It is no secret that our elections are anything but free and fair. In addition to foreign meddling and phony social media accounts, there are also internal threats that divide groups within the United States. Groups that need to be unified end up pitted against each other and so weaken their corporate voice.
One such organization is ADOS which stands for American Descendants of Slavery. It was created in 2016 to describe and distinctly separate Black Americans/African Americans from Black immigrant communities from Africa, the Caribbean and Latino countries.
The central issue at stake, according to ADOS, is reparations for African American Blacks who are directly descended from slaves. William Darity, Professor of Economics at Duke University, writes extensively on the subject and supports the basic principles of ADOS. He argues that African American Blacks were subjected to a form of sustained, race based discrimination that is unique in American history.
As Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post notes, the movement for reparations has gained support since the early 2000’s. It is, however, still widely rejected by a majority of Americans. The conversation about reparations cycles on a regular basis, especially in an election year. There has been talk of reparations since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
The founders of ADOS, Antonio Moore and Yvette Carnell, are a cause for concern. Moore wrote for the right wing media outlet News Max. Carnell was on the board of a fake progressive organization, Progressives for Immigration Reform, which was aided by white supremacist and eugenics supporter John Tanton. These groups have a history of causing divisions in the Black Community.
While ADOS claims they will work for legal reparations, it is likely that the moniker will be used to create policies that will further marginalize and oppress Black communities. ADOS is looking to influence the 2020 presidential election as well as the 2020 census.
With supporters like William Darity and Cornell West, ADOS has garnered legitimacy in various circles. The larger concern is that Black Americans who are concerned about reparations will be drawn into their disinformation and misinformation tactics. Among critics of ADOS there is consensus that it is a highly sophisticated propaganda campaign that combines African American history with less savory motivations.
ADOS relies heavily on right-wing, anti-Black, anti-immigrant talking points, and a series of policy positions that rely on individuals’ ability to produce documentation that they are direct descendants of slaves. Absent that ability, they are excluded from further conversation about reparations.
The larger concern about ADOS is that it fractures the Black community and pits Blacks against Blacks. A further concern is that it begins the narrative with slavery when the Black experience has much more history than what happened four hundred years ago. Slavery is not a lineage, it was a condition foisted upon a group of human beings by oppressors and colonizers.
In addition, ADOS wants to split Black representation on the 2020 Census and make ADOS its own category, distinct from other Black groups. It would have a negative effect on the representation of Black communities, potentially impacting access to funding and other resources available to Black communities overall.
Sowing division in the Black community is reminiscent of the slave hierarchies that owners created to keep their slaves from organizing. By pitting slaves against each other, the hierarchy and the resulting animosity prevented any meaningful community or organizing among slaves. ADOS does the same thing but in a different way.
ADOS co-founders claim to be proponents of reparations but refuse to support H.R.40-Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. Further, ADOS refuses to work with established Black reparations organizations like the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations.
According to Jam Aiwuyor, ADOS members attack Black historians, scholars, activists and leaders through a variety of means, including social media. There is thinly veiled racism in the ADOS movement. The claim that African Americans are more closely connected genetically to white Americans is a cornerstone of their argument. This position serves to further alienate Black African Americans from other Black communities.
ADOS leaders co-opt the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others to build trust within the Black community. They use their work out of context and exclude all references to African roots and global Black movements.
There is much that is distasteful, ahistorical and just plain wrong about ADOS. They masquerade as a progressive organization and advertise in liberal publications but really have an anti-immigrant stance that seeks to divide the Black community. Further, by limiting immigration by people of color, the movement could stall a Black and Brown majority population for an additional few years. This is a major goal of white supremacists.
There is a need for unity in the Black community. Yes, there is diversity within the Black community, but sowing divisions that exploit that diversity is in no one’s best interest except white supremacists.
It is easy to fall prey to misinformation and disinformation. Desiring to be seen as progressive, the veneer of ADOS seems attractive. It’s only when you scratch below the surface that their true intentions and the potential for damage become clear.
The Irreverent Reverend 