Reparations for Black Americans

In many countries, including several on the African continent, women are still considered men’s property, and have as much rights as a chicken or cow. Some American men are presently striving to return the U.S. to those glorious times, most notably George Bush and his anti-choice buddies.

If any group of people deserve reparations, women do. We’ve been in slavery for as long as there has been humanity. Through a biological selection over which we have no control, we are made female, a word that means subservience to men, inferior to men and controlled by men.

For all the steps forward women have made, we still are not accepted as people. When men don’t know I am listening, I hear their thoughts laid bare. Women are either “babes” or “dogs”; there is no middle ground. But I suppose this is easier to take than being forced to dress like a cloth-draped pyramid, forbidden to drive a car and totally at the mercy of the men in your life.

ANNIE CAROLINE SCHULER

West Hollywood