An apology is fine. That�s the place to start.

Money, too, is good, but that doesn�t fully address the arguments for reparations from the oppressed groups that are raising their voices today against past aggressions.

Africa is calling for total debt relief, but that too does not go far enough. Once the debt is totally relieved�if that should ever happen�what about the brain drain and the lack of development that would hamper the ability of these nations to compete in a global economy?

Africa needs total debt relief, and also a plan similar to what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad offers for Blacks in America in addition to land�at least 25 years of aid and help from the oppressors, until that nation is able to stand on its own legs.

Recently, another apology was given for many decades of white abuse. Dovetailing on an apology last year from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Shay Bilchik, executive director of the Child Welfare League of America, acknowledged the sins perpetrated on Native American parents and their children.

Bilchik apologized for a policy of taking Native American children from perfectly functional families and placing them with white families in order to save the children from what were called "pagan, savage and good-for-nothing" Indian families.

Such situations separated the children from their history, culture, language and religion. The damage is still witnessed today.

"What we did may have been well-intentioned, but it was wrong, it was biased, it was hurtful. It is time to tell the truth�that our actions presupposed that Indian children would be better off with white families as opposed to staying in their own communities and tribes�and be reconciled." He proposed the agency bring a different mindset than in the past to dealing with Native American families.

Bilchik is correct in one regard. It is time to tell the truth. But the truth is that these measures were not "well-intended." They were racist at the core. They assume white superiority. The practice put generations of Native American children into a cultural twilight zone, having to confront, resist and/or reconcile the negative programming from white parents that went against the grain of their nature.

So it has also been with the experience of the Black man and woman in America. But far too many whites and Blacks want to distance the trauma of slavery for a "can�t we all just get along" mentality.

We can�t really "get along" until we acknowledge the truth of what has been done and its lingering impact. And then address it with truth to reconcile the past behavior.

What impact did three long centuries of a policy that Blacks were inferior human beings have on the minds of its victims? Although the slaves that suffered under the physical chains are not present, is it possible that those chains still exist in a mental form, causing "free" Blacks to seek to integrate with whites and eat from their table instead of preparing a table of their own

If all Blacks were set free today and given land to establish their own nation, but that land was partially inhabited by whites, would Blacks willingly relegate to the whites the superior position? If no whites were there at all, what mindset would today�s Blacks bring to the land?

There is no legitimate argument that can hold water against paying reparations to Blacks in America. But giving Blacks a financial package to sever white America from its role and responsibility for slavery is not a just resolution to the problem.

Until white people acknowledge and kill in themselves the germ of white supremacy and the Black man is totally re-educated into the knowledge of himself and his God, then the Black man will continue to be a burden to himself, white society and the world.