The following was authored by a blogger who goes by the name of Antony, is a Chicago native and has lived in Europe for the past four years. It was sent in response to the reparations debate.

Why Be A Victim

I tend to vent through you, and walk away.
A coward, far from it. American life sucked in the worse of ways.
My dad taught me that common sense is among the greatest things in the world.
Yet it is of the most sorely lacking in American culture.

Mitchell Column: Madonna's adoption plays shamefully clear in black, white

October 26, 2006

BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

I want to be happy about Madonna. I really do. But the truth is, I can't be happy about Madonna's decision to adopt a 13-month-old Malawian boy because it shames me, and I suspect that deep down inside, it shames the people who are making the most fuss about the adoption.

After all, how many of us knew a country called Malawi existed before this?

UIC News Release
October 11, 2006

CONTACT: Brian Flood, (312) 996-7681, bflood@uic.edu

BOOK ARGUES RACE ISSUES OBSCURE NATION'S ECONOMIC DIVIDE

A new book by a University of Illinois at Chicago literary theorist
explores American society's emphasis on cultural differences and the
resulting lack of attention devoted to economic inequality.

Several bloggers have forwarded me the following chain letter.

It has probably been bouncing around blogs for quite some time. Although I don't usually post anonymous posts of this length, the unknown author has raised points that are routinely asked by whites. I have answered some of the questions (in parenthesis). I'd like to here your responses to the generalizations made by the author.

Written by A. Tolbert, III

So much of our history is lost to us because we often don't write the
history books, don't film the documentaries, or don't pass the accounts
down from generation to generation.

One documentary now touring the film festival circuit, telling us to
"Always Remember" is "Black Survivors of the Holocaust" (1997). Outside the
U.S., the film is entitled "Hitler's Forgotten Victims" (Afro-Wisdom
Productions) . It codifies another dimension to the "Never Forget "
Holocaust story--our dimension.

Did you know that in the 1920's, there were 24,000 Blacks living in
Germany?

FOR RELEASE: October 17, 2006

RACE GENERALLY LESS IMPORTANT FOR
MINORITIES FARING WELL ECONOMICALLY

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Racial minorities who experience equal
opportunities and relatively higher economic status tend to place
less emphasis on racial group concerns in their evaluations of public
policies, according to a new Northwestern University study.

But despite the growth of the black middle class in the post-civil
rights era, that is not necessarily the case for African Americans,
according to the study.

On October 10th, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr. (D-14th), along with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-22nd), and State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3rd), State Rep. Eddie Washington (D-14th) announced the formation of the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission.

Despite naysayers, push for reparations will forge ahead

October 3, 2006
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist
I wouldn't be so quick to say reparations won't happen.

This isn't a subject that is going to go away just because a lot of white people and some blacks oppose it. The reason it's not going away is because slavery and its aftermath is this nation's unfinished business. Sooner or later, we're going to have to deal with it.

Although some ridicule the federal lawsuit filed on behalf of slave descendants, and a federal appeals court may throw out its claims, that won't end the matter any more than ridicule and dismissals stopped the battles to end school segregation and separate accommodations.

Legal battles over blacks' rights are nothing new.

Mitchell column: October 1, 2006

Are Jewish people better off today because their forefathers endured the Holocaust? I would think most people would be offended by any argument that suggests that the extermination of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany was a necessary evil. I'm raising this issue because I can't ignore the assumptions on the part of some white people that blacks in America ought to forget about reparations because they are better off today than their African cousins.