The Case For Reparations Summary

As the name of the title aptly suggests, Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his article, “The Case for Reparations”, builds a case for the racial minority, that is black folk, to seek amends for the years of injustice and servitude rendered by them to the majority, here in America. Through the medium of Clyde Ross, a veteran but now ordinary citizen, representative of the plight of any other black person living in that era, Coates attempts to provide an argument for the ills and hardships that the Blacks were faced with throughout the previous few centuries, under the regime of white supremacy, in the land of opportunity.
In his article, Coates emphasizes not only on the explicit forms and visible aspects of racism and discrimination prevalent, such as …show more content…
The Southern States at that time, were governed predominantly by white folk, with most, if not all official posts (whether judicial or law enforcing) occupied by them. Given such a setting, the people of color could not find any legal recourse and were subjected to plunder at the hands of the white. Seeking protection from the law, especially for his son, Clyde Ross moved North to Chicago in hopes of a better future. However, to his dismay, he found that although on the surface the situation seemed to be a lot better than in the South, they were far from ideal. In that, the city and most of the Northern parts of America were plagued with institutional forms of racism not limited to practices such as redlining through FHA policies and the ghettoization of blacks, along with victimization at the hands of contract lenders; wherein black folk denied mortgages to own and buy homes, based purely on the fact of their origin, were tricked and lured, almost preyed upon by white people in the housing market, into entering into ridiculous contracts that would not only see them lose their home due to exorbitant interest rates, but also lose a lot of money in the form of payments made towards these “mortgages.” To further make matters worse, Blacks were subjected to laws such as vagrancy laws, lynching, and debt peonage post slavery, that barred them of …show more content…
However, the problem that I wish to bring to light, lies not so much with the point(s) brought forth, but rather with the issue of the practicality and feasibility of the implementation of such reparations. Moreover, I would also like to dwell with the future repercussions of going forth with such an idea. Even so, I wish to provide for a framework (Appendix) under which such circumstances, though not justifiable, can easily be explained, as far as their occurrence and the remnants of which occur in today’s society (is in