American Descendants of Slavery is a lineage-focused political movement that seeks to advocate for people who are descendants of the enslaved Africans in America from its colonial period onward. It focuses on the difference between African Americans whose ancestors were slaves and those whose ancestors were not, calling for the descendants of slaves to be given priority over other African Americans and to have their own racial classification. They believe that the differences are enough to establish different ethnicities between the groups and that descendants of slaves are disadvantaged compared to other African Americans. Their skepticism concerning immigration has attracted criticism and the suggestion that they are dividing African Americans and targeting Democrats. One of its founders, Yvette Carnell, was a board member of "Progressives for Immigration Reform", described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-immigration group.
History
American Descendants of Slavery are the descendants of enslaved Africans, their captors, and the original inhabitants of the North American continent during the time of chattel slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. They are descendants of at least one ancestor who was forced into slavery within the established colonies in North America during the time of chattel slavery. The term "descendants of slavery" was originally coined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights era in the United States of America. The addition of 'American' within the term is used to establish specificity. "American Descendants of Slavery" refers specifically to the descendants of the enslaved people held in captivity in North America during the initial establishment of the United States. ADOS cannot trace their ancestral roots to any specific country or tribe on the continent of Africa. Their African ancestors were sold into human trafficking by African traders on the continent who made a profit from selling their enemies and other unfortunate people to European traffickers.
The ADOS political movement
The movement intends to correct the view of outsiders by using statistical and historical data and evidence to speak to the reality of modern life for ADOS, whose lives have been impacted heavily by social and economic struggles created by chattel slavery, segregation and Jim Crow, the practice of Red Lining, convict leasing, mass incarceration, and discrimination still found in various forms within the structure of the American political and economic system today. The group continues the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the continued fight for social and economic justice as it demands reparative justice and the opportunities they have historically been denied within America. As ADOS explains on its policy page, the group key objective is for reparations for the descendants of slaves who were held in captivity in the United States as well as a larger Black agenda that demands a "New Deal for Black America." This agenda includes but not limited to lineage-specific set-asides for American descendants of chattel slavery, restoration of the protections of the Voting Rights Act, a minimum of 15 percent of Small Business Association loans be distributed ADOS businesses, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan targeted to ADOS communities along with financial compensation for benign neglect of those communities by the Environmental Protection Agency and federal government, comprehensive prison reform and rehabilitation, a refocused oversight and enforcement for ADOS economic inclusion from American banks, and ADOS college debt forgiveness and health care coverage. Supporters of ADOS push the issue on social media with the hashtag #ADOS, a hashtag which the New York Times reported has been used by Trump supporters. As a movement that draws value from the use of social media, "#ADOS...sets out to shift the dialogue around the identity of what it is to be African American in an effort to move the discussion from melanin" to the lineage of an American population whose ancestors built the wealth of the United States. The group has received support from conservatives including Ann Coulter who tweeted "I like #ADOS, but I think it should be #DOAS — Descendants of American slaves. Not Haitian slaves, not Moroccan slaves", and criticism from the left.
Founders of the ADOS Political Movement
The American Descendants of Slavery movement was founded by Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore. Carnell runs a weekly political show called "BreakingBrown" and has been an aide two Democratic politicians, Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Robert Marion Berry. Moore has been a writer for the progressive think tank the Institute for Policy Studies and for the Huffington Post. He was also the producer of the investigative documentary 'Freeway Crack in The System' which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Long Form.
