Coates makes his case of the irreparable damages the dehumanization of African Americans caused by using historical context of how African Americans were treated. In section IV, Coates notes how at one point, Blacks and Whites joined forces. Some African Americans were free and were able to marry Whites. They escaped with White indentured servants. African Americans allied with Nathaniel Bacon. However, with the need for cheap labor, African American slaves were exploited for 250 years. In section V, Coates describes the consequences for this., and the irreparable damages it has caused. America relied on African American labor, and many people didn’t want to lose it. After the Civil War, terrorism wreaked havoc upon the South, crushing dreams of Reconstruction. African Americans were discriminated against for a long period of time. Segregation created created separate black ghettos, as described in section VI, and redlining destroyed the possibility of investment wherever African Americans lived.
3 thoughts on “The Case for Reparations”
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America’s reliance on African American labor in the past and the incriminating behavior towards the black community afterwards makes me so annoyed and angry. The black community have experienced this form of injustice for decades and the fact that they are still facing discrimination just proves Alexander’s statement that the racial caste system in American is redesigned.
You have a great claim with even better evidence to back it up. You did a good job of giving historical examples of how African Americans were treated to prove the irreparable damage done to them. I like how you mentioned redlining because this is a big part in African Americans being treated unfairly. It is morally and lawfully not fair if a neighborhood filled primarily with African Americans is redlined when they have the same house value and average income per person as a white neighborhood.
Your response really highlights the significance of problems in the black community back then and how it really defected them for decades to follow. They aren’t seen as a person, but rather as a thing, and they do everything to use that individual, or “thing” to maximize self benefit.