Presidential candidate Cornel West will join reparations activists this weekend at the launch of a boycott of Wells Fargo, Brookes Brothers, Aetna and other firms with historic ties to slavery.
West, a 70-year-old long-shot progressive independent candidate in the 2024 White House race, is set to add his voice to the National Reparations Convention at a church in Washington DC.
He will speak on Monday about his manifesto and reparations, which he says is ‘unpaid debt’ to black people in the US that he wants to make federal government policy within two years of taking the Oval Office.
He calls it a ‘step towards healing the wounds of a painful history.’
Polls show that about 2 percent of voters nationwide back West, who did not answer DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Still, he and other third party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr, could yet swing the outcome by denying votes to front-runners President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.
West will be joined by his running mate Melina Abdullah, an academic and Black Lives Matter organizer.
He adds a little stardust to a reparations jamboree at the Lincoln Temple United Church that would otherwise garner little attention.
Organizers seek progress toward compensating the descendants of slaves in the US.
They will launch a boycott of major US banks, insurers, companies, and institutions with historic ties to slavery, segregation and the ‘black holocaust’ according to an official video.
The targeted organizations include Wells Fargo, Barclays, Capitol One, New York Life, Aetna, Brooks Brothers, and the universities of Georgia, North Carolina and Maryland.
The campaign also takes aim at anti-reparations politicians and The Catholic Church.
Supporters of the campaign are urged to ‘withdraw dollars’ from those organizations and work toward their ‘shutdown.’
Several of these organizations have been identified in other reparations campaigns and lawsuits in the past.
New York Life and Aetna, for example, sold insurance polices to slave owners.
In some cases, they have apologized for their roles in slavery.
Activists will stage protests outside branches of Capitol One and Wells Fargo in Washington DC on Friday and Saturday.
Reparations activist Malik Shabazz, said organizers were ‘ready to take decisive action.’
‘The time for deliberations and begging for justice has come to an end,’ he said.
Delegates will also debate the creation of a what is being called an Afro-descendent Nation (ADN).
The group in January launched a survey of America’s roughly 40 million black people about their goals from a reparations campaign.
One of the survey questions asks about the creation of a ‘sovereign nation that we can call our own.’
It would be formed from a breakaway part of the US.
The survey responses will be sent to the UN’s International Court of Justice, organizers say.
Silis Muhammad, CEO of the ADN, called the event a chance for ‘Afrodescendants to reclaim their human rights and self-determination.’
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery.
Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, including in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States, while others profited from their labor.
The idea of paying reparations or making other amends for slavery has a long history, but the movement has gained momentum worldwide.
In the US, reparations efforts gathered steam amid the protests after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, but have since fizzled.
Campaigners say it’s time for America to repay its black residents for the injustices of the historic Transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation and inequalities that persist to this day.
The sums are eye-watering — black lawmakers in Washington seek at least $14 trillion for a federal scheme to ‘eliminate the racial wealth gap’ between black and white Americans.
Critics say payouts to selected black people will inevitably stoke divisions between winners and losers, and raise questions about why American Indians and others don’t get their own handouts.
Reparations are popular among the black people who stand to benefit from them, but unpopular among the whites, Asians, and others who would foot the tax bill without themselves benefiting.
A survey last year of 6,000 registered California voters found that only 23 percent supported cash reparations, while 59 percent were opposed.