Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Ta-Nehisi Coates: "THE CASE FOR REPARATION" A Must Read-Let it marinate in your mind & read it again [View all]
Posted by Soonergrunt at 10:15 am
May 22 2014
Go read it if you havent already, and if you have, let it marinate in your mind and read it again. Its a long read and youll find new things.
The crime with which reparations activists charge the country implicates more than just a few towns or corporations. The crime indicts the American people themselves, at every level, and in nearly every configuration. A crime that implicates the entire American people deserves its hearing in the legislative body that represents them.
The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
MAY 21, 2014
.........................
(snippet)
Clyde Ross, photographed in November 2013 in his home in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, where he has lived for more than 50 years. When he first tried to get a legitimate mortgage, he was denied; mortgages were effectively not available to black people. (Carlos Javier Ortiz)
When Clyde Ross was still a child, Mississippi authorities claimed his father owed $3,000 in back taxes. The elder Ross could not read. He did not have a lawyer. He did not know anyone at the local courthouse. He could not expect the police to be impartial. Effectively, the Ross family had no way to contest the claim and 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.
This was hardly unusual. In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned land stretching back to the antebellum period. The series documented some 406 victims and 24,000 acres of land valued at tens of millions of dollars. The land was taken through means ranging from legal chicanery to terrorism. Some of the land taken from black families has become a country club in Virginia, the AP reported, as well as oil fields in Mississippi and a baseball spring training facility in Florida.
Clyde Ross was a smart child. His teacher thought he should attend a more challenging school. There was very little support for educating black people in Mississippi. But Julius Rosenwald, a part owner of Sears, Roebuck, had begun an ambitious effort to build schools for black children throughout the South. Rosss teacher believed he should attend the local Rosenwald school. It was too far for Ross to walk and get back in time to work in the fields. Local white children had a school bus. Clyde Ross did not, and thus lost the chance to better his education.
Then, when Ross was 10 years old, a group of white men demanded his only childhood possessionthe horse with the red coat. You cant have this horse. We want it, one of the white men said. They gave Rosss father $17.
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
MAY 21, 2014
.........................
(snippet)
Clyde Ross, photographed in November 2013 in his home in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, where he has lived for more than 50 years. When he first tried to get a legitimate mortgage, he was denied; mortgages were effectively not available to black people. (Carlos Javier Ortiz)
When Clyde Ross was still a child, Mississippi authorities claimed his father owed $3,000 in back taxes. The elder Ross could not read. He did not have a lawyer. He did not know anyone at the local courthouse. He could not expect the police to be impartial. Effectively, the Ross family had no way to contest the claim and 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.
This was hardly unusual. In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned land stretching back to the antebellum period. The series documented some 406 victims and 24,000 acres of land valued at tens of millions of dollars. The land was taken through means ranging from legal chicanery to terrorism. Some of the land taken from black families has become a country club in Virginia, the AP reported, as well as oil fields in Mississippi and a baseball spring training facility in Florida.
Clyde Ross was a smart child. His teacher thought he should attend a more challenging school. There was very little support for educating black people in Mississippi. But Julius Rosenwald, a part owner of Sears, Roebuck, had begun an ambitious effort to build schools for black children throughout the South. Rosss teacher believed he should attend the local Rosenwald school. It was too far for Ross to walk and get back in time to work in the fields. Local white children had a school bus. Clyde Ross did not, and thus lost the chance to better his education.
Then, when Ross was 10 years old, a group of white men demanded his only childhood possessionthe horse with the red coat. You cant have this horse. We want it, one of the white men said. They gave Rosss father $17.
I did everything for that horse, Ross told me. Everything. And they took him. Put him on the racetrack. I never did know what happened to him after that, but I know they didnt bring him back. So thats just one of my losses.
.......................
Long, but SO, SO important & well written (I never say MUST READ-but this is an exception, great pics too):
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
TA NEHISI COATES HAS THE OPEN THREAD THAT WAS PROMISED:
Oh SH-T. He says its Uncurated. That means its OPEN open as in no moderators.
Watch out for trolls.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/how-to-comment-on-reparations/371422/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
132 replies, 11719 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (34)
ReplyReply to this post
132 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Ta-Nehisi Coates: "THE CASE FOR REPARATION" A Must Read-Let it marinate in your mind & read it again [View all]
kpete
May 2014
OP
James Fallows recommends this, comparing the US to Germany, China, Russia, Japan and South Africa
pampango
May 2014
#1
I have been nothing short of astonished at how little traction this story has gotten here
Number23
May 2014
#15
"have fed from the govt. teet for your entire life." Actually he SERVED his country.
Kurska
May 2014
#40
Your smear against veterans isn't anymore acceptable, because you're mad about what he said.
Kurska
May 2014
#48
"You were in my mind a jerk, so I was a jerk to an entire class of people that you are a part of"
Kurska
May 2014
#49
You are incorrect again. It is not mass punishment. It is collective responsibility.
kwassa
May 2014
#34
"It's a question of the *state's* exploitation of and wealth extraction from a class of people..."
Nuclear Unicorn
May 2014
#74
Why on earth should my Russian-Jewish family take part in collective responsibility for slavery?
Kurska
May 2014
#39
Yet more ignorant commentary from someone who clearly didn't read the article
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#54
This isn't about *you*, it's about the collective responsibility of the US government.
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#57
Did you have anything to do with putting Japanese-Americans in camps?
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#100
Sure, I read it, most of it is about slavery, which isn't want's being talked about here.
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#109
Saying we should address something isn't the same thing as offering concrete proposals.
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#114
This is something that would require separate legislation; YOU do realise THAT, yes?
Spider Jerusalem
May 2014
#122
You'd have to repeal or heavily modify title VI of the civil rights act to do it.
Kurska
May 2014
#123
You seem to be implying Benjamin Jealous is not black. Is that what you are saying?
kwassa
May 2014
#128
Actually, I was using him as an example of how being black can go beyond skin color.
Kurska
May 2014
#132
Because your Russian Jewish family benefits from the wealth built by slave labor.
kwassa
May 2014
#65
Yeah, all the racist whites were lining up to provide my Jewish relatives jobs.
Kurska
May 2014
#103
No one is holding you or your family personally responsible for slavery
killbotfactory
May 2014
#120
Checks to African Americans for being African Americans isn't going to advance race relations
Kurska
May 2014
#37
why is there an idea that blacks are dependent on govt and incapable of making it on their own
JI7
May 2014
#45
Who thinks American Blacks are "incapable..."? This is the crap Republicans spout in their anti-
WinkyDink
May 2014
#52
The vaunted postwar middle class was perfectly happy with checks to them for being white
Recursion
May 2014
#61
America prefers myth to history. See: Americans, Native. See: VietNam. See: Reagan.
WinkyDink
May 2014
#51
And I think that my point is that is connected and difficult to deal with in terms of reparations.
aikoaiko
May 2014
#76
Fair enough, but others have when using the term reparations with black Americans.
aikoaiko
May 2014
#82
You are wrong again. The industrial revolution in the US started with slave-grown cotton.
kwassa
May 2014
#130