IndexInequality Mapping and Coates Article Quiz Prep/Assignment"So this is just one of my losses.""A difference in kind, not degree""We inherit the our vast heritage""The evils from which slavery frees us."The silent plunderThe creation of the second ghetto"Many people fell along the way""The poverty of the blacks is not the poverty of the whites"Towards a new countryThere are no will be reparations from GermanyQuestion 1c.Part 2) Mapping InequalityMapping Preparation/assignment for the quiz on the article on inequality and Coates“So this is just one of my losses”. This first section explains how black property was stolen in Mississippi, particularly land. Coates then goes on to tell the story of Clyde Ross, a middle-class African American in the 1940s, and how he made a new life for himself in Chicago, and everything seemed normal until his furnace exploded and he couldn't swallow the liquid. payment and was subsequently evicted. He then explains the redlining project in Chicago and how they evaluated different neighborhoods. The main point of this section is to show how, when it comes to housing, whites have gained a clear advantage. They were able to purchase mortgages on their homes and actually own them. Blacks on the other hand could typically only buy by contract, and when something goes wrong, landowners have no problem getting rid of them and giving it to someone else. African Americans are expendable in their eyes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay “A Difference in Kind, Not Degree” The second section delves into the socioeconomic racism of cities, particularly Chicago. We talk about the income gap between white and black families. The main argument in this section is that regardless of income, Black families are still limited to certain neighborhoods and lives. Coates says even upper-class black families earning more than $100,000 generally live in lower-middle-class white neighborhoods. This is what the section title “a difference in kind, not degree” means; no matter how wealthy a black family is, they are still the product of the rickety system established long ago during the New Deal and have some kind of ceiling they cannot knock down. Those born into poverty almost never emerge from it. “We Inherit Our Vast Heritage” This section begins with a story about slavery in northern New England in the late 1700s and how slave owners generally paid reparations for blacks, emancipated them, and even gave them parcels of land to begin with your own life. However, the systems implemented in the North during the 1800s pushed these people into ghettos and led to severe discrimination on the streets and in the workplace. The second wave of slavery flourished in the South. This leads to the main point of the article: the lack of reparations and HR 40. HR 40, a reparations bill for African Americans, has not passed to date. Coates points out how the idea of white dominance has not disappeared, but rather has been swept under the rug, ignored by everyone today. Discrimination hasn't disappeared, it's just different than before. “The evils from which slavery frees us.” In the 1600s, in the early American colonies, blacks and whites were enslaved by wealthy whites. In some cases white servants were treated the same as black slaves. However, over the course of a couple of centuries, the people in power separated the two ethnicities and fought to grant citizenship to white serfs, leaving blacks behind. This broughtunderlying the American economy in the 1800s was cotton slavery in the South. These plantations led to incredibly wealthy family lines, with this wealth lasting generations after the end of slavery. The argument here is that the effects of slavery are still being felt economically, as the foundation of wealth and democracy dates back to that period. The Silent Looting After the emancipation of slaves at the end of the Civil War which meant the end of slavery, the term “Reconstruction” was used to define government intervention in the South to try to repair the 250-year institution of slavery and its consequences. However, due to the enormous backlash from groups like the KKK and other radical supremacists, this effort has been vague. Coates criticizes progressives who point to FDR and say he is a true progressive, while FDR's New Deal programs set the stage for Jim Crow. For example, the majority of blacks were exempt from Social Security. Black veterans were often excluded from veterans benefits afforded by the GI Bill. The Homeowners Loan Corporation often denied African Americans from obtaining mortgages (as seen above by Clyde Ross). Blacks were not only discriminated against through street violence, but also by the “silent plunder” of the federal government. “White flight” was the product of violence on the streets of the ghettos. Coates explains that the first “ghetto” was defined as interracial communities. As violence against minorities increased, whites fled to new suburban areas. This led to the “second ghetto,” where whites left minorities behind (still visible in cities today). bank. They used some pretty disgusting tactics to push suburban displacement (Coates cited the example of hiring African Americans to simply walk down the street as a fear tactic, and telling whites that their home values would go down if they didn't move). The main point Coates makes in this section is that white flight was not an accident, it was a planned segregation effort to gain economic and social benefits for whites. “Black poverty is not white poverty.” In this section Coates criticizes policies, particularly affirmative ones. action, created to fight poverty. In most cases, these policies, which purported to help the poor of all ethnicities, still left blacks behind. Many people argue that these policies are “clues” and the Supreme Court has reviewed them to not be so. This segregation of poverty led to differences in lower-class families, particularly among poor blacks in the Deep South. Toward a New Country The main argument in this section concerns the hesitation in reparation efforts for African Americans. The basis of the American economy undoubtedly rests on the foundation of slavery. People often forget this piece of history while celebrating democracy and freedom. People are afraid that reparations will divide us further, however, Coates argues that we are already divided enough. The only way to achieve a bright future of equality is to repay Black people for what the country has subjected them to over their lifetimes and actually grant them equal opportunities. There will be no compensation from Germany. Post-war Germany reflects similarly to post-civil war Germany. America. Most Germans believed that Jews were not entitled to compensation for the Holocaust. However, when this attitude quickly faded, Germany paid over $7 billion to Israel and its own Jewish community to sufficiently fund reparation efforts. This brought about a new era of forgiveness and sorrow.
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