Throughout this text the author, Coates, discusses how African Amercians have suffered over the years. By using stories, and quotes from former slaves he builds up a very strong argument about what is owed to the African American community because of all the horrific things they went through. The author states in section 4 all of the facts of how slavery came to be, the extremtly harsh work they were forced to do, and the trauma of being forcefully speraerated from there families. A point that was really strong in this text was how in section 5 he discusses how slaves were seen as a luxury to white people, and white people viewed them as buying a piece of property, like they weren’t even humans at all. How black individuals and their family would decrease the overall value of the houses or properties they lived next to, they weren’t even allowed to own houses to begin with and if they wanted loans, etc, they would be declined because of the fact that they weren’t seen as humans. They were sadly treated as such. As these topics are discussed throughout the text, it gives insight into how he supports his argument with valid evidence.
I completely agree with your claim. Coates created a strong argument about what is owed to the African American community because of all the atrocities White Americans put them through by using the accounts of former slaves. Slaves were seen not as humans, but as property, and they deserved basic human rights.
Really nice insight and I completely agree with them . Blacks were so discriminated and looked down upon to the point they weren’t considered human, but property, so to blacks, they really have no one to turn to, since if they are property, what they think, their feelings are all disregarded.
Hi Bella, I like your take on this topic very much. One thing that i enjoyed was the emphasis on the treatment of African Americans and how that fits into the case for reparations. I liked how much you went into detail with your case and how carefully you examined each point. Good job!
I agree with you on the point that one of his main points was how whites were using saves as pure property! they didn’t even see them as human beings, it was like they were literally buying furniture. the author makes this a huge part of his argument, great work!