Hip-hop artist-activist Talib Kweli isn’t too happy about the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement, especially after the pro-reparations group went in on him on Twitter.
Kweli retaliated by writing an article in Medium, in which he called ADOS trash. But on his Twitter feed, Kweli went further and called the group terrorists.
ADOS has no record of violence. Has Kweli gone over the top by labeling the group as terrorists? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Would ADOS be terrorists if the group’s anti-immigrant rhetoric started to incite violence against immigrants as Trump’s tweets are believed to have incited white supremacists to commit violence? That’s up for debate.
At its core, ADOS is a pro-reparations group. It was founded with the idea of fighting for slave reparations.
It is pushing for the United States to pay reparations to the ancestors of the American slavery system. It wants reparations to be issued only to those who can prove they are ancestors of American slaves and believe any Black who immigrated on their own to the U.S. should not be included in the mix.
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As far as its stance on Black immigrants, according to the ADOS website, it believes:
“We need set-asides for American descendants of slavery, not ‘minorities’, a throw-away category which includes all groups except white men. That categorization has allowed Democrats to use programs like affirmative actions as ‘giveaways’ to all groups in exchange for votes. The bribery must end. That begins with a new designation on the Census with ADOS and another for Black immigrants. Black immigrants should be barred from accessing affirmative action and other set-asides intended for ADOS, as should Asians, Latinos, white women, and other ‘minority’ groups. In addition, ADOS hiring and employment data must be demanded for all businesses receiving tax credits, incentives, and governmental support. As well as all governmental agencies national, state and local. It is our belief that this will show that there are minimal if any ADOS professionals in fields including but not limited to engineering, medical, legal, and tech.”
In his piece, Kweli lays out his defense.
He wrote: “…I have always been pro reparations. In my first solo song ever, ‘2000 Seasons’ from 1997, I rap ‘they call it reparations but they call it extortion’…I am of the belief that African Americans absolutely deserve reparations and I’ve worked closely throughout my career with a pro reparations community activist group called the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. However, none of that mattered to a woman named Yvette Carnell, a founder of this ADOS movement, when she decided to wander over to my mentions to aggressively critique me for writing what amounted to an
According to Kweli, it was Carnell who went too far. He asked: “I had never heard of ADOS or Yvette Carnell before I wrote the tweet, so why did she take a tweet that wasn’t written to her or about her so personal? Why did she assume I was talking about her and her movement?”
Kweli claimed attacks from ADOS supporters followed. “They collectively decided I was a Haitian immigrant (weird flex) as a way to justify their dismissal of my position. I was born in Brooklyn. My mother was born in New Jersey and my father was born in Queens. We’ve never been Haitian. It became apparent to me very quickly that ADOS was an
So does this justify Kweli’s conclusion that ADOS is a terrorist organization in his tweets? For Kweli, online threats can lead to actual threats. “In my experience, these threats don’t always remain online. In the ten plus years I’ve been tweeting, Twitter users have posed real threats to me more than once,” he wrote.
He went in more on a Twitter rant. He tweeted: “Those white supremacists are shooting ppl because they are anti immigrant. Just like ADOS is. ADOS is the same as these MAGA terrorists. You the enemy. Blood on y’all hands too.”
Many on Twitter thought Kweli lost it. One person tweeted: “Man, Talib you’re tripping. You don’t have to agree with ADOS but this is wild. You must be losing it.”
For ADOS, it’s still all about reparations. Carnell responded to one of Kweli’s tweets simply with: “Reparations for #ADOS is a SPECIFIC justice claim against AMERICA. Without America, and us claiming our rightful place in it, there is no reparations argument to be had. That’s the basis for any claim. I’m floored at your cluelessness.”
