Reparations For African American Reparations Essay

Introduction

Reparations for African Americans over slavery and institutional racism has been debated in the United States for the past 150 years, ever since the end of the American Civil War. Since the war ended in 1865, African Americans have continued to still struggled through Jim Crow laws, the fight for civil rights, and President Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. Many have called out for justice and demanded reparations be made to the African Americans whose lives were tarnished at the hands of these cruelties. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer and journalist considered well versed in the issue (MacArthur Association), wrote a popular piece in the Atlantic arguing for reparations. He wrote of the atrocities faced by African Americans in the housing market during Roosevelt's New Deal and how reparations should be made. Reparations are a highly complex issue that has been debated frequently in the United States. While some advocates have pushed towards reparations for the individuals or families, a variety of issues are brought up,this brings up a variety of issues, from the people that qualify for reparations, who qualifies for them to how much each person would should receive. Instead, the money should be invested in under-developed cities with large African American populations. It is the obligation of the United States to make
After all, no one alive today was a slave or owned slaves. While this is true, slavery was only part of the issue. There was also the long lasting Jim Crow laws, the psychological effects they had on African Americans, institutional racism in housing, and the oppression of civil rights. This moves the date of those affected from the mid 1800’s to the first half of the 1900’s and even modern day. Kevin Williamson of the National Review wrote in response to Coates, saying of how, “[t]he people to whom reparations were owed are long dead,” (Williamson