Black Americans may be entering a time of "demanding our due!" Black actors, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, proudly swept the Oscars on March 28, 2002. Although the Awards didn't go to Denzel for "Malcolm" or to Halle for her portrayal of Dorothy Dandridge or even to Sidney Poitier for "Cry the Beloved Country," it was time for our "due". "We applaud these awards, but we should not lose sight of the fact that Hollywood still does not 'get it' when it comes to images of people of color," states Mary Smith, co-founder of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, began 30 years ago in Oakland to recognize the contributions of Black actors and film makers. Last year Hollywood released almost 500 films with Blacks buying 25% of all movie tickets

"Demanding our due" has borne no greater reality than the reparations federal class-action lawsuit filed March, 2002 in New York on behalf of all African American descendants of slaves. The lawsuit seeks compensation from existing companies for profits earned through slave labor and the slave trade. "Any damages recovered would be put into a fund to improve health, education and housing opportunities for Blacks," states Roger Wareham, one of the attorneys filing the lawsuit. The suit states that there are as many as 1000 companies still benefiting from free slave labor such as railroad giant, CSX Corporation, on the construction of its railroads. Similarly, FleetBoston Financial Group, a defendant in the lawsuit, had predecessors that financed slave ships and the slave traders. Similarly, FleetBoston Financial Group, a defendant in the lawsuit, had predecessors that financed slave ships and the traders. Further substantiating the profits on slaves, Katrina Brown is producing a new documentary, "Traces of the Trade," that narrates the slave trade of the DeWolfs of New England. The DeWolfs owned about 50 ships that brought thousands of enslaved Africans to the Americas. And, New York is quite the appropriate place to file a lawsuit since at one time only South Carolina had more slaves than New York, obliterating the myth that slavery was entirely the sin of the South.

Now with the filing of the lawsuits, the debate over reparations has moved to the national spotlight becoming a hot-button issue, extending the dialogue on affirmative action and manifesting broad reactions from African Americans. On Wednesday, April 23 California Governor Gray Davis, meeting with Rev. Jesse Jackson at a Silicon Valley Roundtable for minority businesses, indicated his concurrence that reparations should be considered resulting in the San Francisco Chronicle receiving 800 angry e-mails opposing his comments. To the south, famed Los Angeles attorney, Johnnie Cochran, has organized a law firm to focus on reparations for Blacks.

But where many of us "missed the boat" here in California, was revealed in the announcement in April of this year that the IRS has paid out $30 million in reparations claims. In 2001 alone, the IRS received 80,000 returns from African Americans claiming more than $2.7 billion in false reparation refunds. The IRS and the Justice Department are moving quickly, however, to stop those African Americans who feel justified in "demanding our due."