Calling Names, Taking the Blame
A highly debated topic in today’s political conversation is reparations. Many would argue that African Americans deserve reparations because their ancestors were kidnapped from their homes and were forced to work for years, in most cases until death. Others may claim that reparations have already been paid, even though they were not monetary. Lastly, there is the group that believes that reparations for slavery are not a good idea for anyone. In today’s society, is it a good idea to give African Americans reparations and make the line of racial division more apparent? The questions that arise with this topic include: who would receive these reparations, who would pay, how much would recipients get, and how does this solve anything? The indecisive and inconsistent answers for these questions from various groups leave me skeptical about the supposed benefits of reparations.
Let’s first address who would pay these reparations. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations,” he had this to say,
“One cannot escape the question by hand-waving at the past, disavowing the acts of one’s ancestors, nor by citing a recent date of ancestral immigration. The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much longer. To proudly claim the veteran and
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Davis had this to respond, “Although Coates raises a good point about the nation outliving its generations, he also brings up the fact that the last of the slaveholders are long dead. Who is left to be punished for the crimes committed so many years ago” ()? Bowman, Jeffrey, and Finley have pointed out, “As the original victims of slavery have long since died, there is usually no legal recipient for restitution. Likewise, the original perpetrators of slavery, both owners and slave traders, are no longer alive to make reparation payments” (). So is it right for wealthy Caucasians to be punished for the acts if their
The article “The Case for Reparations” is a point of view that Ta-nehisi Coates looks into the life of Clyde Ross and what he went through in the African American society. Arranging reparations based off of what Clyde Ross lived through and experienced from the time he was a young child to his later adult years. Providing life facts and events comparing them to today and seeking out to present his reparations. Clyde ross explain that we are still living bound down as blacks to the white supremacy and in a new era of racism .Concluding the article the fact that it’s been far too long to live the way we are and it is time for a change to finally be made.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the article “The Case for Reparations” presents a powerful argument for reparations to black African American for a long time of horrendous injustice as slavery plus discrimination, violence, hosing policies, family incomes, hard work, education, and more took a place in black African American’s lives. He argues that paying such a right arrears is not only a matter of justice; however, it is important for American people to express how they treated black African Americans.
Why should American taxpayers, who never owned slaves, pay for the sins of their ancestors? What about all the Americans whose ancestors arrived here long after slavery ended? How would the economy be affected by reparations payments? How do you put a price tag on 2 1/2 centuries of legalized inhumanity? In what form would reparations be paid? How would you establish who's a descendant? It all still comes down to one basic question, Should the descendents of slaves’ masters have to pay for their ancestors’ direct involvement and economic compensations from the institution of slavery in America? The answer is yes, reparations should be paid to the descendents of slave’s. Since descendents of slaves’ masters still live off the wealth of companies, products, and labor that slaves generated over the course of four hundred years there should not be a doubt in anyone’s mind that slavery should be compensated.
According to Jim Meyers, in "Righting the Wrongs of Slavery," reparations for slavery wouldn't solve anything. He claims that it would just put an even bigger rift between white and black Americans. He argues that "white bitterness would be inescapable" and that white Americans would feel as though they owned everything that black Americans obtain with the reparations. He also poses the questions that many of the articles for and against reparations pose: Who will receive these reparations and who will have to pay them? Is it just based on skin color? Will all black Americans receive reparations even if they aren't descents of slaves or will they look at every Americans genealogy to discover who is and who isn't? What about white Americans who aren't descents of slave holders? Will Irish immigrants who came to this country in the 1920's have to pay these reparations? It's really hard to draw the line. The battle seems like a hard one to win when there are so many variables that can't be ignored.
Slavery undoubtedly mars those who suffered its cruelty. David Kutz proves slavery’s affect scars future generations whether they are the descendants’ of the captives or progeny of the free. History’s superiority scarcely mentioned the “Negro’s Burial Ground” while in contrast modern day members of New York fought in defense and reverently won respect for those “individuals” now buried in "The African Burial Ground” (Kutz 1994). However there are other American historical battles yet to be fought. For example, Americans still celebrate Columbus Day.
In “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates sets out a powerful argument for reparations to blacks for having to thrive through horrific inequity, including slavery, Jim Crowism, Northern violence and racist housing policies. By erecting a slave society, America erected the economic foundation for its great experiment in democracy. And Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history. Paying such a moral debt is such a great matter of justice served rightfully to those who were suppressed from the fundamental roles, white supremacy played in American history.
Reparations For 246 consecutive years, blacks have been kidnapped, whipped to death, mutilated, and raped. From 1619 to 1865, these generations of slave families were living as property rather than human beings. History would agree that the crimes done against these set of selected people do not compare to those of other races. Many people don’t know that there were sex slave farms that practiced a process known as “buck breaking”.
Reparations Although the talk of reparations of slavery has been in discussion for over a hundred years, it is beginning to heat up again. Within these discussions, the issue of the form of reparations has been evaluated and money has been an option several times. However, reparations in the form of money should not be obtained for several reasons. Firstly, it is not a solution to the problem, secondly monetary reparations have the ability to worsen discrimination, thirdly, who gets paid, and how is it regulated, and lastly, the money can be misused.
“After 250 years of enslavement in America, African Americans were still terrorized in Deep South; they were pinned to the ghettos, overcrowded, overcharged, discriminated, and undereducated”. The best solution is to owe them reparations. To aid them out of their unjust inherit status. The novel is based on real life situations of many African Americans that had to face during slave, and post slave era in the United States of America. The purpose is to show that not having reparations for the African Americans lead to many downsides to the nation’s inequalities. In the novel “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he uses just ethics and remorse obligation, to demonstrate the nation should to pay for the damage done to the black community.
Imagine you’re young, and alone. If your family was taken from you and suffered horribly for your freedom, would you want to be repaid in some form? In the article “The Case for Reparations” Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses a great deal of information about reparations, and if they should be given. Reparations are when a person or people make amends for the wrong they have done. Ta-Nehisi believes that from two hundred years of slavery, ninety years of Jim Crow laws, sixty years of separate but equal, and thirty five years of racist housing policy, that America is shackled.
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 Americans no longer have a native language or any African customs to connect them to Africa. Today, African Americans are connected together because they all share a common foundation-the horrendous experience of slavery-and the great effort to conquer its lingering result.(www.AcedemicLibrary.com)
After the Civil War ended in 1865, a big question was left: what does the future look like for freed slaves in America? For so long - 246 years, since the first African slave arrived in Virginia in 1619 - Southern African Americans were forced into slavery. However, in 1856, as a result of the Union’s win in the American Civil War and the determination of many, they were finally free - at least legally. The Civil War left a big dent on the South and tension was rising between whites and blacks. In the meantime, African Americans needed help, or else they would fall into the trenches of the American society once again. This was a time of crucial social change for Southern blacks, and the effects of Reconstruction on white and black race relations in America are still apparent and alive today.
Bouie argues, “The case for reparations, in short, is straightforward. As a matter of public policy, America stole wealth from black people, denied them a shot at prosperity, and deprived them of equal citizenship” (Bouie). Coates, in his article, never tries to make an argument for reparation, merely introduces the HR 40 bill, which would authorize a study of reparations by the American government. The point of the bill is to shed light on racial inequalities, both past and present, that many people are ignorant of, but still benefit from. Coates’ goal is for the country to really acknowledge white supremacy, and the role that it played in our country’s history. I agree that the country should be aware of his true roots, how our country was built on the back of stolen labor from slaves, but simply acknowledging is not enough. Coates is probably hoping that once the country comes to terms with just how much white supremacy and racial inequality is engrained into our culture, then the policy changes will follow. That may be a good approach to take, or perhaps we should demand reparations for those wrong now, instead of waiting and relying on the goodwill of the government to do what is right. What I want to discuss now is what these reparations would look
Slavery's twin legacies to the present are the social and economic inferiority it conferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites. Both continue to haunt our society. Therefore, treating slavery's enduring legacy is necessarily controversial. Unlike slavery, racism is not over yet. (Loewen 143)
“Restorative justice is an approach to crime and other wrongdoings that focuses on repairing harm and encouraging responsibility and involvement of the parties impacted by the wrong.” This quote comes from a leading restorative justice scholar named Howard Zehr. The process of restorative justice necessitates a shift in responsibility for addressing crime. In a restorative justice process, the citizens who have been affected by a crime must take an active role in addressing that crime. Although law professionals may have secondary roles in facilitating the restorative justice process, it is the citizens who must take up the majority of the responsibility in healing the pains caused by crime. Restorative justice is a very broad subject and has many other topics inside of it. The main goal of the restorative justice system is to focus on the needs of the victims, the offenders, and the community, and focus