America Should Pay Reparations to African Americans
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)
Americans should realize the magnitude of slavery’s consequences on African Americans as a whole. Blacks were brainwashed and stripped of self-esteem and taught to be ashamed of dark color of their skin. Many African Americans have effortlessly tried to advocate “Black Pride”, trying to re-instill self-worth and being proud of our distinct facial and body features, and darker complexions. African Americans had zilch to begin with after the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Slaves were promised a “mule/ and 40 acres” and they didn’t live to receive it nor did generations to follow; because the American government has yet to live up to its word. The fruit of the slaves’ labor was stolen from the “land of the free”. The victims of the White people’s African slave trade never experienced such freedom. This race deserves compensation for the mistreatment
it has suffered and continues to endure. Paying reparations to the descendants of African American slaves would bring about a tremendous improvement for the advancement of Black America. (Douglass, Fredrick, 1845, Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass).
White Americans have profited from education, life experiences, riches that were handed down by their ancestors. As well, African Americans have been handed down the hardship of race-rela...
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...nation: a civilized country which respects civil and human rights, encourages opportunity for and well-being of all her people, and can be trusted by other nations as a county whom honors her word. Well, America promised African Americans 40 acres and a mule and didn’t live up to her promise. America’s attitude and silence on reparations reeks of hypocrisy. (X, Malcolm, Biography of Malcolm X).
America should also pay reparations to African Americans because they consistently want us to labor for their work and take all the credit. For instance America is at fault for African American dead and injured men who served and were drafted in the Vietnam War. America put young black men on the front-line of a war they had nothing to do with nor helped contribute to. America wanted a race that was not yet “capable” of voting but was competent enough to fight in a war. A race that did not have the option of drinking from any fountain, sitting anywhere on a bus, using any bathroom, however we were fit for fighting. The point is America constantly benefits from African Americans, but refuses to compensate African Americans for their contributions to this country. (www. AcedemicLibrary.com)
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.
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.
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.
While the formal abolition of slavery, on the 6th of December 1865 freed black Americans from their slave labour, they were still unequal to and discriminated by white Americans for the next century. This ‘freedom’, meant that black Americans ‘felt like a bird out of a cage’ , but this freedom from slavery did not equate to their complete liberty, rather they were kept in destitute through their economic, social, and political state.
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.
The effects of slavery linger in this country even today. After the Civil War and even the Reconstruction period, racial inequality and
African American history plays a huge role in history today. From decades of research we can see the process that this culture went through and how they were depressed and deculturalized. In school, we take the time to learn about African American History but, we fail to see the aspects that African Americans had to overcome to be where they are today. We also fail to view life in their shoes and fundamentally understand the hardships and processes that they went through. African Americans were treated so terribly and poor in the last century and, they still are today. As a subordinate race to the American White race, African Americans were not treated equal, fair, human, or right under any circumstances. Being in the subordinate position African Americans are controlled by the higher white group in everything that they do.
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.
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
The debate over reparations to descendants of slaves contains a wide range of diverse viewpoints and involves many ethical, moral and legal issues (Bowman). To properly analyze this complex situation and form an educated opinion, one must understand the basic pieces forming the reparations puzzle. Understanding who was impacted by the institution of slavery, when they were impacted, how they were impacted, where slavery took place, and what exactly took place will help create a better understanding of both sides of the debate. It has been estimated that a half of a million slaves were shipped to the United States from Africa in 1807, the year the slave trade was abolished. However, the slave population grew to four million by 1860 (Bowman). When the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, the bill to abolish slavery, ex-slaves still suffered from harsh discrimination. The topic of slavery and the reparations to the descendants of those slaves is a complicated one. The decision to support or deny slave reparations affects millions of people: those who will receive payment and those who will pay. The argument presented in this essay will display that reparations for slavery are not only complicated but impossible to accurately distribute. The lack of historical documentation and the impact on those who were uninvolved in the institution of slavery that will have to pay the price will display some of the many reasons why reparations simply should not happen.
...on American soil, they were treated with disrespect and forced into a life of servitude and pain. However, they were able to change adapt and find hope even when it didn’t seem as though there was any to be found. The African American culture has been greatly shaped around what their ancestors were put through and the struggles that they endured. The pain and suffering that was inflicted among them will never be forgotten and will forever be apart of the African American culture.
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.
Ta-Nehisi Coates article titled The Case for Reparations is a lengthy article about different issues that faced the black community from the past to the present and the struggle to acquire reparations for them. Coates brought issues back to light after they were bury by society. He mention things that I was aware of and things I had no idea happened. It was an enlighten piece that should be recognized for its accomplishments in discussing the issues of the past that still occur in the present.
The question of reparations for black communities as a way to repay for the wrongdoings and discrimination towards them in America is an extremely controversial subject and it is a question that has been lingering for decades. Morally, African Americans, and black communities in general, are owed reparations for slavery and segregation, which left a legacy of lost wealth and opportunity. Although I believe every black individual who faces injustices should be dealt reparations, not only is it not practical, but many people have opinions on the matter that differ greatly from mine. From an economic standpoint, it is not possible to pay reparations to every black individual who faces backlash from the past. It is, however, practical to pay reparations