The Case For Reparations By Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Essayist and author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, has composed several works. They vary from essays to books and he uses his platform to discuss cultural, political, and social issues. Two of his major works are his essay, “The Case for Reparations”, and his memoir, “The Beautiful Struggle”. The circumstances that Coates encountered within his memoir are a result of everything that he discussed his essay. He believes that there should be a case of reparations for the African-American people. Reparations is defined as the act of making amends, giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury, or helping those who have been wronged. Coates argues that no one really has a solid idea on how to go about reparations for African-Americans. This is due to the fact …show more content…

Coates lived in the ghettos of West Baltimore with his siblings and parents. None of them could go to expensive private schools, they had to attend the public schools that were close by because of conditions back in the past such as poverty and oppression due to their skin color. Coates’ father also had to take charge of their family because he was aware of the fact that opportunities would not come easily to his children due to the way society was arranged. Similarly, a man by the name of Clyde Ross moved to the ghettos of Chicago during the Great Migration. Because he was African-American, he was charged an extremely high price for his home, and to keep up with the payments he “took a second job at the post office and then a third job delivering pizza”. The money Ross made could not continue to go into the making up and decorating of the house or taking the best possible care of his family, the money always ended up with the already rich white home sellers. This was the case for many black people so places such as these turned into the ghettos. The poverty and oppression that Coates had to endure was the exact same poverty and oppression that Ross had to endure. In his essay, “The Case for Reparations”, Coates sites Harvard historian, Walter Johnson, who claims that “slaves were the single largest

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