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The case for reparations summary
The case for reparations summary
The case for reparations summary
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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. Only if we face the compounding moral debt can America be free. Until we face the reality of what happened together, we will always be bound by the lies that have been told. From the very beginning of time African Americans have been a culture of resistance. That is resistance from slavery, resistance from torture, and resistance from wrongdoing. Families were torn apart, women were raped, and children were tortured. In an article by Atlanta Blackst they list some of the ways African American slaves were tortures, and it’s horrifying. Some slaves were burned alive, lynched by meat hooks, castrated, and even Mutated. This is the easy part, as after being tortured they had many years of psychological suffering. They didn’t have family to turn to because they were most dead or sold to another slave In an article by ABC news it was written that “there’s no disputing that African American suffered centuries of enslavement. What’s far less certain, however is what kind of debt is owed to the descendants of those slaves.” They also said “many group of influential lawyers and scholars have profited from slavery.” This goes to show that the people responsible for the enslavement of hundreds of people are profiting from slavery, and that if they did want to pay reparations, they’re unsure how to give it. The article then goes to mention other cases of reparation that have been paid like Germany paying $60 billion to holocaust survivors, and the united states paying $20,000 to over 100,000 Japanese Americans sent to internment camp during world war
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.
For over 200 years people of African descent were enslaved by Anglo-Saxons, having to endure painful hardships and not really even having an identity. After the Emancipation Proclamation they were supposedly "free" but were still considered a lesser people by many white Americans, even to the present day. But the question that has been posed and that we have read about is whether or not black Americans should receive monetary compensation for their hardships.
Slavery is one of America’s biggest regrets. Treating a human with the same beating heart as a low, worthless piece of trash only because of skin color is a fact that will forever remain in our country’s history. Those marked as slaves were sold, tortured, demoralized, raped and killed. After the Emancipation in which slavery was illegalized, many would think that the horrors were over and that America as a whole started a new leaf. Unfortunately, the man of the South, refusing to move forward tried to keep the colored man down as best they could. Their premeditated plans and actions to find an excuse to continue torturing and killing the Negro man continued for years, which are documented in “A Red Record”. This story captures the grueling events African Americans were put through and the unfairness of the times. By capturing and sharing this history it will make sure these mistakes can never be repeated again .
For more than two hundred years, a certain group of people lived in misery; conditions so inhumane that the only simile that can compare to such, would be the image of a caged animal dying to live, yet whose live is perished by the awful chains that dragged him back into a dark world of torture and misfortune. Yes, I am referring to African Americans, whose beautiful heritage, one which is full of cultural beauty and extraordinary people, was stained by the privilege given to white men at one point in the history of the United States. Though slavery has been “abolished” for quite some years; or perhaps it is the ideal driven to us by our modern society and the lines that make up our constitution, there is a new kind of slavery. One which in
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.
Attention getter: Hundreds of years ago blacks were taken from their homes, placed on ships where they were packed together and lived amongst their feces, and were brought to America where they were forced to work with no pay. Slave masters used brutal techniques and horrible methods of torture to control and manipulate black slaves.
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.
When one thinks of slavery, they may consider chains holding captives, beaten into submission, and forced to work indefinitely for no money. The other thing that often comes to mind? Stereotypical African slaves, shipped to America in the seventeenth century. The kind of slavery that was outlawed by the 18th amendment, nearly a century and a half ago. As author of Modern Slavery: The Secret World of 27 Million People, Kevin Bales, states, the stereotypes surrounding slavery often confuse and blur the reality of slavery. Although slavery surely consists of physical chains, beatings, and forced labor, there is much more depth to the issue, making slavery much more complex today than ever before.
Harriet Tubman once said, I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. Throughout history the African American culture has constantly been fighting for rights and equality. But in doing so has been denied it. With this happening more and more over the years it seems to have caused them more than just physical pain when violence is added to the equation. It has caused PTSD. The African American community suffers from PTSD due to Racism, what is considered as today’s “lynchings”, and Police Brutality.
David M. Oshinsky’s book “Worse Than Slavery” brings to life the reality that faced slaves after the abolishment of slavery. It recounts the lives that these men faced daily and it made me question the humanity of all those who were involved and question how as a society we let this ever happen. From the convicts being leased out to people who didn’t care about their well-being to a life back on a state ran plantation, where life was worse than it was for them as slaves. It showed just how unfair the justice system was for a black prisoner compared to a white prisoner. Their lives were worthless and replaceable and only mattered when they were thought to be worth something to someone.
For a nation that is built on the concept of freedoms it is sad that America was one of the last places to illegalize slavery. Even after declaring slavery illegal Jim Crowe laws restricted the freedoms of anyone that wasn’t white. America kept Japanese people in concentration camps under the guise that they were a threat against or safety and freedom. It was easy to justify taking someone else’s freedom away by making sure America knew they were atta...
In the 1600’s, we used African Americans as slaves to basically do our dirty work. We did not allow them to own anything or even to learn how to read or write. They did not have any rights as human beings. We degraded them and made them out to be nothing. Obviously, now that has changed. Native Americans were torn away from their land and murdered for absolutely no reason. During World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we were angry at Japanese Americans and if they were caught in the United States, they would be kept as prisoners. Just because they were Japanese, they held accountable for the actions of the people from their homeland.