For
Tuesday: Coates, “The Case for Reparations”
Answer
TWO of the following:
Q1:
Coates gives us a prominent naysayer early in the essay, Philadelphia
Q2:
What does Coates mean when he writes, “To proudly claim the veteran and disown
the slaveowner is patriotism à la carte” (19)? Or, as he says at the end of the
essay, “To celebrate freedom and democracy while forgetting America
Q3:
Many people would argue that the past is past: it’s ancient history, and
we’ll never move forward if we become mired in old arguments and ideas. Yet
Coates argues that “We cannot escape our history. All of our solutions to the
great problems of health care, education, housing, and economic inequality are
troubled by what must go unspoken” (46-47). How does he support this argument
in his essay? Where to the ‘sins of the fathers’ haunt their children and
grandchildren?
Q4:
Critics of reparations would cite people like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama,
who are not only successful but have reached a standard of living greater than
millions of white Americans. And yet, Coates says that “Barack and Michelle
Obama have won. But they’ve won by being twice as good—and enduring twice as
much” (15). Or, as he says later, “Some black people always will be twice as
good. But they generally find white predation to be thrice as fast” (37). What
does he mean by this? Is this simply a ‘sour grapes’ attitude? What evidence
does he offer that many African-Americans (and other ethnic minorities) have to
work twice as hard for the same rights and privileges as their white peers?
Q1. Coates argues that African Americans can not simply change their style of clothes and begin to be treated equally. People to not discriminate against the because of their sagging pants, they discriminate because the color of their skin is different than most. Other factors leading to poverty and disparity in these inner-city African-American neighborhoods are the fact that their parents can't get good paying jobs. This leads to not being able to afford a nice home, and buying less and less food for their families.
ReplyDeleteQ3. We seem to never escape from out past because it is always there, haunting us. Coates supports this in his essay by talking about how African American children born into ghetto communities never seem to get out. And even if they work hard enough to make it out, they suffer the loss of watching their own children fall into their old path. Or they are left with to pay off the debt after their own parents have passed on. Thus leading to a never-ending cycle of living with the "sins of their fathers."
Cameron Corbin “The Case for Reperations”
ReplyDelete2. According to dictionary.com, a la carte means “with a separate price for each dish offered on the menu. In the context of the essay, Coates is stating that we have a great number of people in this country who celebrate a false brand of patriotism. They seem patriotic on the outside, they play the part well; but they alienate an entire portion of our countries population by insisting their problems are completely self made and half nothing to do with the oppression of African Americans by the U.S. Government. These so called “patriots’ celebrate a supposed freedom that everyone in America is supposed to have, but clearly isn’t the case in practice as is seen with the oppression African Americans have gone through.
4. Coates means that even though there have been numerous examples of success in the black community, those shining lights have had to work twice as hard as someone who is white would have had to work. I don’t believe that this is a “sour grapes attitude” at all, the reason being because there are numerous examples in our society of this being true. Coates gives the example of the disastrous African American housing situation throughout our history. Even in our present day, it is harder for an African American family making one hundred thousand a year to live the same quality of life as a white family making the same amount.
Q1. Coates argues that simply acting ‘respectable’ and providing positive roles models for youth isn’t going to arrest or reverse the problem because if children grow up around a negative environment that is all they know and what they think is normal. This causes them not to think that they can make it out because they don't see anything positive come out of their own family. History repeats itself so if that's what they grow up in that's usually what they become. Other factors that lead to poverty in inner African-American cities is people may not be able to get a good job because of where they are from and others may look at them a certain way because of that. This causes the people of the city not be able to get fairly good jobs and that is why most them suffer from poverty.
ReplyDeleteQ3. People's past make them who they are, good or bad. It is impossible to escape. Many people that make it out of African-American inner cities still have to deal with the negativity from where they once were from. Their family is still there or they know a lot of people from. So when tragedy strikes they are faced with sorrow. People in general are looked at based on their past. This makes it hard to outlive what you once were or what you once did. Everyone grows and changes but not everyone sees it that way. People that make it out have to deal with what their family has passed on to them so that would be ‘sins of the fathers’ haunt their children and grandchildren.
Q3. I agree with coates when he says tgat we cannot escape our past because even though tge might make it out of the ghetto they only know how to raise tgere kids like kids from tge ghetto are raised because thats all they new. Is how there parents raised them and people will also never let you forget the past.
ReplyDeleteQ1 even though they can look respectable doesnt mean they are and all they know is how there parents raised them and it goes right back to the history and how the parents were raised that determine how theyll act so even if they look respectful it doesnt matter unless they act respectful.