Ta-Nehisis Coates' Great Expectations

America has gone through a terrible past. It has once decided to own people as property and deprive African Americans of their liberties and enslaved them. Since then, the United States has attempted to repair this mistake through reparations. The legal reparations of the United States have unsuccessfully redressed individual and social injustices by failing to alleviate the pain caused to the African American community. The Harm caused by Slavery still continues to be suffered by the community through this day.

Slavery and racism was the plague of the United States. It followed on the heals of government policy and trickled down the social ladder for many years. Racial discrimination is still existent today, though people are afraid to talk about it, for fear of admitting ancestral sin and current stereotypes. Ta-Nehisi Coates expresses these ideas in his article “The Case for Reparations”, and focuses on the issue of home ownership in Chicago. The bottom line of his article is that one must not forget and discard of the past, rather they must acknowledge and own what has happened. With Coates focus on American oppression, one doesn’t glean an exceptional take on the United States, from his perspective. He describes the U.S. as too timid to own its mistakes. In the middle of the 20th century, Chicago, discrimination was rampant. Blacks were targeted by “real-estate speculators” when trying to own a house, they were put “on contract.” In response to the issues brought about by the contracts, the Contract Buyers League was founded. This was an attempt to reverse the damage that was being done. Discrimination still occurs today. Racial discrimination has long plagued the U.S., but it is possible to change.

Reparation is a term defined as “the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.” How does this exactly apply when we’re talking about discrimination and segregation? Ta-Nehisi Coates presents “The Case for Reparations” to illustrate the need of a reparation to African- American citizens. Coates explains three major concepts in his paper. He emphasizes how African- American citizens have helped create wealth, displays how the government has actually restricted African- American citizens from owning homes in history, and presents a series of compelling stories from people still suffering discrimination and segregation today. In this paper, I will defend “The Case for Reparations” in agreement with Ta-Nahisi Coates.

The United States government should pay reparations to African Americans as a means of admitting their wrong-doing and making amends. The damages African Americans have sustained from White America’s policy of slavery have been agonizing and inhumane. Therefore, I am in favor of reparations for African Americans. The effect of slavery has been an enduring issue within the African American community. Many of us are cognizant of the harm racism brought to the African American race, conveyed through slavery, racial segregation and discrimination. African Americans suffered many atrocities, but the greatest damage done to them was the destruction of they’re original identity. African

For many years the United States has committed atrocious and discriminatory acts against African Americans. In a seemingly more “equal” society today many are wondering what debt is owed to the descendants of African Americans. According to Alfred Brophy of University of North Carolina, reparations are defined as, “programs that are justified on the basis of past harm and that are also designated to assess and correct that harm and improve the lives of victims in the future.” Throughout this paper I will be discussing whether reparations should be paid to African Americans. I will evaluate the question through legal, moral, and political lenses. I will evaluate the start of the movement of reparations while also taking into consideration how reparations have been given in the past. I will also explore new forms/types of reparations that can be given to African Americans. I will also determine the short and long term impacts the implementation of reparations would have on African American society and the society in its entirety.

Although Coates does not offer any particulars regarding an immediate solution for reparations and how they should be administered, he does seem to make some suggestions. Coates implies that improvements in educational opportunities through scholarships, affirmative action, and increased funding can serve as reparations. Expanding healthcare access for black Americans is another way of providing reparations. Moreover, monetary compensation to generations of African-Americans affected by discrimination can be given as reparations. Most importantly, Coates argues that the prospect of reparations should be at the very least discussed. Approving Congressman John Conyers Jr.’s HR 40 bill would open up that discussion. Whether reparations are given or not, Coates stresses that the United States cannot continue to claim to be the example for liberty, freedom, or a democracy if it continues to refuse to recognize the damages that have been imposed on blacks for the gain of the nation (Coates, 2014). The issue with discussing reparations seems to lie in not knowing how much reparation is enough, or how much and to whom they will be given

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

This theme helps illuminate how black people came to be treated in America both when slavery existed and beyond into today’s society. The theme that black people are disposable bodies within American society. Because of the tradition of treating black people as objects or whose value strictly came from their ability to make profit, the idea of what it means to be black in America is imbedded in the danger of losing one’s body. Although slavery has ended, the racism remains as a violence inflicted on black people’s bodies. Coates is more than happy to emphasize that racism is an instinctive practice.

The article, “The Case for Reparations”, presents itself with a commendable representation on how the need for reparations is essential when combined with the brutal history of slavery and progression of blacks in American Society after slavery. Ta- Nehisi Coates argues that the relationship between racial identity and reparations is based upon America’s debt to blacks for the countless years of injustice. With this he demonstrates how white supremacy has ultimately used impractical measures to maintain what they consider social stability for those who were not African American.

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.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay, The Case for Reparations, is a rhetorical essay focused on attempting to convince American’s that the descendants of African-Americans are owed something since their ancestors were a key part of the foundation of this nation. His main audience is clearly African Americans, but my question is how well he does convincing other demographics. Can he convince Asians, Caucasians, or Hispanics? What about single mothers in Kentucky? If Ta-nehisi Coates is unable to convince more than just his target audience then it can be argued that he did not do a great job of communicating his ideas to everyone.

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.

This racism is embedded in us as American citizens. Living in a country founded on laws that were written to cater specifically to white land-owning males has left white people with a feeling of superiority. At the same time, this racially biased foundation has left black citizens feeling discriminated against. As a means of coping with the hundreds of years of maltreatment many black citizens advocate for reparations. One such advocate for this cause is Ta-Nehisi Coates. In his article, “The Case for Reparations,” Coates not only argues that reparations would benefit those affected by slavery, but also those affected by Jim Crow, separate but equal, and the racist housing policy of the 1930s through the 1960s, and those who are offspring of parents affected by these events (Coates). While at the outset, reparations may seem like a good idea to ease some of the pain and suffering that black people have endure over time, it is simply not a realistic system that would in no part help to combat today’s racism, and

“And as to the condition on which you hold your advancement in life—namely, that you are not to inquire or discuss to whom you owe it—you may be very sure that it will never be encroached upon, or even approached by me, or by any one belonging to me.” (Dickens, 177). This excerpt foretells the main theme of the novel, Pip’s journey of self-improvement.

Clyde is a family man. Working in a test kitchen and post office, his third job is now delivering pizzas, to keep his family intact in his newly purchased home. “The problem was the money,” he tells Coates, while Coates describes a deeper problem in his article: “Businesses discriminated against them, awarding them the worst jobs and the worst wages.” “The Case for Reparation” is a compelling research project where Coates concludes that Americans owe their wealth to the hard work of slaves; therefore, -to just the unjust- we need to act responsibly and repair the damage done under inequality (Coates, 2014).