Reparations: African Americans Justice

Nobody questions the fact that slavery has been the cause of pain for many people and families. What is in question is how to mend this pain. Have the ancestors of American slaves experienced troubles directly resulting from the actions of slavery that deserve reparations? Are the ancestors of slave owners experiencing prosperity that should be redistributed? Although slavery has been illegal in America for 143 years, the controversy over slavery reparations continue to cause controversy to this day.

In his paper “The Case for Reparations,” Coates argues that the social, economic, and political injustices against black people in America have compounded since the colonial periods. Moreover, even after slavery and segregation have ended, the conditions leave many black communities on an uneven playing field today. To even out that playing field, Coates argues in his response to these social injustices that, they (which refers to the black people) need reparations from the government, just like how the government has done to the Japanese descendent American citizens.

If the United States government were to support the reparations to the descendents of African American slaves it would be an admitting of their responsibility. This is an issue that the United States government does not want to bring back to the forefront. To them, slavery is an occurrence in history such as the Vietnam War, which is not easy to tell about without editing. What is done is done, and bringing up possibilities of any type of reparation would stir up a negative outlook on government, even if trying to make amends.

Slavery still affects the African American community to this day, creating a social divide between races through the belief reparations are due from the horrible events of the past. Reparations would still need to be given to African Americans for the inhuman treatment of their past ancestors, and the social inequality that followed after the Union’s victory of the Civil War. The United States repaying African Americans for their horrible past would bring justice to the those who actually faced the effects of slavery. While reparations seem like a sensible way to pay back the African American community, people have argued they no longer deserve this repayment. Since current African Americans have not lived through the hardships of their ancestors,

Slavery and the Jim Crow Era have long since passed, and you would think that racism should have ended then; yet it did not. Racism is something that still exists today, even though many people try to turn a blind eye to it thinking that it is going to go away. In the article “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates makes an argument about how African-Americans should receive reparations for everything that they have had to endure, but he does not give a clear answer on how to go about it. In the article, Coates talks about how racism is at the core of all the reparations that the government has tried to make, and these programs are only hurting African-Americans instead of helping them.

In Coates’ piece of writing, A Case of Reparations, he states that reparation is a means of full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences, and is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely; ' 'Perhaps no statistic better illustrates the enduring legacy of our country 's shameful history of treating black people as sub-citizens, sub-Americans, and sub-humans than the wealth gap. Reparations would seek to close this chasm. ' ' There are three major aspects in Coates’ article that have caught my attention: the stories of unknown people who are alive today, emphasis on black works establishing wealth, and the lack of emphasis on emotional harms of discrimination (Ben Mathis-Lilley, slate.com). Having read this article concerning his arguments for reparations and citing the history of oppression, I am writing to express my opinion towards his assertion that justice should finally be served to people of color with a form of compensatory payment. Although he composes several arguments in which supports his declaration, I have to partially agree with it. Yes, there must be amends towards black people for shaping, and maybe even building, this country, but there are other matters that require our attention to a great extent like world hunger, sex trafficking or sexual misconduct, extreme poverty, and/or hopelessness. Despite being the biggest

Ta-Nehisi Coates used clear and convincing evidence in supporting in his case for paying reparations to African-Americans. Coates argues that American society has established different types of social, political and economic standards that deprived African-American of the opportunities to fully participate in the fulfillment of the so-called “American Dream.”

Until the the civil rights movement in the 1960s African Americans dealt with public segregation and discrimination.This means that it is not just slaves that suffered from slavery, it is also African Americans today making the descent of slavery to receive reparation relevant.The demand for reparations does not mean anti-white Americans or any individuals, rather it is request for American government and society to pay the damage they have caused. The government previous efforts to address socio economic problem of African American are too little and have not shown much improvement in the lives of African Americans. Reparations will not cause African Americans dependency on white Americans. Instead it will give individual African Americans and the community a way to better their

In “The case for reparations,” Coates argues that African Americans have been taken advantage of for centuries. During this time the government took their labor, civil rights, and basic human rights too far. He argues that they were also robbed of equal treatment even after desegregation. Coates blames the government and says they are responsible for compensation of generations of Americans being discriminated against. Especially with discrimination still occurring in places such as the school system, judicial system and other market areas after desegregation. Coates talks about a lot in this essay. He talks about a planned black oppression, in which white Americans are the ones who directly benefit. He also addresses that this remains tragically still unresolved. He chooses the argument that nuclear family is a cure for black poverty. Coates was wise to focus on the evils of slavery and more on the ways in with African Americans have been walked over for the last 150 years. He truly chose a very powerful argument, that is going to turn heads no matter which way you choose to look at it. I see the slavery side of Coates argument, but I do not agree with him. I think the government did play a big role in how African Americans were treated, but is not to blame for the whole issue. The government can choose to control private institutions, federal laws and private banks, and yes allowed this issue to go on for far too long. But the government cannot control our everyday

Many individuals believe that reparations will bring good to the black community and others believe that this will bring conflict to America. Some black community says that reparations is a way to silence and strip the identity of a black individual. This was the same argument during the Holocaust. According to Coates (2014),

Every time the black community steps up in society, everyone else is already two steps ahead of them. Reparations are long overdue for Black Americans. Not in a sum of money, but in something that can benefit all Black Americans for years to come, and help black communities gain more equality. Helping underfunded schools with sizable black populations, increasing arts and music, science and technology program budgets, as well as providing extra support in every way possible is a start for the deprivation the black communities have

The debate over whether reparations are due to African Americans for the injustice of slavery and the racial inequalities present in our current society has grown over the past years. Problems like housing, jobs, and overall discrimination vastly affect the African American population. This has caused a lot of controversy, as many believe that they deserve compensation for the hardships they constantly have to go through. This debate has become more popular in prior years, but nobody has gone as far as John Conyers, who introduced a bill by the name of H.R. 40 to the House of Representatives in 1989. The bill has not yet been passed, but has gained support during the past decade. H.R. 40 calls for the creation of a committee to examine

Rogerick Kirby Professor Leigh Campbell-Hale American History TR 11:00 A.M May 3, 2017 Learning from Our Past and Building a Promising Future “By our unpaid labor and suffering, we have earned the right to the soil, many times over and over, and now we are determined to have it” (ANONYMOUS 1861). African American’s ancestors have paid the way for blacks to rightfully gain reparations from their cruel, barbaric, and ruthless past from slavery. African Americans, also referred to as blacks have been stripped of their civil rights and their equality as human beings and nonetheless have been lied to of the definition of freedom. In the article “The Case for Reparations” the author Coates explains that African Americans and other races that have

He looks at the idea of reparation with a critical eye as a form of social justice. Walter suggests that part of reparation is the recognition of the erasure of Black history and the lack of acknowledgement of contributions of Black in forming American identity and democracy. Although reparation will provide a form of monetary relief to descendants of enslaved men and women, it will not elevate their material status. Reparation will rectify moral and legal wrongs in which racial integrity is violated(Walter,14). Walter insists that more than anything reparations are acknowledgement of the atrocities done to Blacks and acknowledges the effects of it in Black America. Reparation is necessary to provide a sense of justice to the Black community for being oppressed and taunted as inferior for the past centuries.

Harriet Tubman once said, “Now I 've been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.” What is a reparation? A reparation is the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged. The biggest question of time is should African Americans receive payments for slavery? Many people would say yes with no hesitation, but to a surprise many people would also say no.