ince
JP Morgan Chase refuses to do the decent thing – settle a
slavery restitution case pending in the 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago – students, hip hop artists, church leaders,
elected officials, and reparationists are trying to reach the
corporation through the only thing it seems to value: its bottom
line. JP Morgan Chase and its subsidiary, Bank One, are the #1
student loan providers in the United States. Therefore,
activists are calling for a boycott of the bank’s student loans,
which earn JP Morgan Chase over $9 billion a year.
The
campaign, entitled "One Student," is being coordinated by the
Restitution Study Group, a New York non-profit headed by Deadria
Farmer-Paellmann, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. In 2000, she
launched the movement for corporate restitution for slavery when
she exposed that Aetna Inc. wrote life insurance policies on the
lives of enslaved Africans with slave-owners as the
beneficiaries. In 2002, she filed the landmark reparations case
against corporations, which is currently on appeal. The lawsuit
demands that a humanitarian trust fund be created to heal the
injuries descendants of slavery suffer today as a result of
slavery – i.e. urban poverty, inadequate healthcare, and lost
housing, employment, educational, and business opportunities.
As Farmer-Paellmann explained in a December 5th
press conference and rally at JP Morgan Chase headquarters in
New York City, there is extensive evidence linking the bank to
the enslavement of over 14,250 Africans. When, due to Chicago’s
Slave Era Disclosure Ordinance, the bank was forced to reveal
its complicity in slavery or lose lucrative vendor contracts
with the city, it admitted that 13,000 enslaved Africans were
used as collateral for loans from the bank and that they had
owned another 1,250 enslaved Africans.
"JP Morgan Chase amassed enormous wealth off the backs of
enslaved Africans," Farmer-Paellmann stated. "It participated in
institutionalized terrorism, genocide, rape, torture, and theft
of humans. It owes us restitution, but refuses to pay. It has
left us no choice but to boycott."
The Restitution Study Group is also going to demand that
Elliott Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York State, and
Attorney Generals in the other 49 states hold hearings to find
out exactly what JP Morgan Chase’s role was in the institution
of slavery, what their profits were, and what those profits are
worth today. "We want to bring the CEO before a grand jury, and
under penalty of perjury, have him reveal what their profits
were from slavery," Farmer-Paellmann concluded.
One
of the lead attorneys in the case is Carl Mayer, former Special
Counsel to Attorney General Spitzer. Mayer is a prominent
consumer advocate who played a key role in the Supreme Court
victory in the case against Nike for making fraudulent
statements to consumers about its role in inhumane labor
practices in its overseas factories. He promises to take
this case all the way to the Supreme Court too if necessary.
Mayer spoke about the fact that while JP Morgan Chase
apologized for its role in slavery, it does nothing more than
offer a measly $5 million scholarship fund. "That is a mere
trifle to this institution," Mayer declared. "Let's just do the
numbers."
He explained that JP
Morgan Chase has $1.2 trillion in assets. Therefore, $5 million
is only one 1,000th of 1% of that – an amount so
infinitesimal it’s hard to even grasp. Another way to break it
down, Mayer said, is to look at it in relation to what JP Morgan
Chase pays its CEO: $50 million last year. "I think they could
part with more than the equivalent of ninety days of their CEO’s
salary if they wanted to make a real gesture for the heinous
acts that their bank committed in the past," he stated.
Mayer pointed out, too, that that if you take it back to 1831
when JP Morgan owned enslaved Africans, $5 million amounted to
about $400. "This means that in this bank's opinion, the life of
each slave is worth roughly 33 cents. That's an outrage in terms
of what they’re offering to deal with this litigation," he
concluded
Students and reparations activists on campuses around the
country are distributing flyers entitled, "Ten Reasons Why
Students Should Boycott JP Morgan Chase Student Loans." Divine
Shabazz, a student leader at Southern Connecticut State
University, noted, "Our campus has 29 different preferred
student loan lenders. Four are slavery banks that should be
boycotted – Chase, Bank One, Bank of America, and Wachovia.
That leaves 25 better choices for our student loans."
Nana
Soul, a youth singer and activist with Artists and Activists
United for Peace, said that she found the rally inspirational
because it is grass roots organizations and individuals who must
spearhead the reparations movement. "This is a movement that's
going to be built from the ground up, just like we built this
country," she declared. "If we did it once 400 years ago, we can
do it again. But this time the building is going to be a
righteous one because we’re going to obtain the freedom we have
been fighting for."
Another
powerful speaker was artist/educator/actor Yaa Asantewaa Nzingha,
who was terminated by the NYC School System for teaching African
children born in America to call themselves Africans. She said
that she supports reparations as a tool for repairing the damage
– the meaning of reparations – that has been done to children’s
minds. "When I was teaching, many of the youth felt they were
incapable of learning subjects like math and science because of
the propaganda that had been forced on them in American
society," Nzingha stated. But she would explain to the youth
that they are African so they had to be great scientists and
mathematicians because their people created these things. "This
is in your blood," she would tell them.
Also
attending the rally was Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely, who
poured the libation and demanded reparations in the name of the
ancestors. Present too was Leslie Brown, producer of the
excellent documentary film Untold Legacy, which focuses
on the effort to pass a Slave Era Disclosure Ordinance in New
York City, modeled on the Chicago law that compelled JP Morgan
Chase to disclose its ugly past. "It’s crucial that we educate
as many people as possible about JP Morgan’s history of
enslaving Africans so all people of conscience can join in this
boycott," she commented.
For more information, visit the "One Student" website at:
www.onestudent.us.
ince
JP Morgan Chase refuses to do the decent thing – settle a
slavery restitution case pending in the 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago – students, hip hop artists, church leaders,
elected officials, and reparationists are trying to reach the
corporation through the only thing it seems to value: its bottom
line. JP Morgan Chase and its subsidiary, Bank One, are the #1
student loan providers in the United States. Therefore,
activists are calling for a boycott of the bank’s student loans,
which earn JP Morgan Chase over $9 billion a year.
The
campaign, entitled "One Student," is being coordinated by the
Restitution Study Group, a New York non-profit headed by Deadria
Farmer-Paellmann, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. In 2000, she
launched the movement for corporate restitution for slavery when
she exposed that Aetna Inc. wrote life insurance policies on the
lives of enslaved Africans with slave-owners as the
beneficiaries. In 2002, she filed the landmark reparations case
against corporations, which is currently on appeal. The lawsuit
demands that a humanitarian trust fund be created to heal the
injuries descendants of slavery suffer today as a result of
slavery – i.e. urban poverty, inadequate healthcare, and lost
housing, employment, educational, and business opportunities.
One
of the lead attorneys in the case is Carl Mayer, former Special
Counsel to Attorney General Spitzer. Mayer is a prominent
consumer advocate who played a key role in the Supreme Court
victory in the case against Nike for making fraudulent
statements to consumers about its role in inhumane labor
practices in its overseas factories. He promises to take
this case all the way to the Supreme Court too if necessary.
Nana
Soul, a youth singer and activist with Artists and Activists
United for Peace, said that she found the rally inspirational
because it is grass roots organizations and individuals who must
spearhead the reparations movement. "This is a movement that's
going to be built from the ground up, just like we built this
country," she declared. "If we did it once 400 years ago, we can
do it again. But this time the building is going to be a
righteous one because we’re going to obtain the freedom we have
been fighting for."
Another
powerful speaker was artist/educator/actor Yaa Asantewaa Nzingha,
who was terminated by the NYC School System for teaching African
children born in America to call themselves Africans. She said
that she supports reparations as a tool for repairing the damage
– the meaning of reparations – that has been done to children’s
minds. "When I was teaching, many of the youth felt they were
incapable of learning subjects like math and science because of
the propaganda that had been forced on them in American
society," Nzingha stated. But she would explain to the youth
that they are African so they had to be great scientists and
mathematicians because their people created these things. "This
is in your blood," she would tell them.
Also
attending the rally was Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely, who
poured the libation and demanded reparations in the name of the
ancestors. Present too was Leslie Brown, producer of the
excellent documentary film Untold Legacy, which focuses
on the effort to pass a Slave Era Disclosure Ordinance in New
York City, modeled on the Chicago law that compelled JP Morgan
Chase to disclose its ugly past. "It’s crucial that we educate
as many people as possible about JP Morgan’s history of
enslaving Africans so all people of conscience can join in this
boycott," she commented.
