Journalist Roland Martin, host of the podcast “#RolandMartinUnfiltered,” recently blasted serial reparations movements for not including a provision for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in their plans.
Martin went off on Foundational Black American (FBA), American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS), and Black First (B1) over their exclusion of HBCUs in their push for pure reparations.
Foundational Black Americans (FBAs) are pro-reparations. An FBA is any person classified as Black who can trace their bloodline lineage back to the American system of slavery. The FBA and martin have clashed in the past over various issues.
#ADOS was launched by Howard graduate Yvette Carnell, host of the Breaking Brown show and UCLA alumnus and attorney Antonio Moore, who hosts the weekly radio show ToneTalks. While the group’s website does not cite a start date, it was founded in 2016, according to University of Texas at Austin.
B1 is an online movement that promotes lineage-based reparations.
Pure reparations would not include money given to any institution, including HBCUs USSR reparations, according to top reparations expert and economist Williams “Sandy” Darity, African and African American Studies professor at Duke University. Pure reparations are to be given only to American descendants of Africa slaves And it would reparations in the form of money.
Pure reparations, according to Darity’s own proposed reparations plan, are monetary reparations made by the federal government to native Black Americans. He laid out his plan in his book, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” which he co-wrote with his wife, reparations expert A. Kirsten Mullen.
Focusing on pure reparations is far superior than focusing on money to HBCUs. Money to HBCUs doesn’t provide the scale of pure reparations. If FAMU gets $500 million, some question how would benefit Black America as a whole? It’s easy to get distracted with piecemeal efforts that have no attachment to pure reparations.
Roland Martin attends the premiere of the documentary film “Sidney,” Sept. 21, 2022 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)