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Christain Brown

Mrs.Williams

2nd Hour Honors ELA

12-27-16

Specific Reparations

The African American community has been the victim of white Americas racism and

prejudice for over 200 years. In The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the main topic

is how African Americans were systematically exploited in various ways by whites in support of

the government. Coates lists many arguments and examples to persuade the reader that African

Americans truly deserve reparations. Government mandated organizations specifically targeted

blacks, not wanting them to contaminate the white societies of America. Coates speaks of

ways that America can finally give reparations to African Americans. When Coates speaks of

reparations, he doesnt mean the 40 acers of land and a mule, or money; but Coates wants

America to change how we go about living every day. Coates is talking about how Americans

speak about racism and its largely argued position in this country, and also how our nation learns

about prejudice and how we react to it. This is tremendously important because reparations, in all

of its forms, deserve to be payed to the millions of African Americans affected by it.

All things considered in regards to how America has treated African Americans, they

havent received anything for their years of torment, and many might argue that those years have

not ended or are slowly growing stronger again. One large aspect that builds a case for blacks to

receive reparations is not how they were treated by white citizens, but by their own government.

One main topic in The Case for Reparations was how the Federal Housing Administration
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targeted blacks in predatory ways. The FHA set up their community grading system to glorify

communities with an A grading largely based upon the fact that they didnt have a single

foreigner or negro. African Americans along with other minorities were seen as a contagion in a

white neighborhood. John Conyers, a representative from the state of Michigan, has been

proposing a bill since 1989, which is titled the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for

African Americans. Conyers proposal would only study to see if reparations are a reasonable

solution based of the effects of years of Jim Crow laws and constant racial discrimination, yet the

government doesnt even want that to happen, as it is still being stalled to this day. This act of

denying the opportunity of justice alone, shows how the U.S government does not stand for

justice and equality as our nation so willfully believes.

Furthermore, there have been numerous studies on how slavery and other discriminatory

acts have affected the African American people. This study researched Jim Crow laws, which

prohibited blacks from basic rights of freedom and equality. The Ku Klux Klan was a domestic

terrorism group who even had our very own presidents in their organization, with President

Warren G. Harding being sworn into the group in the White House. Blacks were tormented by

the acts of white Americans seeking out ways to harm blacks, physically, mentally,

economically, and socially. Some people are so blinded by their own good fortune, not

necessarily regarding wealth, that they think that a race that has been constantly put down,

shoved back, and discriminated upon doesnt deserve reparations. When Coates wrote The Case

for Reparations, he gave clear examples of how African Americans were set back and exploited.

To reverse the effects of years of racial discrimination we must first begin to change how we

deal with discrimination, start at the root of the problem and try to find out why people are racist
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and get them to think otherwise. All blacks are not criminals, gang-bangers, thieves, and

menaces to society, but there are some who are like that due to the positions that they were

forced to grow up in, stemming from the predatory traps that their ancestors were subjected to

when trying to better their lives. America is long overdue on their payments of reparations for

African Americans.

Although many Americans believe that blacks deserve reparations, some think that blacks

dont or that it is impossible to give an entire race true reparations. An article located on The

Atlantic, the same site that Coates wrote The Case for Reparations for, is titled The

Impossibility of Reparations. While this article does have many points, describing the problems

of choosing who deserves reparations, how they will distribute them, and the satisfactory

problems that may come ahead, it is mainly based on money. To give an entire race reparations

for hundreds of years of injustice, you cannot expect to give them money and say there are your

reparations. African Americans deserve a payment so great that it is immeasurable with money,

the value of us truly getting freedom and equality is unrivaled to the capabilities of tangible

currency. America needs to change how blacks are treated on a day to day basis. The people of

our country need to unite and see that nobody deserves the treatment that many blacks face,

some people wouldnt last a day if they were put in the situations that blacks are subjected to

every day of their lives. African Americans deserve reparations in all of its forms, not being

limited to money, but to truly change and make a difference on the ways we were set back in our

past and correct the mistakes being made in our present.

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In conclusion, African Americans are well deserving of reparations. When Africans were

brought in shackles against their will to this country they were mistreated. When our country

decided that they wanted freedom, the established their own independent country to give them

those natural rights but African Americans were exempt from those beliefs. We live in a country

known around the world for its freedom and liberty yet one of the most influential inhabitants of

its country dont get the luxury to be free like those of other races. Our past of fighting for

freedom and equality were shot down with cases such as Plessey v. Ferguson stating that the

facilities that blacks were forced into, because whites felt that blacks shouldnt be able to use the

same public facilities, were separate but equal. Areas of our country that have the African

American race as a majority for their population are still treated as lesser places compared to

white areas. We need to stop the unfair treatment that has continued to plague our country since

before its birth. Many authors besides Ta-Nehisi Coates have written about the topic of

reparations for the African American people, regardless of what their take on the subject is any

American who truly believes what is promised by our government, should believe that they

deserve reparations. As long as our nation stands for freedom, we should be able to give it to all

of those who seek it.

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Works Cited

Frum, David The Impossibility of Reparations. The Atlantic (2014)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic (2014)

H.R. 40 114th Congress: Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans

Act. www.GovTrack.us. (2015).