Let’s face it, if you are black in the Americas - North, South, Central and the Caribbean - then you probably have been taught and believe that your ancestor(s) were taken from Africa and enslaved in America and that you are due reparations for all those years of brutal enslavement and free labor. After all, on June 18th, 2009, the 1st Session of the 111th Congress, passed S. CON. RES. 26 acknowledging “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws;” and “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws”.
So how, then, do you, as an INDIVIDUAL, actually file a reparations claim for this? After all, human rights pertain to YOU as an INDIVIDUAL. Self determination is a matter of the SELF.. How many people do you know who have actually filed their own reparations claim?????
The 1st Amendment of the Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992) states very clearly,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
So, according to the United States Constitution, a person can petition the government for a redress of grievances. Surely, the subjugated black people and nation in the United States, has grievances stemming from the wrongs committed against them under enslavement and Jim Crow and continuing through systemic racism today. But wait a minute! That same 111th Congressional apology adds the following disclaimer at the end:
“Nothing in this resolution— (A) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (B) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.”
Isn’t this a kind of violation of the 1st Amendment highlighted above?????
In my article, Strategic Reparations Litigation: Transgenerational Epigenetic Effects, Ethnocide and Prisoner of War Claims - A Look at Cases Against France and the United States, I quoted Tara Kolar Ramchandani, in Judicial Recognition of the Harms of Slavery: Consumer Fraud as an Alternative to Reparations Litigation who notes that our reparations cases
“have been dismissed for a variety of procedural and jurisdictional reasons, including statutes of limitations, the political question doctrine, sovereign immunity, and lack of standing—hurdles preventing such cases from being decided on their merits. . . . Due to the fact that the original harms of the “peculiar institution” were inflicted against men and women who lived generations ago, it is difficult to surmount threshold procedural issues, and access to the courts is barred for both private and public rights of action.’
So the legal system in the United States and Europe are set up so that accesss to the courts and justice for grievances, crimes and harms - Reparations for slavery - is denied even a hearing. This is made very clear in the Farmer-Paellmann v. Fleetboston Financial Corp. case that was argued on March 26, 2002. It was the first class-action lawsuit filed to seek compensation from US insurance companies who previously profited from the enslavement of African peoples. The case was dismissed in 2004, amended, resubmitted and dismissed again in 2005 on the basis of the statute of limitations and other considerations, while the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal in October 2007.
Dr. Kenneth Knave and Judge Norgle’s Decision
In 2020, Dr. Kenneth Knave's published Competent Proof: The Legal Standing for African Americans in the Battle for Reparations reviewing Judge Norgle's decision in the Deadria Farmer-Pellmann case. Dr. Knave correctly identified that
"Judge Norgle ended the document with V. CONCLUSION, stating that '(the) Plaintiffs' claims, as alleged in their Complaint, FAIL based on numerous well-settled legal principles. Mr. Norgle makes five legal statements that summarize his arguments which are in agreement with the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss:
1. Plaintiffs' claims are beyond the constitutional authority of the Court (Federal). Plaintiffs lack essential constitutional standing requirements to bring their claims because they FAIL TO ALLEGE ANY SPECIFIC CONNECTION BETWEEN THEMSELVES AND THE NAMED DEFENDANTS.
2. Prudential limitations prohibit the court from deciding such BROAD QUESTIONS OF SOCIAL IMPORTANCE when such claims are brought on behalf of absent third parties, as Plaintiffs attempt here.
3. The POLITICAL QUESTION DOCTRINE bars the (federal) court from deciding the issue of slavery reparations, an issue that has been historically and constitutionally committed to the Legislative and Executive branches of government.
4. Plaintiffs' claims fail to fall within the recognized legal statutes of limitations.
5. Plaintiffs' Complaint FAILS TO STATE A CLAIM UPON WHICH RELIEF CAN BE GRANTED.”
The reparations movement would be foolish to continue to ignore these well established legal principles and defenses against reparations claims. We can not continue the same arguments and expect different results. We must switch to a different narrative and different legal framework if we are to have a reasonable hope for a successful outcome.
Making a Successful Reparations Claim By Overcoming Judge Norgle’s Five Causes for Dismissal
When you study Judge Norgle's 76-page statement on the dismissal of the Deadria Farmer-Paellmann reparations case, you will learn that the way you overcome the state's motion to dismiss is by naming the specifics, who, what, where, when and how. Paellmann's case was dismissed because she couldn't prove any specific connection between any of the defendant's (the insurance companies involved in the slave trade) and the plaintiffs (the victims).
So we learned from this that that is the FIRST thing you have to do - show the specific connection between plaintiffs and defendants. Judge Norgel was basically giving us a roadmap of how to WIN by staying away from legal positions they have already settled.
Thus, the way to overcome #1 is to make the specific connection between plaintiff and defendants.
The way to overcome #2 is to switch from a BROAD, COLLECTIVE argument to a narrow, INDIVIDUAL argument.
The way to overcome #3 is to switch from a traditional reparations “slavery” argument to an argument based on ETHNOCIDE.
The way to overcome #4 is to show that the crime is current since theUnited States CONTINUES TO PRACTICE STATE SANCTIONED ETHNOCIDE.
The way to overcome #5 is to calculate the actual economic value of the labor of your ancestors that were enslaved (which can be done through genealogy work - I have done it) as well as the value of the unjust enrichment; identify specific territory to be repatriated to; and calculate the cost of the social, cultural and political claims under the international conventions.
The key to the above, the mechanism for linking the harms of slavery to the present generation, is framing the reparations as a claim for war damage and the specific damage of ETHNOCIDE.
Why? Because it wasn’t slavery that was illegal or a crime against humanity - Jews, Muslims and Christians in Europe, Asia and Africa had been enslaving each other since 711 CE. . . . It wasn’t the slavery that was the crime against humanity, it was the DEHUMANIZATION that constituted the crime against humanity.
Our ancestors were subjected to the following process of dehumanization:
a. Captivity – African people were captured and removed from their natural lives of freedom in Africa.
b. Dehumanization – Captured African and their children after them for generations were subjected to domination, manipulation, subjugation, exploitation, cruelty, violence, psychological trauma, and other evil treatment by free whites who obtained a manufacturing license from the American colonies and States to take human beings as manufacturing inputs to produce chattel property..
c. Subhuman Service – Dehumanized Africans and their children lived a life of subhuman servitude to free whites for generations, sacrificing their human identity and nature for the will and desires of their owners.
The DEHUMANIZATION manufacturing process resulted in the creation of artificial “slave” dna deliberately progremmed through epigenetics to alter the natural human genome and condition to one engineered to produce “perpetual servitude”. This is called the transgenerational epigeneitc effects of slavery (TGEES).
The DEHUMANIZATION manufacturing process required the use of violence, terror and trauma to destroy the memory of one’s identity and culture. This is called ETHNOCIDE. For more about ethnocide, read "Ethnocide: Genocide's Twin Sister" which I presentat to the 9th Annual Genocide and Human Rights Research Conference.
Now, it is difficult to PROVE the genetic damage done, but it is easy to prove that ethnocide was committed and that it is still being practiced today. Just ask any black person, with the exception of the approximately 800,000 that have taken the African Ancestry dna test, if they know the identity of their maternal or paternal ancestry. If the answer is no, then it is proof that the individual is STILL suffering from ETHNOCIDE!
Can we also prove that the United States is STILL practicing state-sanctioned ETHNOCIDE today? YES!!!!
SLAVE / BLACK / NEGRO CODES AS STATE LICENSES OF COMMERCE
On June 13, 2013 Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that human genes cannot be patented in the U.S. because DNA is a “product of nature” but did allow that DNA manipulated in a lab (controlled environment) is eligible to be patented because DNA sequences altered by humans are not found in nature. Slave forts are actually factories. Slave ships are environmentally control shipping vessels. Plantations are open air agricultural manufacturing centers. No one can deny that our ancestors were placed in environmentally controlled “factories” that took human beings that existed naturally and subjected them to un-natural dehumanization process to produce a product known as chattel.
Unregistered intellectual property rights arise automatically on the creation of the chattel product and belong to the creator of the work. Such rights include copyright, unregistered design rights, and unregistered trademarks. Registering an invention as a patent is not a mandatory thing. An unregistered patent is generally known as a trade secret. Someone may choose to keep an invention as a trade secret so as not to disclose details of the invention to the public. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) creates a civil cause of action for claims of false designation of origin and false advertising. This provides federal protection for unregistered marks. Black’s Law Dictionary defines LICENSE as a Certificate or the document itself which gives permission. Britannica.com describes Slave codes, in U.S. history as any of the set of rules (permissions) based on the concept that slaves were property, not persons. Inherent in the institution of slavery were certain social controls, which slave owners amplified with laws to protect not only the property but also the property owner from the danger of slave violence. The slave codes were forerunners of the black codes of the mid-19th century. Black Codes were also known as Negro Codes. The Fugitive Slave Act officially recognized slaves as property validating the slave codes and black codes as licenses for commerce or unregsitered trademarks.
The word “Slave” was a recognizable trademark of American States used in commerce on State Licenses known as Slave Codes and marketing items to identify the most visible and recognizable American products between 1619 and 1863-65 - black/negro people subjected to bondage.
The word “black” was a recognizable trademark of American States used in commerce on State Licenses known as Black Codes marketing items to symbolize the most visible and recognizable historic American products between 1619 and 1863-65 - black people in bondage.
The word “negro” was a recognizable trademark of American States used as a substitute for the word “black” in commerce
Thus, every official document that requires a person to identify their “race” as “black” or “African American” is an official practice of denying’s one’s natural identity that existed before the crime of ethnocide and forcing one to accept the commercial license/trademark identiy created by the colonies, states and finally the federal government of the United States of America. The slave codes, black codes, slave patrol legislation and Jim Crow laws, being historic licenses granted by American States for the act of commerce establishes that the intellectual property rights were owned by the American States especially considering there’s no historic evidence suggesting the ownership right for dehumanization, slaves or slavery as intellectual properties has ever been disputed during the peak of slavery.
All white Americans living during the genesis of American slavery are the original licensees of dehumanization, slaves and slavery as intellectual properties because the licenses for slavery named white Americans as the beneficiaries of the permissions to manufacture slaves through dehumanization, possess slaves, distribute slaves and to further develop, reinforce and perfect the trade secrets of dehumanization with the purpose of optimizing the commercial act of slavery. These same white Americans continue to benefit from their intellectual property rights as evidenced by the widening racial wealth gap. Remember, the Dum Diversas authorized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Asiento contract holders to take all the property belonging to the African people AND REDUCE THEM TO PERPETUAL SERVITUDE! Black people are never to be more than objects serving a system of European (white) supremacy. THE DUM DIVERSAS IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP….
Black’s Law Dictionary demonstrates the difference between physical and intellectual property rights with the following example; “While there is a close relationship between intangible property and the tangible objects in which they are embodied, intellectual property rights are distinct and separate from property rights in tangible goods. For example, when a person posts a letter to someone, the personal property in the ink and parchment is transferred to the recipient. The sender (as author) retains intellectual property rights in the letter.” Lionel Bently & Brad Sherman, Intellectual Property Law.
Like the example given, The 13th amendment only terminated the property rights permitting whites to possess or distribute slaves, but it allows them to legally retain and benefit from the intellectual property rights to dehumanization, slaves and slavery because the concepts as intellectual properties are legally distinct and separate from the property rights. Intellectual Property rights were entirely neglected in the 13th amendment and emancipation proclamation to the detriment of the several generations of descendants of the Africans who survived the middle passage up to the living generation of today.
THE 13TH AMENDMENT ABOLISHED CHATTEL SLAVERY ( AFRICAN PEOPLE AS PHYSICAL PROPERTY) BUT IT DID NOT END THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF THE MANUFACTURED CHATTEL PRODUCT (ARTIFICIAL SUBSERVIENT BEHAVIOR-PRODUCING DNA) ACCRUING TO THE STATES AND WHITE AMERICANS.
Since slave manufacturing was a scientific production of the American States conducted on foreign nationals, so the scientific actions must be examined by international laws. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3384 (XXX) of 10 November 1975 known as the Declaration on the Use of Scientific and Technological Progress in the Interests of Peace and for the Benefit of Mankind proclaims that all states shall take the necessary measures, including legislative measures, to ensure that the utilization of scientific and technological achievements promotes the fullest realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms and to satisfy the material and spiritual needs for all sectors of the population. This requires the United States of America to provide DNA testing in order to repair the harm of its state-sanctioned ethnocide practiced from generation to generation that continues today, accruing the benefits of unjust enrichment.
Finally, at the Accra II Summit: Centering Healing For Africans and the Global African Diaspora in the Context of the African Union Theme of the Year 2025 on Reparations, held in Nyanyanor Village near Accra, Ghana, I provided the conclusive evidence that it was the Military Order of Jesus Christ headquartered in Protugal, authorized by the Dum Diversas Apostolic Edict issued by Pope Nicholas V on June 18, 1452, that launched the war against people on the African continent that resuted in 100 million Africans dead and 12 million trafficked as prisoners of war and enslaved in the Americas.
Consider now the Geneva Conventions which says,
"1949 Geneva Convention: Article 4 (1) defines prisoners of war as “Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.”
Article 5 states,
“The present Convention shall apply to the persons referred to in Article 4 from the time they fall into the power of the enemy and until their final release and repatriation."
SO IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A SUCCESSFUL CLAIM UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION, YOU NEED TO IDENTIFY WHEN YOU FELL INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY AND THAT YOU STILL LIVE IN THE LAND OF YOUR CAPTIVITY.
If you can't answer that, then the Convention makes the following provision -
"Should doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.”
The 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in its resolution, the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, acknowledged that people of African descent were victims of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism, and continue to be victims of their consequences. States agreed that slavery and slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so. The advent of genetic testing that allows for the identification of one’s maternal and paternal lineages and, through autosomal genetic testing, current family linkages, is a miracle that allows for the complete reversal and repair of the ethnocide caused by enslavement. UN Resolution 3384 requires that genetic testing now be required reparations for Afro Descendants , defined at a 2002 United Nations Conference for the Rights of Minorities in La Ceiba, Honduras by nineteen (19) countries from North America, South America, Central America, to refer to the people who:
Were forcibly disposed of their homeland, Africa;
Were transported to the Americas and Slavery Diaspora for the purpose of enslavement;
Were subjected to slavery;
Were subjected to forced mixed breeding and rape;
Have experienced, through force, the loss of mother tongue, culture, and religion;
Have experienced racial discrimination due to lost ties from their original identity.
Illinois has become the first state to call for DNA testing as a priority reparation and I recently made the case that a groundbreaking pilot project be funded and implemented immediately.
SO HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT MAKING A REPARATIONS CLAIM UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION FOR THE CRIME OF ETHNOCIDE RESULTING FROM DEHUMANIZING CHATTEL ENSLAVEMENT?
FOLLOW THIS FLOW CHART
MAKING YOUR ETHNOCIDE CLAIM
Are you descended from people who lived on the continent referred to as “Africa” within the last two thousand years?
NO - Stop. This isn’t for you.
YES -
Were you taught that you are descended from people that were brought across the Atlantic Ocean and enslaved?
NO - What is the name of the specific territory where your maternal/paternal (circle one) ancestors lived on the continent referred to as “Africa”?
I don’t know - Stop. You must research more the territory where your ancestor came from.
How did your ancestors from the continent referred to as “Africa” travel to America?
I don’t know - Stop. Your understanding of your history is weak.
They freely migrated by foot/boat/plane (circle one) or other (please specify).
When did they migrate?
I don’t know - Stop. Your understanding of your history is weak.
Where specifically did they arrive once they traveled across the Atlantic?
I don’t know - Stop. Your understanding of your history is weak.
Was your ancestor enslaved after their arrival?
I don’t know - Stop. You can’t make a reparations claim. You must do further research to identify when, where and how your ancestor was captured and enslaved and by who.
NO - Stop. You can’t make a reparations/ethnocide claim.
YES - Who enslaved your ancestor?
I don’t know. Stop. Your reparations/ethnocide claim is weak. Research more to make a stronger claim.
What language did your ancestor speak?
I don’t know. Stop. Your reparations/ethnocide claim is weak. Research more to make a stronger claim.
CONGRATULATIONS! If you were able to answer all of the above questions, you can make a strong reparations/ethnocide claim.
YES - Which of your maternal/paternal ancestors survived the middle passage?
I don’t know - Stop. You can’t make a reparations/ethnocide claim. You must do research to identify your ancestor that survived the middle passage.
Where did this ancestor live before they were captured and enslaved?
I don’t know - Stop. You can’t make a reparations/ethnocide claim. You must do more research to identify where your ancestor lived before being captured and enslaved.
What language did this ancestor speak?
I don’t know - Stop. Your reparations/ethnocide claim is weak. Research more to make a stronger claim.
CONGRATULATIONS! If you were able to answer all of the above questions, you can make a reparations/ethnocide claim.
HERE’S WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE
Here’s the research I did to be able to answer all the questions and make my claim. In January of 2023, I submitted my ethnocide reparations claim to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. In July of 2023, it was dismissed without explanation. You can read the petition here.
THE WAY FORWARD FOR REPARATIONS CLAIMS
1) Establish that total war was declared against African people via the Dum Diversas Apostolic Edict and the subsequent Asiento monopoly war contracts. This is important because the category “total war” - warfare that does not distinguish between combatants and civilians - is so egregious that there is no statute of limitations on reparations for this kind of war damage.
2) Establish that all the people trafficed from Africa to the Americas were captured prisoners of the Dum Diversas War.
3) Establish that the prisoners of war suffered the harm of fhe crime of ethnocide.
4) Establish that state sanctioned ethnocide continues today since the United States forces people to identify as the trademarks “black” or “African American” instead of restoring their ethnic identity through African Ancestry dna testing.
5) identify the ancestor that survived the middle passage, where they came from and the language he or she spoke.
6) if you can’t identify the ancestor, then advocate for lineage restoration through free dna testing and genealogy research as proposed in AGENDA ITEM 1 REMEDY: LINEAGE RESTORATION WORKERS PROJECT in the AGENDA FOR BLACK AMERICA'S RESTORATION AND SELF DETERMINATION
7) Use the Geneva Convention as the legal framework for filing claims in regional and international courts and commissions..
THIS IS WHY THE CAMPAIGN TO REQUEST AN ADVISORY OPINION FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON THE STATUS OF AFRO DESCENDANTS AS PRISONERS OF WAR UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION AND THEIR RIGHT TO CONDUCT PLEBISCITES FOR SELF DETERMINATION IS SO IMPORTANT!!!
This is a WIN-WIN because the ability to answer all the questions to make the reparations ethnocide claim puts one in a dominant legal position. The inability to answer all the questions to make the reparations ethnocide claim is a testament to the continuing harm of ethnocide, furthery arguing for the need for reparatory justice.
