Charis pulei

Introduction

Racial Justice. Racial justice has become a more and more spoken about issue in the last decade. With the new cultural norm of everyone having an HD camera in their back pocket, violence against the African American community is finally receiving recognition. Although justice is not always served, at least not in the timely manner that it should. As was the case for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd as well as many others. With this, conversations about oppression have been reignited to global levels. With the hopes that the bar for racial justice can be risen from, ‘don’t kill us’ to equal opportunity in the workplace; equal access to education, housing, child care etc.

This is what “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates plants the seed for. “The Case for Reparations” is a narrative and informative article that leads the reader through history from the point of view of an African American. In it, the reader learns about Jim crow law, how black people were tricked out of houses and had their money stolen. As well as lynching, systematic racism and how America has been built unlawfully off the backs of the African American community. Coates opens the essay in the childhood of Clyde Ross, in 1927. Throughout the paper, we, as the reader, follow Ross though his life. As he encounters the setbacks of systematic racism, Coates explains how these different forms of oppression operated and their lasting effects. As we work through the article not only do we learn about racism and its contemporary effects. But we also feel its impact (as best we can) through the sympathy we feel reading Ross’s experiences.

The concept of reparations is important as it acknowledges the wrongdoing and centuries of pain inflicted on African Americans. As well as addressing that fact that if we want to have a fully functioning society, all members of that society need to be equal. I write this essay being a woman of colour and part of Generation Z. My generation has been hailed as “ more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, and they are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet. They are also digital natives.” (Parker & Igielnik, 2020). Due to this standing in history, I feel it is my generation’s duty to do as much as they can to better the world. And in this case, I will explain why reparations are not only the ethical choice but why productive reparations will benefit America as a whole.

Oppression through history (old and new)

Historically the African-American Community has been marginalized and oppressed in many different ways. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay ‘The Case for Reparations’ lists several of them: e.g. being denied a quality education, by segregation and lack of transportation. Local white children had a school bus. Clyde Ross did not, and thus lost the chance to better his education(Coates, 2014). Or when the law would be used against them for instance:

When Mississippi authorities claimed his father owed $3,000 in back taxes, the elder Ross could not read. He did not have a lawyer. The Ross family had - no protection under the law. The authorities seized the land. They seized the buggy. They took the cows, hogs, and mules. And so for the upkeep of separate but equal, the entire Ross family was reduced to sharecropping. (Coates, 2014). Or in the 1930s to 1960s when being a contract seller was all the rage; essentially stealing from black families.

The men who peddled contracts in North Lawndale would sell homes at inflated prices and then evict families who could not pay—taking their down payment and their monthly installments as profit. Then they’d bring in another black family, rinse, and repeat. “He loads them up with payments they can’t meet,” an office secretary told The Chicago Daily News of her boss, the speculator Lou Fushanis, in 1963. “Then he takes the property away from them. He’s sold some of the buildings three or four times. (Coates, 2014)

These examples, although from the (not so distant) past, have helped to create the current poverty cycle that is so prevalent today in the African American community. As well as the ghettos that have been formed over generations, by black families that having finally been able to own houses or have been resigned to certain areas in a city e.g. the projects in New York.

More recently we have seen police brutality spike. In the first 8 months of 2020, 164 black people were killed by police. CBS News created a list of all 164, with their stories listed next to their names. Even from this list the “data is based on reported and verified cases, and does not necessarily account for all incidents in which a person was killed by police. But based on the known cases, police have killed at least one Black person every week”(Police in the U.S. killed 164 Black people in the first 8 months of 2020. These are their names. (Part I: January-April), n.d.)

Productive Reparations

From this, we can see the systematic and ever-present operation endured by people of colour in the states. As well as how this oppression has negative consequences for the whole country. Making reparations even more needed; but how? How should reparations be given out, and to whom? Handing out money on the side of the road would do little to help the oppressed. In such a scenario some may use the money for groceries, others to fuel a drug addiction and who’s to say the people receiving the money actually need it. No, reparations will not and can not be a blind handout to anyone with melanin. Rather I would argue for productive reparations. What I mean by this is that money is not directly given but is used to benefit and make success easier for people groups that have been historically marginalised. This could be done by providing free child care, minimising interest on loans to black-owned small businesses, giving free quality education (improving schools in predominantly black counties) and free transportation. In my view, by putting reparation money into these sorts of systems, and indirectly giving the reparations they would be more productive. It wouldn’t meet the immediate gratification that I'm sure many people would like. Nor would it make as profound a statement as handing over hundreds of millions of dollars. But this slow build-up and investment in the African American community would in the long run help to level the playing field financially. This doesn't mean that other steps wouldn't need to be taken, but it would be a good starting point.

Another form of productive reparations would be to give the land back to African American farmers and Ranchers. Allowing them to grow their farms/ ranches, in effect raising their income. As well as the workforce needed, meaning jobs would be created. And subsequently more money would be put into their local economy. It would also be beneficial if people convicted of petty crimes, that are now being considered legal, such as possession of marijuana, were released. Releasing petty criminals more directly affects the fact that black men are incarcerated at a much steeper rate than white men. “According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 2018 report, Black men counted 34% of the total male prison population, white men 29%, and Hispanic males 24%.”(Zeng & Statistician, 2020). Due to this black families do not have dual incomes and many black children go without their fathers, both of which have correlations with the perpetuation of the poverty cycle.

Evidence why Productive reparations would work

By making reparations productive in this way, the money is sure to create long term change, rather than go to the immediate needs of an individual. This would make meritocracy a conceivable notion for the African American community, as they would be given the same advantages that caucasians have had for generations. In addition to this I believe a formal and public apology would need to be made for the perpetuation of systemic racism and a promise to improve. This can be proved by things such as adding more black stories to history books and the removal of confederate statues.

In the case of releasing prisoners, we can see a clear benefit for black children as “the poverty rate for black children in mother-only households is almost four times higher than those living in married-couple households: 46 versus 12 percent.” (Cherry, 2020). By completing these nuclear families, children are 34% less likely to be impoverished. This combined with the other productive reparations I have suggested, would come near to ensuring success.

By lowering the average interest rate on small business loans, it would allow small black business to prosper exponentially. And due to the nature of them being a small business they would then be able to invest back into their communities. Creating jobs and improving the economy.

Finally according to The Center for American Progress “The results of the child care spending analysis show that among working families with children under age 5 that pay for child care, average child care spending amounts to nearly 10 percent of the average family income.”(Working Families Are Spending Big Money on Child Care,R. Malik 2019) By providing things like free child care, not only would parents have more money to work with. They would also have more time to invest in their careers success (the economy) and in their children's education (the future of the nation). Over all by paying reparations through the cost of giving free resources, it would be giving black families a leg up. One that many others have always had.

Why reparations should be given

Although, I do acknowledge that there are many people that would disagree with my standpoint. Some may disagree on how these reparations should be dealt out. To these people I welcome discussion. As long as reparations are given and in a way that best benefits the African American community, I can be in agreement.

Others may disagree that reparations should be given at all. Arguing that reparations would be giving money to thoughts who haven’t worked for it. I would like to remind people with such a standpoint the African American community is primarily responsible for the economic foundation that America stands on today. 250 years of slavery built trading systems, agricultural marketplaces, as well as many of the other masts of post-colonial America. This free labour allowed America to grow exponentially but stifled the community who made it possible. Even when slavery was over black people worked more hours for lesser pay lived in poor housing and endured racism and violence on a daily. This systemic oppression limits opportunities (meaning african Americans can't ‘just work for the money’) and builds the poverty cycle that is so heavily dominated by the African American community. Black people were and are killed, stolen from and then patronized to when they ask for help. Who is anyone to say that the long history African-Americans have suffered through does not deserve reparations?

Conclusion

In conclusion, reparations should be paid. And they should be given in creative and productive ways. Not as handouts but in a structural way that pays African Americans indirectly but benefits them greatly (through the cost of giving free resources). Not only is this the morally correct thing to do; but it will benefit the country as a whole as poverty levels would lower, small businesses would thrive, employment and education rates would sore, so on and so forth. By removing inequality in this way there would be a domino effect on all aspects of society, which can only improve our world.

Sources

Coates, T.-N. (2014, May 22). The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Atlantic; The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

Parker, K., & Igielnik, R. (2020, May 30). On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far. Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far/

Zeng, Z., & Statistician, B. (2020). Jail Inmates in 2018. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji18.pdf

Police in the U.S. killed 164 Black people in the first 8 months of 2020. These are their names. (Part I: January-April). (n.d.). Www.Cbsnews.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/black-people-killed-by-police-in-the-u-s-in-2020/

Cherry, R. (2020, April 30). The Difficult Childbearing Choices Facing Black Women. RealClearPolicy. https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2020/04/30/the_difficult_childbearing_choices_facing_black_women_490362.html

Working Families Are Spending Big Money on Child Care. (2019, June 20). Center for American Progress. Rasheed Malik https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2019/06/20/471141/working-families-spending-big-money-child-care/#:%7E:text=The%20results%20of%20the%20child,and%20Human%20Services’%20definition%20of