Laura, I know this is not my place, but I can’t help myself. When it comes to reparations for slavery in America, the relationship between Haiti and Citibank cannot be overlooked.
In 1804, Haiti won its war for Independence. In response to defeat, the French deployed its Navy against Haitian ports and succeeded in gaining the young Republic’s agreement to pay reparations for the loss of property (aka slaves and land). As a result, Haiti lost control of its financial system.
In 1904, Citibank was founded in America. In 1910, French and German investors reorganized Haiti’s central bank as a multinational consortium and Citibank acquired a stake in the reparation’s debt imposed on Haiti in 1804.
In 1915, the U.S. military occupied Haiti, and gained control of the Bank of Haiti thereby ensuring payments on reparations related debts flowed, securely, to Wall Street. By 1920, Citibank had bought out the European investors, and Haitian money that had once gone to French and German banks, now flowed to Wall Street. The U.S. military occupation of Haiti lasted until 1934. Nonetheless, nearly half of Haiti’s public revenues (tax dollars) continued flowing directly to Wall Street until 1947.
Today, Haiti is impoverished, while Citibank is one of the leading financial institutions in global finance and monetary policy. Citibank CEO, Jamie Dimon, is a household name.
In a capitalist economy, money makes money – meaning that any wealth seeded by slavery, remains intact, and is still being used to make money – and that includes Citibank with a net worth estimated at $330-Billion (2023). Obviously, corporations, banks, and financial institutions seeded by slavery, have a strong interest in convincing the American people that they are responsible for paying reparations. That simply is not true. In fact, it is a lie.
As the story of Haiti reveals, slavery has never stopped generating wealth through the mechanisms of capitalism. Every penny that Haitians generated for Citibank in 1904, continued to make money for Citibank for 120 years – and unless stopped, slavery will still be making money for Citibank in perpetuity.
This is the kind of history that corporations and financiers so desperately want to keep out of the public realm, that they are organizing and financing their culture warriors' book burning campaigns and control of school boards and public school curriculum – and Project 2025.
In case anyone else is interested, I looked up some articles that explain this history of wealth a lot better than I have here.
The Real Intervention Haiti Needs Published in Foreign Policy, 2023, and written by Malick W. Ghachem, professor of history and law, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/14/haiti-crisis-intervention-gangs-colonialism-france-us-history-monetary-policy/#:~:text=The%20resulting%20double%20debt%E2%80%94aptly,%24560%20million%20in%20today's%20money.
Frederick Douglass, Haiti, and Diplomacy Beginning in 1889, Frederick Douglass served as U.S. minister to Haiti until he resigned in protest in 1891.
https://www.aaihs.org/frederick-douglass-haiti-and-diplomacy/
PS Whenever I talk to people about reparations, introducing this slice of history makes a difference. If people remain focused, they start asking, shouldn’t the banks and wall street people be paying reparations instead of me? That’s the long way of saying, that is the reason that I think knowing our history matters - so very, very much.
