For the past few weeks, I’ve witnessed a kerfuffle take place throughout the black sectors of social media. ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) versus Pan-Africanists. With the 2020 election coming up, Black America is applying pressure to both the Democratic and Republican Party for tangible benefits. But dissension based around lineage, citizenship, and nationality have sparked numerous debates. Those who want to fight for the rights of African Americans are breaking away from those who are fighting for all African people, at least for the time being.

The ADOS Movement

Founded by Breaking Brown political analyst Yvette Carnell and Los Angeles attorney and Dash Radio host Antonio Moore, ADOS is a movement that seeks to reclaim/restore the critical national character of the African American identity and experience; one grounded in our group’s unique lineage and continued struggle for social and economic justice. American Slavery, Jim Crow, Redlining, Mass Incarceration, and other federally-supported discriminating practices have placed African Americans as a permanent underclass in America. The ADOS Movement is demanding reparative justice in order to make the group whole. And in order to close the racial wealth gap, a New Deal will be needed for Black America.

They do have a specific agenda with a list of request, and they are as follows:

1. A new designation on the Census for ADOS and another for Black Immigrants.
2. A reinstituted Affirmative Action program specifically for ADOS.
3. A request to reinstitute the protections of The Voting Rights Act.
4. 15% of SBA (Small Business Administration) Loans to be distributed to ADOS businesses.
5. A multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan targeting ADOS communities.
6. Compensation for the communities who were poisoned like Flint, Michigan, and Denmark, South Carolina; which resulted in benign neglect from the Environment Protection Agency.
7. An assessment of the numbers of ADOS prison populations for State & Federal, and that includes bail amounts, sentence length, and the amount of time served before parole.
8. A request from the Federal government to endow remaining HBCUs the dollar amount needed to meet budgetary needs, along with a 75% discount for ADOS students and a 50% discount for ADOS students who attend other schools.
9. A request that the government limits H1-B Visa workers in tech companies for ADOS who are searching for careers in tech.
10. A request to audit banks to see if there are patterns of racial discrimination in lending.
11. A mandate that the government’s advertising budget includes Black Media.
12. ADOS college debt forgiveness plan.
13. A healthcare credit to pay for medical coverage for all ADOS.
14. Reparations for American slavery.

Pan-Africanism

Started by Martin Delany, Alexander Crummel, and Edward Blyden, but popularized by W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, Pan-Africanism is a movement rooted in the unification of African people throughout the world. Taking the shape of a political and cultural movement, Pan-Africanists believe that Africans and their descendants share common interests and should have their own nation. Liberating Africa from colonial rule began as early as the end of World War I and the Versailles Peace Treaty—a treaty that believed people should decide their own government and not be ruled by an outside group. And the fight for global liberation still continues to this day, with the late Kwame Ture advising that Africans should unite under a socialist economy.

As an African American whose lineage traces back to American slavery, I’m neutral in this discussion. I fully support the justice claim owed to my community for the free labor and brutality of our ancestors, but I’m also an advocate for global Black sovereignty. So politically ostracizing ourselves from the rest of the diaspora and continent is not a solution that will have any long-term benefits. However, I do have a few questions for those who are apart of the ADOS movement.

1. How will the ADOS who’ve intermixed with Blacks throughout the diaspora and continent, or outside their racial group, be affected by the funds that should be allocated?
2. If the ADOS requests are granted, what happens next in terms of us and African people abroad? Do we block off building with the diaspora and continent?

Feel free to comment to below.

Until Next Time…

(Sources)

Kuryla, P. (n.d.). Pan-Africanism. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pan-Africanism

ADOS American Descendants Of Slavery. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://ados101.com

The Pan-African Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/through-the-lens-of-history-biafra-nigeria-the-west-and-the-world/the-colonial-and-pre-colonial-eras-in-nigeria/the-pan-african-movement