The Case of Reparations

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.