2. Clyde Ross has been going through many struggles at Mississippi where he was born to Chicago where he moved. He have experienced many discriminations and changes thought the move in his lives. After moving to Chicago the African Americans houses and other races had a label to know which area each ethnic people lived in. There were also a huge finical differences “The truth was that there was no financing for people like Clyde Ross. From the 1930s through the 1960s, black people across the country were largely cut out of the legitimate home-mortgage market through means both legal and extralegal ” (18). This shows how because of financial and race discrimination, they were segregated from the rest.
3.A statistic that shocked me is that “43% of the people in North Lawndale live below the poverty line- double Chicago’s overall rate” (12). This struck me because all of the other statistics are affected by this one. Since so many people were living below the poverty line, and are more inclined to murder for goods. Some even become pregnant at younger ages to have more kids to help around the household. It also makes sense as to why the Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center was placed directly next to the neighborhood. If African American people were treated more fairly, these statistics would be lessened. Another piece of data that shocked me was that “black families making $100,000 typically live in the kinds of neighborhoods inhabited by white families making $30,000” (13). This struck me because despite having money, African Americans are still discriminated and tend to live in lower income neighborhoods.
4. The Contract Buyers League was seeking reparations for the discriminatory housing that black people experienced. Coates says that the league demanded “payback of all moneys paid on contracts and all moneys paid for structural improvement of properties, at 6 percent interest minus a ‘fair, non-discriminatory’ rental price for time of occupation” (11). This shows that reasons of what the white predators took advantage of black people who were looking to buy homes. I believe that the reparations are reasonable since it gives the black people who were victims in this unfortunate situation their money back and repaired their homes.
5. When Coates brings up that HR 40 has never passed the house, he claims that it is due to white people wanting to ignore what has occurred in the past. I also believe that we should not turn a blind eye to slavery, segregation, and discrimination. Educating the next generation about all of the challenges African Americans had to face and are still facing to this day will create a more equal treatment in todays society. However, some people, typically conservatives, believe that justice has been served. Nkechi Taifa, a black woman who help found n’cobra, argues that “‘People who talk about reparations are considered left lunatics. But all we are talking about is studying [reparations]” (21). This is significant because politics has become intertwined with reparations when it should not have. Learning from our ancestor’s mistakes is important and they deserve compensation and equality.
