Greetings Heather,
I-wombman will try to respond to your post sistren, although I have to say that it is very difficult to sort through your thoughts. It seems clear to I that you have been very hurt by many of the messages on this board, and perhaps because of this pain, you feel as though you must both defend yourself and lash out at others. This is just my impression, I-wombman do not mean to assume anything about you and am only able to interpret what I read here. I feel that your posts require some attention, because it seems clear that you still desire communication with InI.

Everything that I will write now, reflects only I humble opinions and limited overstanding. I do not position myself as an authority of any kind and can only offer what I have learned through my lived experiences and studies.

It must be very difficult for you, as a white woman, to sight an essentially Black livity within an essentially Black movement. The phenomemon of an international community of non-Black Rastafari is not something that InI elders seem to have anticipated.
As you must know, the early Rastafari movement in Jamaica was deeply rooted in an aggressive rejection of the historical domination of Arawak and Africans by the Spanish and especially by the British colonizers. In more academic terms I might describe Rastafari as a progressive liberation movement of Black people. His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah came to InI as the Black Living God, affirming the primacy of Ethiopia's ancient roots and history, and position in the forward movement of InI people of the African diaspora.
Rastafari dared to inspire, enable, support the process of decolonization in Jamaica in very tangible ways, providing and asserting for Black people in that country an alternative to emulating the white people who were directly responsible for their continued downpression. Rastafari sustained an oppositional consciousness in Jamaica and elsewhere when others dared not confront the British colonizers in any way. And many Rasta have been beaten, jailed, and murdered (and not only in Jamaica!) for daring to do so.
The Rastafari livity acts as a tremendous program of cultural decolonization (what has been popularly refered to as 'emancipation from mental slavery'). This process involves examining and re-examining oneself for any and all influences of the colonizer. It means un-learning the program of white supremacy and learning a way of life that overstands and celebrates the Black African for all of his/her greatness. It means embracing your Black self and other Black people when you have been taught to dislike your Black self and distrust your Black brothers and sisters. It means overstanding the institution of white supremacy and how it has wormed its way into your Black conscience and effected the way you SEE-inward and outward.

When ones who are not Black embrace such a movement, they must also be willing to engage in this complex self examination. They must KNOW that their motives will, for very good historically grounded reasons, be questioned and challenged by liberated Blacks. They must come to expect that they will be required by some Black people to "proove" that they are truly ready and willing to expose and then reject the priviledge with which they are marked by their white skin.
Quite frankly, they have to willing to put Blacks and the needs of Black people BEFORE themselves because that's what it is about--not about Black supremacy replacing white supremacy, but about Black liberation which necessarily occurs at the expense of white supremacy.

This is to be taken personally only to the extent that you share the skin colour of the downpressor. If you personally reject the priviledge assigned to you by the color of your skin, then when someone like Isciple challenges you to demonstrate how you have recognized and rejected that priviledge, be honest, look inward and reason about what you find! You do not have to answer for ALL white people and noone as far I can recall has called you a 'white demon' except yourself. The opportunity provided by Isciple's challenge is to demonstrate that a white person IS capable of introspection on the issue of racism. Race is the issue here, specifically racism against black people.

Heather, you wrote,

***again, in response to the responses, I think most can see their own errors, one of many false accusations is "please do not ask us to forget History" my reply is this: "I have never asked that, I would never have asked that and rosalind (hellooo? remember me, I know you fully well know deep down I am not asking that and never would, quite the opposite and you straight up know that too and so do others, so please don't even pretend for the sake of putting on a 'big show' - you do know otherwise, and I know you know otherwise, so what I want to know is what is behind all this other foolery that constantly gets in the way of any true reasonings?********

Again, it is difficult to follow what you are asking of I. It seems that you think that I was refering to you in a message that I posted about reparations in response to Ras Marcus.

In your message responding to the reasoning about reparations you provided a comparison between racism and sexism, suggesting that it would be ridiculous for all men to be forced to pay reparations to women. The implication was that "good men" shouldn't have to pay for the acts of misogynist men, and that women should not be suspicious of the motives of ALL men. You seemed to be saying that "good whites" shouldn't have to pay for the acts of racist whites, and that people of colour should not be suspicious of the motives of all whites.
I personally sight that ones and ones have taken offence to your deflection from the issue of racism by white people against Black people. In other messages you brought up the issues of European downpression against YOUR ancestors, and also of black and brown downpressors. But if you as a white person are to sight a movement for black liberation it is not about the oppression of you and your ancestors. I wombman sight direct questions asking you to self-examine, to sight racism by whites against Black people. Not because there is no other downpression, but because this is a reasoning board of the Rastafari movement for Black liberation.

Ras Marcus made the critical point that:

***In addition, the wealth which was made from slave trading activities, was used to sustain the children and great grand children, of those who invaded the continent of Mama Africa, and robbed her of her Natural and human resources. The wealth which was made from all these criminal activities, against African humanity, has been passed on from generation to generation among the European race of people, and there has been no correction made to date, for the grievious atrocities which have been committed against African people everywhere.****

I-wombman believe that this is the reason why reparation issue remains so significant, because Black peolple throughout the diaspora, and especially continental Africans continue to be victimized (at the very least disadvantaged) by the legacy of the slave trade. Obviously, financially, the descendents of slave plantation owners directly benefit while the descendents of slaves are directly disadvantaged. But on a more subtle level, white people benefit from a legacy of priviledge based on their skin colour-if you are white, you have been granted this priviledge no matter what else. Black people on the other hand, suffer the disadvantage of a legacy of downpression and racism, no matter what else. On a deeper level, we suffer the dislocation from our Mother home-land and our home-ways and for this reason are always strangers in a strange land no matter how many generations pass. Yes, we have adapted and coped, some have learned to be highly succesful in the European/North American context, but it is still the White, European/ North American context (that is, the Canadian and American context). For I, Rastafari is largely about redemption through conscious (mental/physical) repatriation of the African Diaspora back to Africa. This requires intense re-education, re-examination of Self and of the Other. The question of reparations is highly complex because it requires a change in the behaviour of the downpressors, and as Ras Marcus rightly pointed out, there has been not even so much as an apology to the continent of Africa and to her peoples. On the contrary, the division and conquering of Mother Africa at the hands of the Europeans, Canadians & Americans continues evermore. In fact, these "white countries" continue to exploit, downpress and create the conditions for genocide of people of colour all over the world.

My personal belief is that the people of these countries, through their governments, should be made to pay reparations. In fact, we should INSIST that our governments cease their imperialism, beg forgiveness AND pay reparations.

Heather, in this scenario, even Black people like myself, born in these (Euro, Canadian, American) countries, would be contributing to these reparations (i.e., through taxes). I am well aware that I have experienced priviledge as an American and Canadian, at the expense of Africans and other people of colour around the world!! I do not absolve myself of accounting for that priviledge just because I am Black or because I trod Rastafari.

Heather, I am on this message board seeking guidance and reasoning with InI bredren and sistren. I have never posted anything "for the sake of putting on a 'big show'" and sight that you have made such a statement about my intentions because you are trying to defend your own.
There is no need for you to address your defense to me, I-wombman have never posted anything challenging you in any way.
I overstand that you have been on the defensive for a while now, and have been made to feel that some here seriously question your sincerity and willingness to self-examine. I would suggest that you try another approach if indeed you do wish to overstand and reason with these Idren. Once upon a time there was a direct question asked of you by Disciple, something to do with priviledge. It was not a question about what you think about the oppression of women by men, or about the oppression of poor by rich, etc. I believe it was a question about YOUR white priviledge. I believe it was designed to stimulate your recognition and exploration of that priviledge. It is NOT to say that you are an awful, ingenuine person because you were born into that priviledge, it is to explore what that priviledge has meant in your life and how you came to want to reject that priviledge and join a movement for Black liberation that aims to dismantle that priviledge. If you have not fully examined the effects of white supremacy in your life, it is an invitation to do so, thoroughly, so that you can fully overstand what is at stake for a white person to claim affiliation with a Black liberation movement. The same can be said for those of us living in the "First World" countries, who must overstand the priviledge that we have and what it means to claim devotion to Mother Africa.

Heather, I wombman have been reading and thinking about your recent struggles on this board and am happy that I have now taken the time to reason with the I. I-wombman sight no negativity toward you sistren, and hope that you take my words as the humble offering they are meant to be.

Shem Hotep,
Blessed love.