...Mariah Crawford 11/4/2015 HISTORY It has been argued for years whether or not black people deserve reparations in regards to their enslaved ancestors. Although many people feel it is a good idea, the government keeps opposing it. They are afraid to publicly admit their past wrongdoings towards slaves. In fact the United States never kept record of the slave population making it hard to decipher who exact descendants are and how much they deserve. They don’t want to extend funds to all African Americans since they are the dominant population of the country. The slave was the basis of economic success in the early beginnings of our country. They suffered through years of abuse to boost the economy but never actually reaped the benefits themselves. The south flourished with profits from cash crops such as cotton, tobacco and sugar. Slave owners treated their slaves however they pleased; meaning as inhumanely as possible. To them, slaves weren't people just valuable possessions. Slave masters not only provided unethical living conditions but also brutally beat and raped (sometimes impregnating) their slaves....
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...conflict, African Americans were finally free of slavery; but even 150 years later, African Americans are still not treated equally. I’m sure we can all agree that African Americans deserve some sort of repayment for all the past injustices that were committed against them. This brings me to my first point. There is indeed a need for reparations. Throughout the 1500s, European slave traders abducted native Africans and shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean in terrible conditions. According to the Transatlantic Slave trade database 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to North America, the West Indies, or South America. Out of the 12.5 million Africans, only 10.7 million survived the horrible voyage. Upon arrival, they were separated from their family and sold to different slave-owners. At each of their plantations, they worked from dusk till dawn, with no payment except enough food to keep them breathing. These people were entitled to compensation, but received nothing of the likes. Slaves were also a major part of the United States economy, so this is another reason that they deserve compensation. According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, slave-grown cotton provided for over half of all US export earnings. And by 1840, the South grew 60% of the world’s cotton and 70% of all cotton consumed by the British textile industry, which is the largest textile industry in the world. Clearly these African Americans definitely deserve monetary reparations, but...
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...Reparations has long been an issue of contention. In an article published in “The Atlantic” Coates makes arguments in support for reparations, while telling the story of Clyde Ross. Coates major arguments for reparations included the wealth inequality, segregation and racism. Housing and home ownership for African Americans once was extremely limited. Local banks and poorly written government policies permitted segregation and discrimination against African Americans. They were taken advantage of by the system, absence of traditional home loans left African Americans with limited options. Including overpayment for housing while purchasing on contract. Black employee wages were lower than that of white employees and the cost of living was higher for the African Americans. Money was a major contributor to the inequality of the races. Coates argues that America’s wealth was made of the backs of the black slaves. It was the labor that the slaves provided that generated profits for white Americans. Slave trade was yet another means for the white race to increase their wealth off the backs of the African Americans. Closing wealth gaps is a particularly difficult task when the gap in education continues to widen. Segregation of housing and limited educational opportunities contributed to...
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...Consideration for Reparations Harriet Bailey had just given birth to her son, the product of a rape committed by her white master, when she was separated from him at birth. Harriet had to travel 12 miles at night to see her infant son and spend a a few hours with him, only to journey back early the following morning to her reality as a slave. This woman, the mother of Frederick Douglass, represented many of the victims of a common slave practice: Separation, arranged by slave owners in order to “hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 2). Douglass presents such inhumane treatments done to him, his family, and others in his autobiography,...
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...“Calculating Reparations” by William Raspberry, is an online newspaper article, obviously about reparations. Reparations are a debt that is repaid to a certain group and in this article, it focuses on the reparations that “White America” owes “Black America”. It can be easily understood that black Americans have gone through a plethora of things while in this country: slavery, segregation, endless discrimination, etc. Richard America (this is his actual name) is a professor at Georgetown University School of Business has stated that reparations must be acknowledged; that the acknowledgement will help Americans get past ceaseless debates over “set-asides”, enforced diversity, and affirmative action. While the professor doesn’t believe that the costs of these...
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...but for the worse. There has still not been a reparation for slavery in the United States, and racism has reached a frightening level recently after Trump became the president. Ancestors of the slaves should not expect much help from the government in the coming years to resolve this injustice. It does not seem like there will be compensation for the African American families affected because the greatest conflict about this reparation is who is going to pay for it. Some arguments have been made that the companies who benefitted the most from slave labor should pay these families, but the problem with that is that many of those companies do not exist...
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...In her article “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for why African Americans should be paid back for all of the injustices they had to, and continue to, endure. Granting reparations would be more than just handing out money to blacks to make up for the astronomical wealth gap certain discriminatory actions and policies have created, though. Coates said that making “reparations to those on whose labor...
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...According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary reparations are “the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury; it is something done or given as amends or satisfaction; the payment of damages compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation” (merriam-webster.com). “The paying of descendants of enslaved Africans for free labor of their ancestors. Supporters argue that the government of the United States at one time sanctioned enslavement and now it should try to remedy the effects of it by paying the descendants of the enslaved for their work” (Asante, Molefi Kete 486). I interviewed a diverse group and asked if they felt that due to the long stretch of years of oppression and torture African Americans have gone through in this country should they be given reparations and if so how. The group I interviewed included family, friends and co-workers: my son a seventeen year old African American male who is Baptist, a co-worker a twenty-five year old Caucasian female who is Catholic, a co-worker a forty-four year old Latin American male who is Catholic, and a good friend a thirty-five year old African American female who is Muslim. The twenty-five year old Caucasian female believes that there is no price for compensation applicable to those today that had their enslaved ancestors suffer. Even if compensation were...
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...Ta-Nehisi Coates's article, “The Case for Reparations,” describes the extent of the oppression and racism of the American government towards its black citizens and how the nation could repay them. The underlying notions of racism have roots deep into the history of America. Dating back to slavery, black people in America have been abused politically, socially, and economically. We as a country have tried several times to make amends for these damages, only to have them to drive the divide further. The government created laws and bills that have been disguised to socially and economically benefit the disadvantaged of society. However, it did not work in favor of black citizens. It created a biased system, one that disproportionately benefitted...
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...The article, “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates summarizes the time of the period that Racism and discrimination is a problem issue happening in American Society. In the article, Coates talks about Clyde Ross’s life during that time of period. Although, the benefit is a little better for the black people after the Civil War, the blacks still are treated unfairly compared to the whites. The blacks still didn’t receive the equal rights that the whites had. They even have to pursue later on the whites. Coates argues that even though the slavery and segregation have ended, but there was nevertheless a substantial divergence between the salary of the blacks and the tweeds. Because of the crevice in riches, accomplishment, and an extensive variety of wellbeing and welfare conclusions in the middle of highly contrasting Americans is the consequence of intentional approach choices. Most of the black families are not as wealthy as the whites in America’s society. Some the black families, even earned less than the white by the same duties or extended hours only for the...
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...Position Paper #1 After reading this week’s articles, I have found that Ta-Nehisi Coates brings to light many facts about how being black in this country has been very hard since we go here in the 1600s. Not only does he talk about the hardships and basically terrorism of black slaves in the south, but he also talks about how blacks in the north also had to face terrible racism in ways that didn’t necessarily have to do with the then traditional field picking. Black Americans in the north were punished by whites in ways that not only affected the one generation but also the generations to come as they were put in debt and taken granted for everything they owned more than one time. The position that Coates makes for reparations is very well written and serves justice for all the bad that has been happening to blacks since we came to this country. One thing that I found interesting was when he was talking about the federal Housing Authority in Chicago in the mid 1930’s. The FHA created a map that was color coded with red and green. In the green areas of the map they were marked with an “A” meaning in demand, in other words a place where very little or no blacks lived at all. The other areas of the map were blacks were present were giving the letter ”D” and were colored red, which meant The FHA were not giving any help too whatsoever. The article said that black people were considered contagious. It is very disturbing to know that our federal government would do such oblivious...
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...The Impact of Slavery on American Society DeVry University Abstract The subject of slavery has been the focus of a variety of controversies, debates, and protests throughout American history. Besides the Civil War era there has not been another time in history when slavery has been such a volatile topic as it has become in the last half decade. Even in modern day America the subject of slavery evokes significant discussions and has influenced legislative decisions such as the recent removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s State House grounds and other government and public locations throughout the South. This paper seeks to review the literature attaching the history of slavery and present examples of the ethnic and cultural contributions that aided in the growth and diversity of America. It will also introduce examples of today’s societal issues including educational, economic, and social variances; the right to support cultural heritage; and the significant role history plays in influencing decisions made in America today. Introduction American history is filled with heinous acts that many would like to forget happened; slavery is no exception. Although it was a necessity of the times, slavery is undoubtedly one of the most volatile topics of discussion today; not just because of the inhuman and discriminatory treatment that was inflicted on an entire race, but also because of the perceived continued existence of some of those same...
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...In this article the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, informs his audience about how African Americans were taken an advantage of over our history. Clyde Ross was an African American man that Coates wrote his story about. Clyde Ross was raised on a farm with his thirteen other siblings. His parents gave Clyde a red horse when he was young and he took great care of it. The Ross family was very poor and was accused of not paying their taxes. Due to this accusation, the authorities took their land away from them, along with their livestock. The only livestock they had left was Clyde’s horse, which they took away from him later too. This was not just happening to the Ross family; many other African American families were being treated the exact same way....
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...Due to much of the publicity, some of these artists are put on such a high pedestal that they go to extremes by acting out their music and wind up being horrible role models, ruining the names they made for themselves. On the other hand, some artists in hip-hop culture see a political trend form and decide to incite it with heart-grasping lyrics that pertain to the governmental issues. From the 1970s to current times, there is a pattern emerging that Americans are willing to listen to politically subjected songs that hip-hop artists have written as signs of political trends. America’s changes through hip-hop culture have had some influences on the government and public as a whole through significantly realistic lyrics, violence, and trend-setters. Since 1979, when Sugarhill Gang came out with “Rapper’s Delight”, hip-hop music has been “all the rage” for about three decades (Blanchard 1). Hip-hop came from the different genres of jazz, gospel, reggae, and soul, all collaborated into the music styles of the African-American culture (Blanchard 2). Hip-hop culture became so popular from the incredible and unorthodox music, producers and hip-hop artists collaborate, creating catchy beats behind the vocals. In modern-day hip-hop, audiences hear artists like Eminem and Ludacris, listening to their lyrics and the stories that intertwine...
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...that racism is over and accused the party of trying too hard to appeal to African American voters. The message the Republicans distributed only shows how the government continues to undermine the on-going mistreatment of African Americans. Racism has no sight of ending because for centuries the economic and social gaps between African Americans and Caucasians have steadily increased, and it will be impossible to close if we depend solely on time to fix it. Other races have received reparations for what they went through, but for some unknown reason African Americans were expected to get over their trauma because a couple of laws were passed to free them from state recognized slavery. Silence needs to be broken against racism in order to open the government’s eyes to the continuous discrimination faced by African Americans daily, in addition to the centuries of torture. Jews in Europe were victimized by Nazi Germany for a small fraction of the amount of time blacks suffered and Germany paid both the individuals and the state. Enslaved Africans, on the other hand, had slavery “abolished,” and were allowed to buy stale pieces of land in order to make crops to sell and use that money to pay back their white oppressors. The government expects people to believe that racism ended, but they see nothing wrong with Caucasians getting paid for unfair treatment that only lasted twelve years when African Americans were abused for nearly three centuries and counting and received nothing...
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