The Case For Reparations

The Case for Reparations

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The Case for Reparations

Introduction

The article 'The Case of Reparations', provided a brief outline and history of segregation in American society. The article presented different case studies to highlight how American society and laws discriminate the Blackman. They were not able to make their properties and were enslaved for more than 250 years. They were deprived of all sorts of socio-economic rights. They were specified for lower-level jobs and education was not available for them. Law and enforcement agencies were not treating them equally. There was huge segregation in the housing colonies of black and white people. The article also presented the efforts that were made to improve the situation in American society. Different methods were used for repressions for black people. But still, there could be found a huge amount of dissatisfaction among the different races of the society and the country could be found in two major segments. This classification of society was not on the bases of rich or poor, but on the color of a person. The society was divided into two classes of black and white people.

The Segregation and Reparations

The Case of Reparations provided an outlook on American society during the past four centuries. The focus of this article was to highlight the prejudice and biased behavior of American society towards the Blackman. In this article, the writer presented stories of different black people. In these stories, he tried to highlight the nature and causes of the unjust behavior of society towards the Blackman. Among the stories of the Blackman, one story was about Clyde Ross. His parents were economically well settled. Ross was a child when the authorities of Mississippi accused his father of not paying taxes and seized all of their property. Ross could not complete study, because his school was far from home and he was not allowed to use school transport as the white children normally did. His family got a very minor share in their agricultural products. He entered the army and fought in World War Two. In 1947, he migrated to Chicago and took a job. In 1963, he tried to buy a home for his family, but could not do so, as black people were not legally allowed to buy a home.

Then the writer, highlighted the different types of manipulative tools that were used against the Blackman. Areas of black people were ranked as lower class. The Whiteman became rich by exploiting the economic rights of the Blackman. According to the Pew Research Centre, there was huge economic inequality among the white and black people. White people were 20 times wealthier as compared to black people. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ikR9s7iG","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Coates, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Coates, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":950,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/36IG9N2V"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/36IG9N2V"],"itemData":{"id":950,"type":"article-magazine","title":"The Case for Reparations","container-title":"The Atlantic","source":"The Atlantic","abstract":"Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.","URL":"https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/","ISSN":"1072-7825","author":[{"family":"Coates","given":"Story by Ta-Nehisi"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014",6]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,24]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Coates, 2014). Black people generally, did not live among the upper-middle class of white people.

Some steps were taken to compensate the Blackman for the injustices that had been practiced throughout history. In the late 18th century. Belinda Royall was a black woman who remained a slave for more than fifty years. She was given a pension as compensations. There were discussions in the UK and the USA, on how to compensate former slaves. But practically, very few steps were taken to protect the socio-economic rights of the Blackman.

Concluding Remarks

American society was divided into two categories of White and Black people. It was considered fair to manipulate the socio-economic rights of the Blackman. White people were considered to be superior. As John Booth wrote, ‘America was for the white people and not for the Blackman’. There was a significant prejudiced behavior of society towards black people and they were not considered as equal citizens. Although, we could see some efforts that were made compensate the Blackman. But practically, the situation did not improve much. We need to improve the situation by using modern means of communication to create harmony among different segments of society. We need to revamp the mindset of the general public as well as the authorities to improve the prejudice situation in society. There should be public campaigns on social and electronic media that can give birth to a balanced society.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Coates, S. by T.-N. (2014, June). The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/