The Fight for Reparations in the Japanese and African American Communities

1034 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Writing slave narratives

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 allowed reparations for Japanese Americans illegally detained by the United States Government during World War II. Many assumed that the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 would help African American attain reparations for slavery. Legislation introduced in Congress each year since 1989 to create a commission to study the effects of slavery and segregation, has never been addressed as a serious issue. The fight for reparations in both the Japanese and African American communities have followed the same path of legal action, community support, public debate, and political actions helping to open a dialogue regarding reparations in the United States. Japanese Americans filed continuous legal action against the United States Government for reparations plus punitive damages in the form of class action lawsuits. The Japanese Americans class action lawsuits against the United States Government sought reparations for the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese American after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II. The lawsuits requested that the United States Government acknowledge that Japanese Americans were harmed as a group based on their race and that they should be paid for the economic loss suffered because of their race. Even though many lawsuits were filed and denied in the United States Federal Courts Japanese Americans decided to work as a unified as a community in seeking reparations. ( The Children of the Camps Project., 1999). After ten years of legal action and no progress on their fight for reparations, the Japanese American community held public forums to get the entire community involved in the fight for reparations. They worked to educate the Japanese community about the injustices and inhu... ... middle of paper ... ...ican and Japanese Americans communities have both filed many lawsuits for reparations but to no avail. Japanese Americans worked to educate the community about the injustices and inhumanities suffered by the Japanese during World War II. The African American community held conferences and symposiums to bring awareness to the issue on college campuses. Public awareness brought attention to the injustices suffered by Japanese and African Americans at the hand of the United States Government. The fight for reparation in both the Japanese and African American community should help to open dialogue regarding reparations in the United States. Works Cited The Children of the Camps Project. (1999). Retrieved 05/02/2010, from http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/timeline.html Robinson, R (2002). The Reckoning What Blacks Owe to Each Other. New York: Plume Books.

Show More
Related

  • Reparations: A Case Based on Clyde Ross's Life

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Summary: The Case For Reparations By Ta-Nehisi Coates

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Reparations for Slavery Are NOT the Solution to the Problems Facing Black Americans

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Audre Lorde And Brent Staples

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.

    Read More

  • How Is Japanese Internment Justified

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    This caused the Japanese to become a scapegoat of America’s fear and anger. The Issei and Nisei who once moved to this country to find new opportunities and jobs were now stripped of their homes and businesses and were forced to live in poor living conditions (DISCovering). Although many Americans believed that Japanese American internment was justified because it was used to protect us from attacks by Japanese Americans, it was very unlikely that they were ever going to attack us in the first place. For example, in Dr. Seuss’ political cartoon, many Japanese Americans are lined up to get TNT and waiting for a signal from Japan to attack (Seuss).

    Read More

  • You People Did This Essay

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    military was awakened in full force, a direct attack that filled Americans both with fear and anger. This attack sparked racial hysteria with the then current media outlets pushing propaganda antagonising the Japanese. Building on pre-existing bigotry, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were interned despite some being American citizens, a clear violation of their promised civil rights (Takagi). The prisoners were forced to stay in these camps until the conclusion of the war. This blanket internernment affected all ethnic Japanese Americans whether they were loyal or not, this upheld the “Us vs. Them” mentality. It took the government a staggering thirty years to acknowledge the wrongdoing and issue an apology, ten years after the apology the government took to paying the amount of 20,000 to each surviving victim from a fund of $1.25 billion (Benson). The war hysteria divided the Japanese American community from the mainstream Americans and lead to the loss of moral and civil

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment Camps Essay

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of Japanese ancestry were far the most widely affected. The Japanese internment camps were wrong because the Japanese were accused as spies, it was racism, and it was a violation to the United States constitution laws.

    Read More

  • The Case For Reparations By Ta-Neehisi Coates Analysis

    1652 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Reparation

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    In contrast the African American group of people have already been given some reparations from the government. The descendants of the slaves here in America are showered with government aid David Horowitz states that “trillions of dollars in transfer payments have been made to African-Americans in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences in contracts, job placements and educational admissions”. Since the 60’s, acts and bills have been passed to return justice to the African-American community. For example the passing of the Civil Rights Act presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson. banned the discrimination of race. In addition, Horowitz asks “if trillion-dollar restitutions and the rewriting of American law is not enough to achieve healing, what is?”. Meaning the government has worked to better the social lives of African-Americans as well as economically. Though, the African-American people have already been given some restitution for being victims to the system of slavery, not enough has been

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Reparation Of Slavery

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Necessity Of Japanese Internment

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    Much controversy has been sparked due to the internment of the Japanese people. Many ask whether it was justified to internment them. It is a very delicate issue that has two sides, those who are against the internment of the Japanese-Americans and those who are for it. With World War II raging in the East, America was still, for the most part, very inactive in the war. When America took a stand against Japan by not shipping them supplies, Japan became very upset. Japan, being a big island that is very overpopulated with little natural resources, depended on America to provide them with an assortment of supplies including scrap metal and oil, vital items that are needed in a time of war. Japan retaliated by declaring war on America and attacking Pearl Harbor. This surprise act led to many soldiers deaths and millions of dollars of damaged army equipment, including air craft carriers and planes. As a result to Japan declaring war, the Japanese-Americans were asked to and eventually forced to do their duty to the country and report to internment camps until the war conflict was over. Many opposed this act for a couple of reasons. One reason was that people felt that it was a huge hypocrisy that the Japanese were being interned while the Italians and Germans, also our enemies, were still walking around free in America. Another reason why many were against the internment was because many of the Japanese had already been in America for some time now. The Issei, the first generation of Japanese people that immigrated from Japan, had immigrated many years ago. A whole another generation of Japanese children had already began growing up in America called the Nissei. They were automatically U.S. citizens for they were born in America and for the most part were like other American children. Anti-Internment activists also said that the Japanese were being robbed of their rights as U.S. citizens. However, there are two sides to everything.

    Read More

  • The Case For Reparation Analysis

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Reparation

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this paper I will argue that America should pay reparations to black communities that have suffered most from institutionalized racism. My view is not that reparations should be paid via checks mailed by the federal government, of an undeterminable sum, to families that are most eligible, but rather, through changes in policy. These policies would tackle racial inequality at it most obvious sources, the wage gap, the mistreatment of black Americans by our criminal justice system, quality of education, and the disparity in housing between black and white Americans.

    Read More

  • Missing Persons: The Media Bias to Report Only Pretty Blonde Girls

    2804 Words  | 6 Pages

    Rudolph, Alexander Jr. Racism, African Americans and Social Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. 71. Print.

    Read More

More about The Fight for Reparations in the Japanese and African American Communities

Open Document