Category: Blog

In section IV-VI, Coates presents the argument that through the dehumanization of African Americans during the integral stages of America’s development, there is an immense amount of irreversible damage that needs to be acknowledged. In Section IV, he establishes that both poor whites who were indentured servants and African American slaves had similar amounts of rights and were both looked down upon by the Elitist groups. Eventually it was realized that indentured servants had too many legal protections, and with African Americans being “aliens” they became free rein to turn into property. This is the point in history when the Black vs White mantra was instilled in America. African Americans no longer had any value as people and were treated horribly; There was no regard for family or life, but instead insurance policies to benefit the white man in case their slaves were no longer useable.

After the Civil War when slaves were freed, white supremacists still did everything they could to hold the African American population down and discriminate upon them. Bills such as “The G.I. Bill”, kept African Americans from having the same privileges as whites, and painted the clear picture that no matter what this country was not made for you and will continue to be this way. For years it was still purposely made a hurdle for African Americans to own property, yet they still blamed the “colored man” for being at fault to not live up to the standards of the white man.

All of these actions have affected Black American’s lives up to today creating the argument for “The Case for Reparations”. As Coates stated “Today Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country, a fact that reflects assiduous planning.” The zoning of cities by race and years of putting a group of people down to live in impoverished conditions has made it hard and even impossible for a large majority of people to escape the subservient conditions that existed since the beginning of this country’s formation.

Throughout his writing, Coates describes just exactly how much suffering and discrimination African-Americans in the country have faced. From being torn away from their family, to being sold as commodities, to being refused entry and loans, and many many more. To top it off, African-Americans still in this day and age have an extremely hard time receiving treatments that their white counterparts would receive. Clyde Ross, being one example, has faced a lifetime of discrimination despite never having doing anything wrong to draw the enmity he experienced. By 10 years old, Ross’s family had been exploited by the landowners with the sales of the bales, lost the horse with the red coat, and lived under the constant threat of being killed. Even as Ross grew up and started integrating himself into society, when attempting to buy a house he was cheated out with an undesirable contract. He was tricked into signing “a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting—while offering the benefits of neither.”

It should be noted that, Ross’s experience is among one of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands. African-Americans were often taken advantaged of by white realtors. They were forced into unfavorable terms and often left with no option but to live in neighborhoods that were undeveloped. Many realtors also prevented many African-Americans from moving into neighborhoods that were predominantly white because they feared they would decrease the values of the properties. If this does not lay the grounds for the need for reparations, nothing would. The treatment many African-Americans received is simply inexcusable.

Coates in the passage of “The Case for Reparations” makes a resounding argument about the facade of separation. His goal is to illustrate that no matter what people try to scapegoat as the reason for discriminations is, it all leads back to black and white. To portray this argument he compared the poor white man to the black slave, and their progression over time. They had similar tasks and similar points in society, but their improvement was significantly different. If anything at one point the Slaves degreased as poor white men were granted citizenship and right to bear arms. Thus, pushing the racial gap even bigger as the threshold for blacks to gain rights seemed to grow larger. All the dreams that Americans had for equality ,during the reconstruction era after the civil war, went out the window as klansman, white liners and red shirts seized the opportunity to terrorize black people. By doing this, they dehumanized African Americans and made them feel as though no progress had been maid, regardless of all their fighting. This essentially depicts the picture that Coates is painting. No matter the amount of improvement made, separation of black and white people seems to be an everlasting theme that people do not want to truly let go of.

In sections 4, 5, and 6, Coates gives the readers a history lesson on the struggles and tough times faced by the African American community. He uses an informative style of writing to educate and trigger the reader’s emotions at the same time. In his writing, there is no bias or agenda involved, just facts, which in turn enables him to retain any reader’s attention. He defends every claim he makes with various forms of historical evidence, also helping him get his points across. The evidence he uses varies from testimonials, visuals, statistics, and recorded dialogue. For example, the testimonial from Henry Brown and visuals such as the lynching and the journal, were some forms of evidence which Coates used to trigger the emotions of the reader. By striking the reader’s emotions with his evidence, Coates was able to retain our attention, thus enabling him to continue informing us on his “case”.

This just as the article where it compares the incarceration system to the Jim Crow laws relays the message of how these power structures have never disappeared but renamed themselves. Coate makes this case through giving different but interrelated perspectives giving insights from slaves who had to undergo slavery. Through this, we are able to see the pain and anxiety slave families felt of fear of being separated from their family. Coates then leads us to see the rate whites were exploiting blacks, slaves being responsible for millions of the United State’s revenue. Slave trading actually being an industry within itself. Then, Coates brings us to showing us modern day redlining within Chicago while explicitly having the same laws, but the same implications. I thought that redlining has now evolved in Chicago, the strategy of these white home owners aiming to be insufferable to live with. It is surprising that these blatant acts of discrimination are unnoticed and unpunished hence, history repeating itself.

Coates makes his case of African Americans always being mistreated unfairly either through law or society by showcasing a timeline of events that especially hindered African American growth and integration into society.

Coates goes as far back to slavery to showcase the unfair start that African Americans had in American society. Coates summed up their situation the best when he said, “Whereas indentured servants were still legal subjects of the English crown and thus entitled to certain protections, African slaves entered the colonies as aliens. Exempted from the protections of the crown, they became early America’s indispensable working class—fit for maximum exploitation, capable of only minimal resistance”. African Americans were thus not given any rights, discriminated against within laws, and were stripped away from basic human necessities/fundamentals, one important one being family ties. African Americans were often separated from their wives and children, thus “the parting of black families was a kind of murder”, due to the lack of telecommunications at the time, especially for African Americans back then.

Coates then takes us to a time when slavery was abolished, but discrimination towards African Americans persisted. This came in the form of African Americans being denied the right to secure any loans from banks and denied the right to own a house. Certain deals and organizations such as “The New Deal” and “The G.I. Bill”, were shaped in a way that prevented African Americans getting the same benefits as white Americans. These dealings were influenced by earlier American sentiment and public guidelines/treatment that painted African Americans as not worthy of being treated the same as White Americans. An example of this being, “The American real-estate industry believed segregation to be a moral principle. As late as 1950, the National Association of Real Estate Boards’ code of ethics warned that “a Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood … any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values””.

The long, lasting effects of these acts can be seen through certain neighborhoods such as when, “By the 1940s, Chicago led the nation in the use of these restrictive covenants, and about half of all residential neighborhoods in the city were effectively off-limits to blacks”. Chicago was able to build “second ghettos” in black neighborhoods and thus enforced even more segregation within the city due to the lack of appeal and quality in them.

Coates thus shows that African Americans were denied equal treatment all throughout American history, thus connotes to the fact that African Americans should be reparated for the wrong doings that have been done to them over the course of American history.

Throughout these few parts, Coates discussed the hardships of African Americans in terms of fitting in with the white population in the United States . Coates goes into extraordinary detail about how whites were being hypocritical and colonizing African Americans, when not too long ago, they themselves were being colonized by the British. One quote that I was very saddened to read was one by John Wilkes Booth right before he killed Abe Lincoln. “This country was formed for the white, not for the black man”. This quote doesn’t need any explanation and this is the problem that has continued up until this day. Coates also stresses the fact that an entire war fought just because whites didn’t want to treat African Americans the right way. Another point that is stressed in the article is that the system was meant to put whites to an advantage. This is very wrong and sadly is the case in the world today, which needs to change.

Through sections 4-6, Coates makes his claim about how impossible it was for African Americans to assimilate into American culture by presenting a chronological timeline. He begins with writing about the beginnings of America and how the whites, who were once colonized, began to colonize Africans. Coates brought up more historical evidence by referencing specific laws that that dehumanized black people to “untouchables”. For example, “In 1705, the Virginia assembly passed a law allowing for the dismemberment of unruly slaves—but forbidding masters from whipping “a Christian white servant naked, without an order from a justice of the peace.” Slaves were not considered living individuals but were merely treated as property needed for economic gains. He later writes about the countless injustices faced by African Americans, even after slavery was abolished. Using more historical evidence: “Eric Foner recounts incidents of black people being attacked for not removing their hats; for refusing to hand over a whiskey flask; for disobeying church procedures; for “using insolent language”; for disputing labor contracts; for refusing to be “tied like a slave.” and “Black schools and churches were burned to the ground. Black voters and the political candidates who attempted to rally them were intimidated, and some were murdered.” The system was built to favor the white man over the black man: there was no room possible for blacks to grow. That can be seen through all of the evidence presented by Coates, and it is even present in today’s society. Black people were consistently denied privileges, even the most simple ones such as home ownership.

For my research topic and question, I wanted to focus on the correlation that rap music has with the crime and murder rates in the cities from where the rappers are. Now, this seems a bit vague but I wanted to zone in on the way that rap music inevitably has an effect on the crime scene in the cities because of the things that rappers are known for rapping about. For example, of course, there are exceptions but there can be a general consensus that most of the scenes in today’s NY rap/hip-hop music is drill music, with we know figures like Pop Smoke, Fivio Foreign, and as well as even Drake. However, their lyrics are general vulgar and speak about smoking, guns, drugs, money, and overall the gang life that is affecting NYC today. These artists are extremely popular and teens growing up even looking up to these rappers and what they say in their songs. This turns into a  cycle where they want to replicate this life that is glamorized by the money that the very popularity of the rappers’ songs brings! and even deeper into it, these record labels are making bank off these drill rappers because they are so popular, yet it puts NYC into a cycle where it seems as if the crime rates are stagnant or increasing; anything but decreasing in al honestly.