It has long been recognized through various studies that the culture stripped and rebreed within the African community, brought here as slaves, has caused great damage within the later generations of today and yesterday. Continuous generations have suffered heavily due to continued forms of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. These forms of injustices have resulted in economic disenfranchisement, mass incarceration, and most importantly a mis-education of whom we are and where we come from as a people. In order to properly re-educate ourselves, we feel that by creating an awareness of who our ancestors were, beyond the moment they became slaves of this land, America, will create belonging, restore cultures, remove the feeling of being lost, and grant us the proper education we need.

Research will show that there are various programs that offer funding for DNA testing of people, animals, plants and more. On May 27, 2003 in the article, “Databank to Catalog African DNA,” msnbc.com staff reported of the GRAD Biobank project. The Grad Biobank project was designed to, “…trace the genetic factors behind diseases that disproportionately strike blacks”, through medical history and possibly DNA samples from 25,000 African Americans. There is also the Roots Project at UMASS Lowell which is a collaborative effort of Dr. Bruce Jackson of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Dr. Bert Ely of the University of South Carolina Department of Biological Sciences to reunite African-Americans with their ancestral roots in Africa. 

If these funds can be generated for such a cause, they can be generated for the same cause in linking those of us derivative of slavery. In the form of reparations, Congress should be willing to generate funding for the DNA testing of all offspring of slaves in the United States (and those born of this country who reside in another country).

This petition serves as a medium through which the people may express, through signatures, the agreement of the aforementioned statement. No offspring of a slave master, owner, trader or seller make up for the acts of their ancestors. However, if we as an African-American, Black or Negro people know where we come from, we may begin to recondition the mind of today’s generations and those to come. If we know from whence we belong to, we may restore our culture and pride in who we are and educate ourselves about our African lineage.

Contact Neena-Ta'Ree Allen at nt312@live.com for more information

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