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.