A recently launched 'reparations' website is calling for white people to provide money and services to black people to relieve them of guilt and atonement from slavery.

Seattle-based artist Natasha Marin started the website that offers and suggests numerous ways where whites can give back to blacks to relieve their white guilt.

'I invite People of Color to ask for what we need to feel better, be happier, be more productive by posting in this space. These may be both material and immaterial requests,' she wrote.

'I invite people who identify as White to offer services or contributions to People of Color in need of time, energy, substantive care, and support.'

Experiment: Seattle-based artist Natasha Marin (above) started the website that offers and suggests numerous ways where whites can give back to blacks. The idea was first a social experiment, but is now fully operating

Guilt?: Marin (above) wants 'people of color' to ask anything they need to 'feel better', while asking whites to offer anything to help them, including financial assistance,'time, energy and substantive care' to 'relieve their white guilt'

Offers: People have already started to offer services and goods, including cold hard cash, house cleaning, pet sitting (above), massages and free use of a car, to people of color

Before launching the full website, Marin's concept was first a social media experiment she launched on Facebook earlier this month.

'What if you actually did something meaningful for someone before the end of the year?' Marin wrote on the website of the idea.

'What if a stranger restored your belief in humanity, if only for a moment, by supporting you and allowing you to claim something you need in a material way?

People have already started to offer services and goods, including cold hard cash, house cleaning, pet sitting, massages and free use of a car, to people of color.

Posts for those who want to give back are classified under 'offer' while those who need assistance with something begin with 'request'.

For example, one person based out of San Francisco posted on the site that they would like to offer pet sitting on the weekends.

Skills: Another user is offering to help utilize their skills to assist with resume tips and job hunting assistance (above)

Request: A request for assistance posted on the site earlier this week is asking for money to finish college (above)

' #OFFER: I would like to offer pet sitting on the weekends in San Francisco, cooking and food delivery when folks are sick, and I have a car if one needs a ride somewhere.

'If I can help, I want to help,' the post reads.

At the bottom of the post, there's a link for who ever wants to take them up on the offer to contact them.

Another user is offering to help utilize their skills to assist with resume tips and job hunting assistance, while someone else wants to help train people to use Microsoft Excel and build spread sheets.

A request for assistance posted on the site earlier this week is asking for money to finish college.

'I started studying math and computer science at UPenn for 3 years now (GPA 3.2) to become a financial analyst and 'make something of myself' and to help people manage their money, but this last year my mother said she and her mother can't afford to help me pay for tuition anymore,' the request post reads.

'I have 1 year left until I graduate. I work a part-time job while I study too and I have loans but I still don't make enough.

'I need $6000 to be able to go back to school next semester. I feel so close to graduating and I've been studying so hard and it is really stressful not knowing whether or not I'll ever be able to finish makes it really difficult.'

This particular user is offering to email her school information to prove that she is indeed enrolled and closes the post by staying she 'doesn't want to give up' on her education.

There's also a way for people to search under a category of tabs for things they may want to help with or are requesting.

Users who post both requests and offers on the site are seemingly anonymous.

Since launching earlier this month, several requests and offerings, including free money for coffee, baby clothes, access to a recording studio and therapy have already been fulfilled and are listed under the 'satisfied' section on the website.

For those who post racist comments, a dollar is donated to a massive collective fund that will help fulfill requests on the site.

Speaking to Seattle Weekly in an interview on Wednesday, Marin said that she's been very busy.

'I've had about 12 hours of sleep since Friday,' she shared. 'I maybe have eaten, like, one real meal.

'I'm at that point of exhaustion now, if I see two bunnies kissing each other, I'll just start crying. I'm just that tired.'

She did however note that her site is 'absolutely not' trying to address real reparations for American slavery, but just 'reparations for microaggressions' from this past month.

'I don't know if the word 'reparations' gets people's eyebrows up, or what,' Marin said.

'I'm happy that people are paying attention. Maybe people paying attention could lead to measurable improvement in the lives of people of color.'

She said that she's happy with response from both white and black people who have used the site, as she hopes it can become a learning experience for whites.

Appreciated: This user by the name of Ashley wants 'time, energy, service, financial support' to help get her back on her feet after being allegedly assaulted by police in Chesapeake, Virginia

'Instead of all theory, it's all practice,' she said. 'You can learn how to leverage and dismantle your white privilege through participation in this project.'

Another Washington-based social media project that launched on July 18 has also gone viral.

The White Nonsense Roundup was founded by Terri Kompton and Layla Tromble is aimed at helping to educate other whites about how they define white privilege.

In nearly a week, the group has racked up more than 28,000 likes on Facebook, as the founders are shocked by the response they've received.

A key idea of the group is to confront the idea that people of color are often forced to think about race and explain or defend their actions to others who've been raised with white privilege.

'How unfair is it to ask an already-marginalized group to take on the burden of proving racism is a real thing?' Kompton said to Seattle Weekly.

A description on the White Nonsene Roundup Facebook page reads: 'White Nonsense Roundup (WNR) was created by white people, for white people, to address our inherently racist society.

'We believe it is our responsibility to call out white friends, relatives, contacts, speakers, and authors who are contributing to structural racism and harming our friends of color.

'We are a resource for anti-racist images, links, videos, artwork, essays, and voices. These can be used by anyone for a DIY white nonsense roundup, or by the WNR team to support people of color upon their request.'

HISTORY OF REPARATION MOVEMENT IN THE U.S. Since the end of slavery in 1865, there have been several attempts to have blacks compensated for the free labor that was rendered during the 250 years slavery took place in the United States. Before the Civil War ended, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued an order in South Carolina. He wanted 40 acres and the loan of an Army mule set aside for each former slave family. This order was never carried out. After the war, Radical Republicans in Congress passed laws requiring confiscation of former-Confederate property to provide the ex-slaves with '40 acres and a mule.' In 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the legislation. The next push for reparations took place at the turn of the century. Several black organizations lobbied Congress to provide pensions for former slaves and their children. One bill introduced into the U.S. Senate in 1894 would have granted direct payments of up to $500 to all ex-slaves plus monthly pensions ranging from $4 to $15. This, and several similar bills, died in congressional committees. The pension movement itself faded away with the onset of World War I. During the 1960s, some black leaders revived the idea of reparations. In 1969, James Forman (then head of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) proclaimed a 'Black Manifesto.' It demanded $500 million from American churches and synagogues for their role in perpetuating slavery before the Civil War. Black nationalist organizations, such as the Black Panther Party and Black Muslims, also demanded reparations. In the 1980s, a new call arose for black reparations. It was stimulated by two other movements that successfully secured payments from the U.S. government. The Supreme Court in 1980 ordered the federal government to pay eight Sioux Indian tribes $122 million to compensate for the illegal seizure of tribal lands in 1877. Then in 1988, Congress approved the payment of $1.25 billion to 60,000 Japanese-American citizens who had been interned in prison camps during World War II. In April 1989, Council Member Ray Jenkins guided through the Detroit City Council a resolution. It called for a $40 billion federal education fund for black college and trade school students. About the same time, a conference of black state legislators meeting in New Orleans backed the idea of a federally financed education fund for descendants of slaves. Shortly afterward, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) drafted a bill calling for the establishment of a congressional commission to study the impact of slavery on African-Americans. Rep. Conyers introduced his bill (HR 3745) in November 1989. The preamble of the bill declared its purpose: 'This bill failed to make it to a House vote, but Conyers did not give up. In every session of Congress since then, he has introduced new legislation to establish a commission to study the issue and make recommendations to Congress. While none has succeeded, Conyers vows to keep trying.' Throughout the years, people have proposed different reparation plans. Some, like Robert Brock, a Los Angeles campaigner for reparations, argued for direct payments to descendants of slaves. 'The government owes us money on a number of different fronts,' the 66-year-old black activist declared, '. . . for labor, for loss of culture and of humanity.' Some supporters of reparations, like journalist Ron Daniels, proposed government financing of a national fund to develop educational and economic opportunities for the entire African-American community. Daniels argued in an editorial that 'America must own up to its responsibility to make a damaged people whole again.' Others, such as the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), advocate a broader approach. They believe that government could satisfy the call for reparations by a variety of means, including land, ownership of companies, stock, money, and aircraft. The group also calls for a method of self-government for American blacks to give them autonomy. Just as advocates are not unanimous about the form of reparations, neither are they united on the amount. Some favor direct payments to slave descendants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 or more. Others, like N'COBRA, believe a final amount cannot be determined until more study has been done to determine the harm slavery has caused blacks. But they suggest the total amount could be in the 'trillions.' Source: Constitutional Rights Foundation Advertisement



