HR 40 was presented by John Conyers Jr, one of the African Americans in Congress. The bill is to set a reparations for many horrible events and discriminations that occurred to African Americans in the past. Coates states that “HR 40 has never under either Democrats or Republicans made it to the House floor suggests our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential” (21). This shows that the bill has never ever passed to protect the African Americans. The reparations does not occur because people in this generation does not concern for discrimination to people of color that happened in history. The problem is not in the reparations but in the people’s beliefs. Their idea of “past is in the past” or “it has to do with our ancestors not us.” is in their mind. The racism still occurs in today’s society that people do not think for how badly the discrimination happens to African Americans. They do not realize how badly they have went through in their lives everyday. People need to become mindful of the difficulties that our ancestors and themselves have forced on people of color.

In Dweck’s TED talk she presents the concept of a growth mindset and how teaching students how to have a deeper understanding of knowledge will help them become better versions of themselves. You can see the difference in their attitude and test scores when she actually offered children who didn’t have the ability to think at a deeper level the tools to understand information and reasoning. “So let’s talk about equality. In our country, there are groups of students who chronically underperform, for example, children in inner cities, or children on Native American reservations. And they’ve done so poorly for so long that many people think it’s inevitable. But when educators create growth mindset classrooms steeped in yet, equality happens” (06:33). This implies that if children who were given opportunity to learn in the right way when they are doing poorly in school, their ability will grow. The equality happens which shows how both the children who were doing poorly improves as well as children who had the opportunity to learn and did well is still doing well. They become equal and do well. This is similar to Coates idea of African Americans not getting the equality they deserves in their income. White people gets higher income and better house than the African Americans As Coates states “This is not surprising. Black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families. The Pew Research Center estimates that white households are worth roughly 20 times as much as black households, and that whereas only 15 percent of whites have zero or negative wealth, more than a third of blacks do. Effectively, the black family in America is working without a safety net. When financial calamity strikes—a medical emergency, divorce, job loss—the fall is precipitous” (36). This shows how African Americans are having lower income than white people. The African Americans do not have a stable income and when financially strikes, there is mostly other things such as divorce and job loss that goes with it. The income is a problem not only effect a family but also their lives dependent on it. There is no equality on income then there is no equal social status. This is very scary because if they are not seen equally in their lives then what is the point of working hard to provide a better future. In tis generation we sacrifice by either working or provide something to help the world. When white people dominate in having a higher salary and lives in a better neighborhood than what can African Americans do to provide to today’s society. They do not even have the basic things such as having a stable income and a house.

It Scheuer’s ideas of critical thinking it is related to HR 40 and not being passed by the Senate and the House. Both political parties are not using critical thinking to engage with the case. Scheuer describes critical inquiry as “The advanced skills that form that bridge include thinking independently, an almost self-evident intellectual virtue but a vague one; thinking outside the box; grasping the different forms and divisions of knowledge and how they are acquired; seeing distinctions and connections beyond the obvious; distinguishing reality from appearance; and engaging with complexity, but not for its own sake” (27). This is important because the members of Congress are not taking into account the perspectives of African Americas. If politicians looked thinker about them, they would realize the hardships they have endured to live in this country. If the congress engaged in critical thinking, HR 40 would have been passed already. As Coates says from before that “our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential” (21). This represents that HR 40 has not passed due to the opinions of white people in the parties. Being able to think critically and understand other people’s perspectives is very important since it can be about someone’s identity and their value. American politicians should rethink their opinions and use critical thinking to let reparations happen.