Reparations? / by M. Dionne Ward

Damn. Went to work and ya boy is actually off...so for this not to be a loss, I gotta hit the gym hard.

Yesterday I was at work and I spotted these 2 black dudes sitting in a black explorer. The cat on the passenger side was looking dead at me so a gave him the nod and went about my business. 2 minutes later I came back and they were still there, but this time the dude beckoned to me, "Hey bruh, can I ask you a question?" I said, "Yeah, kid, what's up?"

He was like, "Man, do you think American owes Black folks anything?" Easy enough question for me to answer. "Hell yeah", said I. "The thing is, how we gonna collect? What can we do about it?"

The dudes proceeded to give each other dap, laughing in agreement. "Hell yeah, man. We wit you on that. We gone take it. We gone take it back." There was seriousness in his tone, and for a second, I was alarmed by it. Take it back how?

My boy Gene works with me, and this dude is from Liberia. He was walking out just as I was finishing the conversation, and they asked me to ask him to come over. Later I asked him what he said to the question, and he said "I told them they owe Black people more than they could pay."

Damn. That's real. And that's coming from a dude who was born in Africa.