Black organizations have been created to assist African Americans in realizing their dream to enjoy their rights as freed citizens, including the right to vote, the right to obtain justice, and ultimately, the right to achieve equality of opportunity. "Slavery's aftermath ... deserve[s] to be met with the same sense of public penance that the nation eventually applied to its wartime failures in having imprisoned Japanese-Americans and in ignoring evidence of the Holocaust in Germany." Unfortunately, "white" skin continues to open doors in the U.S. for Whites because dominance has been conferred on them. Whites continue to enjoy unearned skin privileges because

1. [They] can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that [they] got it because of race.

2. [They] can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of [their] race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places [they] have chosen.

3. Whether [they] issue checks, credit cards, or cash, [they] can count on [it that their] skin color will not work against the appearance of financial reliability.

Obliviousness about White advantage and Black disadvantage is kept strongly inculturated in the U.S. in order to maintain the meritocracy myth. They are constantly being challenged because they are used as a pretext for not opening doors of opportunity to African Americans. Like South Africa, America needs to unite the country and courageously accept the undeniable truth that cruel acts were committed against its former slaves, later its ex-slave citizens, and now the children and grandchildren of these ex-slave citizens. African Americans, the descendants of ex-slaves, may not have direct recollection of the specific cruelties, but they have faced severe limitations as a result of years of de facto practices and de jure laws that affected their liberties and unfortunately persisted for many, many years.

"The United States government is a continuous, living body that must be held accountable for all its previous actions and make amends for past mistakes." After the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the U.S. allowed its [White] citizens to continue to exploit and destroy a people; as a result, "it owes them" because the effects of this exploitation continue. As late as 1995, a UN report estimated that American Whites would lead the world in well-being if they were a separatenation, but African Americans would rank 27th worldwide. It is interesting to note that the report's measures were based on life expectancy, educational achievement, and income.

"Full equality still is a distant prospect in the United States." Nonetheless, some have decided to assist in the move toward equality. In 2000, Chicago became the fifth city to endorse national hearings on reparations, and in 2001, the California Legislative Assembly joined the list making California the forerunner of all the states. California's Resolution urges "Congress to apologize to Black Americans for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery."'

The reparations cry is definitely gathering momentum. "America will continue to be haunted by slavery [and its aftermath] until the government makes amends" and addresses the issue because "the truth is quite crucial to the process of reconciliation." This process would allow the U.S. to "shut the door on that past." This may be a past that we may not want to remember, but remember we must. An apology must come. The nation must send a message to its citizens that will lead to racial harmony. "The debate over slavery reparations should be viewed as a means toward improving race relations." We must resist allowing the public to turn the issue into "a shouting match about paychecks and forty acres." "America will continue to be haunted by slavery until the governmentmakes amends beginning with a formal apology."

[a1]. Interim Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.