Category: Blog 11/4

Coates writes about how ironic it was that America was built on the basis of freedom and independence yet many of the people who made it up to what it is today were slaves who had neither independence or freedom. He even writes about how badly African Americans were treated as they were used for free labor and inferior for their skin color. So many rules were created to keep African American’s status below that of a White Person, as the divisions in society were based off of race rather than class. Slaves were used for cotton plants, an important financial American asset, and became property that was taxed, sold and bought, rather than human beings. Many African American families, with children and women, were slaughtered or separated making it nearly impossible for them to ever have the chance at a good life. Slaves shaped what the United States is today and left a great impact on the country. This impact can still be seen due to many reasons such as the existence of the KKK . As the dream of reconstruction was not lived up to, African Americans had to deal with the burning of their churches, homes and racist programs created to hurt them. During Cold War America, as African Americans started moving into white neighborhoods, they were put at a disadvantage since many neighbors and home sellers did not want their house values going down due to the racist stereotypes pinned against them. Places like Chicago had, “residential neighborhoods in the city were effectively off-limits to blacks.” The ghetto was one of the few areas that African Americans were allowed to live in or near. White neighbors hate crimed their fellow black neighbors and rioted until they had a ‘perfectly’ white neighborhood once again. I think that Coates main argument is just about how terrible African Americans were treated for their skin color, and how they were segregated against for no reason. Even doctors or business people who were black were treated like trash showing what a huge role racial divisions played during that time.

Coates presents his case in a very straightforward manner. He talks about the oppression and discrimination the black community faced during slavery then proceeds to move forward in history towards segregation. He then begins to discuss how the color of a person skins devalues property which pushes the message forward for reparations for the black community. Furthermore, he conveys the message that they were portrayed as lower class citizens compared to white people and this set financial barriers on what a black person could achieve during that period. Then he describes the awful involvement of white people demonstrating severe violence towards black ownership of a property. Moreover, Coates mentions the lack of opportunity black individuals faced and how redlining really destroyed potential investments wherever black people lived. This is a true insight into how much of a struggle the black community faced and why he feels it is necessary to use this history to ensure that America will progress from this moment and will strive to be better.

Coats gets his message across perfectly, just by reading a couple sentences you can see how upset he is at the fact that the people in America owe black people all those years of slavery and of mistreatment. It’s like America is in debt to the African American people but no one is talking about this and top of all that people need to see the abuse that these African American people went through and it’s crazy to think that there is still people out there have this same mentality.  White people during the segregation time would do anything to leave the black people with nothing, they pushed them out of there homes and even there jobs, I think coats message overall is that America owes African American people because of what they put them through.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a brilliant writer with many impressive arguments, but I think the point he makes in his “Case for Reparations” may be one of his most brilliant, because of the way it uses the arguments against reparations to prove his point. I think he and I would agree that the most common arguments against reparations are the financial impracticality of attempting to pay back every African American who has suffered under the oppression in America and the idea that we need to just forget about debts owed and move forward. While there is some credibility to noting the financial impracticality of it, the idea that we need to just let it be in the past is absurd, and Coates does a brilliant job of proving that. His point is essentially this: You cannot talk about leaving these problems in the past when they still exist in the present. It is impossible to pretend that the many forms of oppression against the black community throughout America’s history have not had a lasting effect in the present and probably the future. So Coates’s question is this: If the unfairness of the past is affecting the future, why shouldn’t something be done to make it fair? I think perhaps his most effective point regarding this is when he speaks of the redlining in Chicago neighborhoods that have created modern day segregation. Because of the oppression in the past the economic chances of black people is being affected today. Since that is the case, something must be done to fix it, and the best possible way to fix economic chances is quite simply money; money in the form of reparations. How those reparations are used, distributed, or who they are sent to is all up for debate, but whether they happen or not, according to Coates, shouldn’t be.

Black people in America have always been presented with a disadvantage and the author of this article knows this. Coates goes through a thorough history of black oppression, starting way back in the early 17th century when slaves were a large part of the foundation of English colonies, all the way to fire bombings and racial discrimination present in the mid-1950s. However, Coates wanted to focus more on the stigma of “White America” throughout the course of American history and how it influenced black living. One thing I especially noticed was her use of imagery to further propel the message of a racial hierarchy and how it was normally accepted in society. There was one powerful image of a crowd of white people surrounding a lynched body; the context behind was part of a series of racist attacks that occurred at the beginning of the roaring ’20s in South America. It captivated the issue and summarized well this attitude of neglecting black communities all because it was the norm back then. Unfortunately, the effects of these series of racial attacks still linger into our society today.

Coates presents many points in his writing, “The Case for Reparations”. He talks about how the system set black people up to fail. It all began during slavery times and are still in place till this day. He states that the men who came together and founded America promised freedom and equality for all. But in fact America began in “Black plunder and White democracy”. He then goes to say that black people were “plundered of their bodies, plundered of their families, and plundered of their labor”.  The slaves were used to profit America and in the end led America and whites to be successful. Slavery played a big role in the income of white people while blacks were forced to work for free. When Black people were freed from slavery, White people set the governmental system up against them. Black people did not have the luxuries that whites had and they had to work much harder to get something than a white person. Segregation was forced unto black people and it made it hard for them to live in the suburbs or in homes just as white people did. The banks would deny them loans simply because they were black. Being black and owning a home where whites lived lowered the value of other whites homes. Anytime a black person was able to live in a suburb or an area that whites lived they were harassed until they moved out. They would destroy their property and even harm them and nothing was done about it. Black people did not the have the opportunities that white people did. The system was set up against them and when they were able to achieve certain luxuries they were not allowed to have it because of the racism they dealt with. All of these things which were set up against black people still affect them today in America. Predominantly white neighborhoods are higher value and are typically upper middle class or the upper class. Predominantly Black neighbors are lower value and are typically middle class or below. Although the system has changed somewhat black people are still affected by the earlier system and still the current system. The earlier system already did damage on blacks and the damage was never undone. Because it was never fixed and black people were never given reparations black people are still faced with some of the same issues and are stuck where they were left off.

Coates makes his claim that after “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy.” America needs to repay its debt to the African American community or it will remain divided. He provides a plethora of evidence ranging from 1619 to the 1950s. He explains the abuse, slaves endured under slavery. Many families were sold off and divided, slave owners desired to “breed” slaves, and they were abused physically and emotionally. He talks about how even after slavery “ended”, they were regarded as second class citizens under Jim Crow and many policies enacted during that time was made to lift up poor white citizens while keeping black citizens down. During the mid-20th century, cities, like Chicago, attempted to segregate black and white homeowners, which created ghettos. These cities enacted policies that made it difficult for black citizens to buy houses. White homeowners claimed that if there were black citizens in the neighborhood the property value is decreased which is also why black citizens were pushed out. Coates’s article shows that black citizens should receive reparations as the racism/slavery never ended, it just took different forms as the years went on.