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Time Is Up! Reparations Now, Maybe, Or Never!

Published

7 years ago

May 10, 2019

Curtis O. Robinson, Sr.

Rev. Curtis O. Robinson, Sr.

Bluffton is a village in Allen and Hancock counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 4,125 at the 2010 census. Bluffton is home to Bluffton University, a four-year educational institution affiliated with Mennonite Church USA.

Bluffton University boasts a student population of 865 students, of which 50.2% are male and 49.8% are female. The student body is 83.5% white, 6% African American, and 10.5%; Hispanic/Latino, and Ethnicity Unknown. The faculty is 94.7% white, which means, there is no diversity when it comes to the didactic structure of teaching.

So, when I came across an article entitled, “Reparations for Slavery: They Have Already Been Paid,” by Dan Berger, a chemistry professor from Bluffton University, I had to at least do some research into his claims against African Americans receiving reparations.

In his paper, Berger asserts that the white lives lost in the American Civil War more than make up for anything that would allow consideration of reparations.

He claims that the deaths of about 550,000 soldiers and civilians who were, according to him, 90% to 93% white coupled with lost pensions and damaged infrastructure, amount to an entire bill that could be as low as $200 billion to $500 billion, and maybe even as much as $2 trillion.

I read where Berger also questions who and how qualifications for reparations would be established. “Remember that there are many Americans who have thought of themselves as ‘White’ for generations, who have African slaves among their ancestors. And there are a good number of ‘Black’ Americans who have no ancestors who were slaves within the territory of the United States.

“Let’s not forget that, if we go back far enough, almost everyone has at least one enslaved ancestor somewhere. Slavery was a worldwide institution and not usually race-based.)”

And he’s right; slavery on a global scale was not raced-based, except for the original 13 colonies. It was in America where slavery became a race-based institution.

We need to know that Berger is not the only isolated Mennonite professor who believes that reparations are irrelevant. There’s a whole lot of predominantly little white towns like this, that believe that the death of soldiers who fought for the Union, represent reparations enough. Mr. Berger, “Time Is Up!” This nation needs a healing that money cannot buy. And no matter what you say, until America wakes up and acknowledges that it is a conspirator to murder, no one will rest….no one! Now, where is my check?!

Curtis O. Robinson, Sr.

Posts by Curtis O. Robinson, Sr.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

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4 hours ago

April 10, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 1 – 7, 2026

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4 days ago

April 6, 2026

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.