Ta-Nehisi Coates The Case For Reparations Summary

In “The Case for Reparations”, Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses inequality through African Americans. According to Coates, America built prosperity on slavery, racial discrimination and unfair housing policies through the years. America has morals to obtain and until reparations are brought to justice America will fail to do so.
Over Two-hundred years ago, Enslavement of African Americans was normal. Black Americans were sold for cheap labor and one-third of all whites’ income was based off slave labor. In the southern states, Virginia had the largest number of enslaved African Americans. In addition, One-fourth of all white citizens owned slaves. Slaves were a huge asset for America’s manufacturing business, therefore whites benefited. After slavery,

African Americans faced loss of opportunities such as voting. This was identified as the Jim Crow Act, which enforced racial segregation. African Americans were lynched if they tried to vote because they were persuaded into paying poll tax. In the article Coates tells a story about a black man from Mississippi named Clyde Ross. Ross grew up in a low-income family and dealt with unfair laws throughout life. When he was little, his family was evicted from their home due to his father owning 3,000 dollars in back taxes. Coates refers to this story of higher authorities taking away certain belongings from an African American family. Slavery was an injustice act that African Americans faced, as well as racial discrimination and being denied of their rights as an American citizen, which shows lack of equality.

Another loss African Americans faced was unfair housing practices, which negatively affected families.

As Clyde Ross grew older, he eventually married and started a family and dreamed of owning a home. However, homeownership was hard to obtain as a black American, so the only way to buy a home was through contract sales. This was a preposterous agreement between the seller and buyer; if the buyer missed a payment then he or she will lose recent down payments and the property itself. In order to keep up with the payments Ross had to get three jobs and his wife as well, also they had to pull their children from private school. Ross numerously tried to get a home in another neighborhood with a reasonable contract, but was denied due to redlining. Which was refusing a loan to someone that lived in a poor area. This left many African Americans stranded and lost all hope of owning a home one-day. Coates explains the unfair housing policies that African Americans faced therefore shows inequality towards African

Americans.
Although poverty affected whites, it was nearly not comparable as black poverty.

African Americans were forced into poverty because of Jim Crow Act, which segregated blacks and whites. Therefore, made it impossible for blacks to come out of poverty due to past history. In addition, White families were wealthier than black families regardless of income. This negatively affected African Americans mentality on believing that they could be successful one day. This also refers to Culture Pathologies, which was a belief of a spiritual or culture disease among African Americans as Coates explained. For instance, a young black boy was told, “You’re no good” and “you will never own anything”. No matter how hard African Americans try or struggle to succeed in life they will always be nothing, according to

Coates.
In the end, America would have to face the reality of the past. Coates discussed the Germany Reparations towards the Jewish community. The Jews response was negative, Menachem Begin, was the prime minister of Israel ,who lead Knesset and out of anger blamed Germany for the brutal acts towards Jewish citizens. Begin urged the Knesset to stop paying taxes, which concerned the police and formed a fight between two parties. The police carried tear gas and smoke bombs that were later on set off. Fortunately, the riot was but to a stop. The reparations in Knesset set off another negative effect of bomb attempts by Israeli militants and was aimed towards a foreign ministry in Tel Avivi. In the end, West Germany finally agreed to pay seven millions dollars towards the Jewish community for the many years of injustice acts. Coates talked about Reparations in Germany because it showed how difficult it could be, also showed how social discrimination could be unable to fix for a long time. Reparations to Coates was a representation of America’s consciousness and a self-image. Until America serves reparations towards African Americans from the many years of unfair acts. America will not live up to its ideals of equality towards African Americans.