’t remember the particulars about past reparation bills. He does know that none of them have passed Congress. Evanston, a North Suburb of Chicago, did recently grant Black residence who qualify reparations. You can bet it will be a complicated process. It’s the only city or state he has heard about that was considering it. A few years ago, a lot of Blacks got excited about the prospect of getting reparations. You can bet that the United States will be slow to get on board with such a plan. The author wrote this book to encourage Black individuals to not sit back and wait for someone to give them reparations, but to be active in trying to get what belongs to them. The author got his reparations but only after working hard to get them. The book is about what he went through to get them. He doesn’t mean to sound flippant, but only that he got his, and you can get yours. Check out this and any other of his books @ amazon.com, or www.willisjay.com, by Jay Thomas Willis.