Guest Editorial by Malak Al Mawt
PRESS RELEASE — FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Date: November 3, 2025
Contact: Malak Al-Mawt — christengriffin57@gmail.com
America Must Pay for Its Crimes Against Black Humanity
A Global Call for Reparations, Recognition, and Justice under International Law. For more than four centuries, America has written its wealth in the language of Black suffering. From the plantation to the prison, from the noose to the bullet, the blood of African people has soaked the foundation stones of this nation. The crimes are not confined to history books — they are living, breathing violations still unfolding in real time. The United States has never faced justice for its atrocities against its Black citizens. It has never been tried, charged, or held accountable before the world’s court of conscience. The time for moral persuasion is over. The time for international accountability has arrived. America must pay for its crimes against Black humanity. Before Jamestown: The Erased African Presence
Long before 1619, when textbooks claim “the first Africans arrived” in Jamestown, people of African descent were already living, working, and trading across the Americas. Archaeological and linguistic evidence points to West African and Mandinka seafarers reaching the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean centuries before Columbus. In 1311, Abubakari II, ruler of Mali, commissioned a trans-Atlantic voyage believed to have reached the Western Hemisphere — his explorers described lands consistent with present-day Central and South America. Spanish and Portuguese colonial records from the 1500s document Africans among the early settlers, sailors, and explorers in Florida, Mexico, and South Carolina. Africans fought alongside Indigenous nations, intermarried, and helped establish early agrarian communities. This means Africans were not simply brought to America — they were part of its earliest civilizations. The lie that Black presence began with slavery erases millennia of dignity and contribution. America’s debt, therefore, is not only for enslavement but for the erasure of pre-colonial African identity and nationhood on its own soil. A Nation Built on Theft, Terror, and Hypocrisy
America was built on the trafficking of human beings — millions of Africans kidnapped, chained, and sold into generational bondage. The 13th Amendment, celebrated as a symbol of freedom, still contains the poison clause: “except as punishment for a crime.” That single phrase transformed slavery into mass incarceration. After emancipation, the terror continued: over 6,500 documented lynchings, hundreds of destroyed Black towns — Tulsa, Rosewood, East St. Louis, and countless others wiped off the map. Federal agencies like the FHA codified racial apartheid through redlining, ensuring Black families could never build generational wealth. The wealth stolen from Black America is estimated in the trillions, yet no restitution, no apology, and no repair have ever been issued. America exports democracy to the world while denying justice at home. It funds international human-rights missions while violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and even the Genocide Convention — all treaties it has ratified. The Crime Continues
The system didn’t disappear; it evolved. The police replaced the slave patrols. The gavel replaced the whip. The prison replaced the plantation. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population yet nearly 40 percent of the incarcerated. Black neighborhoods face environmental poisoning, food deserts, and police militarization. Schools are re-segregated, wages stagnate, and state-sanctioned killings remain routine. This is not democracy. It is the modernized continuation of America’s oldest tradition — the control and containment of Black life. International Law Is Clear
Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, these acts — enslavement, persecution, and institutionalized oppression — constitute Crimes Against Humanity. The United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Court of Justice have both the jurisdiction and moral duty to act. The United States is not exempt from global law. It cannot hide behind flags or slogans. It must face the same scrutiny that it imposes on other nations. Reparations AreNot Charity — They Are Justice
Reparations are not a handout; they are a human right. The debt owed to African Americans is not symbolic — it is economic, psychological, and generational. A real reparations program must include: A $14 trillion restitution fund; Return of stolen lands and properties seized through racial pogroms; Investment in Black-owned institutions; Permanent memorialization through national and international museums; Educational reform to teach the true history of Africa’s role before and after 1619. The Global Community Must Intervene
The world once stood against apartheid in South Africa. It must now stand against racial apartheid in the United States. Silence is complicity. If America refuses to deliver justice, the United Nations must. If America refuses to repair, the global community must demand it. We are not begging for equality — we are demanding accountability. The blood of our ancestors cries out from the soil of every forgotten lynching ground, every burned church, every prison cell built to cage our sons and daughters. The call is not for revenge, but for repair. Not for pity, but for justice. America must pay for its crimes against Black humanity — in full, and before the world.
About the Author:
Malak Al-Mawt is a writer, philosopher, and advocate for reparative justice. His work connects historical truth, political accountability, and cultural healing across the African diaspora.
Contact:
Email: christengriffin57@gmail.com
Instagram: @blood_cotton_clothing
