Effects Of Reparation Of African Americans

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.

Racism and hate have played a major role in United States history. These words have been the fuel behind slavery, inhuman treatment, and genocides. The Kosovo, Native Americans, Japanese, and African Americans are some of the prominent races that have been affected by racism and hate. The U.S. have given reparations to the victims of Kosovo, Native American, and Japanese, but no reparation have been given to African Americans. For five hundred years, the U.S. forced African Americans into slavery. As an African American woman in 2013, the question “ What ever happen to reparations for African Americans?” lingers in my mind. Don’t we deserve reparation just as the Native

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

"If you are the son of a man who had a wealthy estate and you inherit your father's estate, you have to pay off the debts that your father incurred before he died. The only reason that the present generation of white Americans are in a position of economic strength...is because their fathers worked our fathers for over 400 years with no pay...We were sold from plantation to plantation like you sell a horse, or a cow, or a chicken, or a bushel of wheat...All that money...is what gives the present generation of American whites the ability to walk around the earth with their chest out...like they have some kind of economic ingenuity. Your father isn't here to pay. My father isn't

Of those was the whole idea of reparations for blacks, which is great, but honestly the past should just be the past. I personally think to bring up the past is to hurt those in the future. Don’t get me wrong; I see the benefits that could arise from the case like closing the wealth gap. However, getting society on board would be much harder now than it was in the early economy. There is nothing that could fully repay the African Americans, not even the land in which they are owed. You can’t bring back what they really want, which are the family and friends that have been lost. You can’t heal the pain that they have endured along the way. So there is no need to bring up all the memories that would most likely lead to riots and for everyone to show their true colors for something that will probably never happen. Like Coates said, “The idea of reparations threatens something much deeper America’s heritage, history, and standing in the world.” (Coates, 2014) You cannot correct what has already been done all you can do is move forward even if it means moving forward without the idea of

To better understand why the issue of reparations being paid to freed slaves or their descendants, one would have to understand a few very important facts such as slavery made America wealthy, and racist policies since have blocked African American wealth-building, the other is many indentured slaves and their families spent their entire lives as enslaved property and now freed into a society still going through changes and still in formation stages.

As the country began to recognize that wrongs must be righted the idea of reparations for African Americans started as early as the Reconstruction Era. Around the time of the Reconstruction Era, the first call for reparations was mainly for the purpose of punishing the South, in hopes of hindering the Confederacy. Post the

Reconstruction did not help African Americans move closer to the American Dream. Even though there were positives, there were also negatives. Due to Reconstruction, hate groups started, there was not any safety for African Americans, and the Black Codes or Jim Crow laws. One of the most infamous hate groups to rise was the Klu Klux Klan. KKK for short. African Americans were terrorized by this group. They are responsible for many hangings, burnings, and other horrors that were inflicted upon African Americans. Also, there was not any safety from the groups. It was not like being in the center of a city was going to help. There are unfortunately many pictures of African Americans being hanged in very populated areas. Also, there was the rise of Black Codes(Jim Crow laws). It is like how the saying goes, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Some of the codes, but not limited to, was the Grandfather clause, which basically said that if your grandfather could not vote, you cannot vote. There were also many other ways that African Americans were restricted from voting. There was poll tax, and unfair evaluations of voting tests. This also included segregation of schools (separate but equal). There was even a law forbidding a white person from marrying a black person. However, even though all of these horrific things came because the end of slavery,

America owes a debt to slavery that can never be repaid. That's not to say it shouldn't be. At the very least, it should be acknowledged, validated, and honored with the respect that it deserves.

In the Atlantic article by Ta-Nehisi Coates titled “The Case for Reparations, Coates argues that the reason why the United States was able to grow and acquire most of its wealth can be directly tied to the enormous losses people of the African-American community have suffered since the use of slave labor in America. Historically, African-Americans have always been discriminated against. Even today, African-Americans continue to be excluded from the system, while the nation, primarily non-blacks, continues to reap the benefits. Moreover, Coates affirms that the nation needs to acknowledge these truths and should provide reparations for the African-American people. Merriam-Webster defines reparations as “the act of making amends, offering expiation,

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 has been entwined with American history ever since Dutch traders brought twenty captive Africans to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Slavery in America is a subject with minimal truths and stories rarely told. The public school system excludes the fact that eight of the first twelve American presidents were major slaveholders. Emancipation brought freedom, but not approximation. The civil rights movement killed Jim Crow, but shadows remained. Affirmative Action created opportunities, but racism continues.

Already in debt, the United States cannot afford to pay millions of dollars of reparations for their participation in the slave trade. Since the slave trade was so long ago, the reparation money would not be helping with the issue. Slavery is what helped to build the United States of America, and ultimately slavery reparations would be what destroys the work that was done by the slaves that made the American economy so strong. Paying reparations for slavery would ruin the economy and is not worthwhile.

In the article, “The case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author examined African American history as it relates to slavery and oppression. The article discussed slavery experiences, unjust laws, current issues, and reparation ideas. Coates (2014) examined past events that occurred to prevent African Americans from being equal to whites. According to Coates (2014) African Americans were vulnerable because they did not have protection from law. The article discussed how African Americans suffered many loses due to whites such as voting rights, taxes, and property lost. African Americans were still at a disadvantage when certain laws were put into place in their favor. Coates (2014) gives great insight of the unfairness and hardships. The article also gives great examples of current issues that African Americans encounter in today’s society, such as health care and employment. Coates (2014) main purpose is to encourage readers that African Americans deserve compensation for years of oppression. The author also believes that reparation is necessary and would be very beneficial.