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.
2 thoughts on “The Case for Reparations”
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While reading your analysis of Coates argument I came to a realization. I never really understood how much economic mobility had to do with the segregation of African American people in this country. After reading this, I understand the financials and the lack there of in the black community is one of the biggest tools used by the white community to suppress black people. By using this tool they are able to leave the African Americans economically and socially stagnant. This not only limits their potential for equality, but setting their children down a harder path for reaching equality. Thank you for bringing this side of the argument to my attention.
It’ll be very difficult for there to be a perfect reparations system for the African American community. Some will feel that what they are given isn’t enough considering all the racism and torture their ancestors went through, but some will argue that no reparations should be given because nobody in the U.S in this lifetime actually went through slavery, even though they still face racism and discrimination. Seeing how the U.S continues to treat their minority groups and the fact that millions were affected by slavery, I don’t think, as of yet, African Americans will receive the reparations they desire.