Here's why I believe this.

With direct-action, education and financial-divestment campaigns, town-hall meetings and congressional hearings resulting in a conversion in public interest and opinion, the institution of chattel enslavement will be acknowledged publicly as a crime against humanity - in another word, a holocaust.

I use the word holocaust as Dr. Maulana Karenga, the founder of Kwanzaa, defines it: "A morally monstrous act of genocide that is not only against the people themselves, but also a crime against humanity."

The holocaust of enslavement expresses itself in three basic ways: "The morally monstrous destruction of human life, human culture and human possibility."

The election of Barack Obama will increase the likelihood that HR 40 - a bill that would set up a congressional study to determine the impact of the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery on blacks in America - will be passed. It will form the basis of a reparations accord for blacks in America. When HR 40 is passed and sent to the White House, President Obama will sign it.

If the reader says, "No way, this will never happen," and that the "enslavement process of blacks was so long, long ago" and, therefore, "blacks should get over it, deal with it and move on," you should consider the math that Ezrah Aharone presents in his book, "Pawned Sovereignty." He uses America's official version of history that enslavement of Africans in America began in 1619 and was abolished in 1865.

"Blacks spent 246 years in captivity. Since it is now 2008, blacks have been so-called 'free' for only 143 years." This means that 100 years of so-called "freedom" (1865-1965) were spent self-repairing the damage wrought by enslavement. Even today, blacks as a group, are still economically impacted by the vestiges of chattel slavery and are still seeking recognition as equal humans.

So, of the 389 years in America, blacks have been out of enslavement and segregation for only 43 years!

An educated society will understand that during the 100 years from the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Act of 1965, crimes against humanity were covered up and generations miseducated.

This coverup was known as the "code of silence," or "no-talk rule," put in effect by James DeWolf, of Bristol, R.I., the largest slave trader in U.S. history.

For these reasons and more, the issue is no longer should reparations be paid to blacks, but what should be the elements of the reparations accord. This will be the "take away" for those attending the 2008 Annual Conference of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, today through Sunday at Florida International University in Miami.

Obama, change and the reparations movement are about making America better.

Yes we can! *

Minister Ari S. Merretazon is a board member and Northeast representative of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA).