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Reparations are a way to make amends to people who have wronged, and this can happen at any level. Whether it be small with only a few people or on a larger scale with many people involved, the bigger scaled reparations usually happen with governments and giving back to minorities that have been wronged. The idea of reparations has been talked about for many years, to be given to all of the black people living in America. Since the dawn of America there have been injustices toward black people, and it has continued to the present day. There have been no changes made and there have been talks about changing up no change has really happened. Coverage about reparations has increased and more people are starting to talk about making this change, to pay back these people who have suffered their entire life just because of their skin color. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an essay called “The Case for Reparations” which talks about what reparations are, what they mean to people and why they have not been passed yet in America. The idea of reparations has been talked about for many years. The first discussion of reparations happened after slavery ended. Coates begins his discussion on reparations by talking about what has happened to these people after slavery had ended, they weren’t able to buy housing with mortages and they were giving more money to sleezey salesmen. This is not the only offense, but one that Coates felt passionate about, to show the injustices in a real situation. Once again these ideas were brought up to the people in the government, there were people who wanted something to change and to give these people some compensation for their generations of suffering. What they came up with was a bill called HR-40. HR 40, also known as the Commision to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, is a bill that has been thrown about the Senate floors for years. It was initially proposed by John Conyers JR and he has been fighting for over 25 years for these reparations to happen. Coates talks about the ideas that Coyner had for this reparation bill and just how it wasn’t going to work. There has been much discussion about the bill and what it stands for. Coyner, and Coates, wanted the black people of America to get something in return for the horrible treatment they have faced since the dawn of America. Yet, there is something more that Coates thinks is the issue with reparations. He says, “suggests that our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential.” (page 21). This idea that Coates has is that reparations will not be achievable unless we do something to change the American government. This country was founded directly upon racisms and racists ideas, people we were owning people of colour when our country started and these ideas that anyone who is not white if inferreiour is still something that we are struggling with today. We still live with the racist ideas of government, and if that doesn’t change then we will never be able to repay the black people for the trauma and hurt they have been put through for generations.
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Reparations are something that need to happen. These people deserve closure and equality, they deserve a repayment for the terrors of America’s past. If nothing gets changed, if America doesn’t see its faults there will never be any growth. These racist ways have been ingrained in the minds of Americans for years and if there is no change in how the country is run there will not be any closure for the actions of the past. Reparations are needed for many families and we must see their hardships and adapt to give them some relief. At this moment there has been a movement to start and create change. America is nowhere near where it needs to be to accept the changes that need to be made, but we are headed in the right direction. Younger generations are getting older, and gaining power within the government and we can create change that is needed. We need to be able to open our arms to the people who have been hurt and give them some compensation for the hurt that they have lived through. We are headed in the right direction to finally accept and enable reparations but there are still so many steps that we need to take.
