Comparing Coates And Klopotek's The Case For Reparations

Exploitation has been a realm by which races throughout history have been affected. Blacks remain the foundation by which other races compare themselves to, the non-model minority. Such oppression of blacks in order to uplift the indigenous race was a form of relationality used in Klopotek’s piece Dangerous Decolonizing. In The Case for Reparations, Coates demonstrates how blacks were subordinated by European whites through the use of home owning. As a result of this, upward mobility for blacks has been restricted. Using the work of Coates and Klopotek, this essay will show how the use of relationality deepens our understanding of race. In essence, particular laws establishing identity and property ownership were forms of exploitation used
Specifically, federal regulations of who classifies as an indigenous tribe depended on disavowing any black ancestry. For indigenous people, part of their goal is recognition because it comes with certain benefits. As a result of this people were compelled to deny any black ancestry and “hide their heritage behind particularly loud anti black rhetoric” (182). In a similar way racism was created when blacks were neglected the right to own any property because of their skin color. Coates explains the result of the FHA of viewing all black people as a “contagion.” Having been rated a “D” in neighborhood, blacks were ineligible to obtain a mortgage and in a sense were not considered Americans as well. Cultural citizenship is rooted in home ownership because a homeowner was a member of society. They had the ability to earn credit and accumulate wealth, a benefit blacks were denied. This gap between who gets to settle where has created tension between races. In essence, blacks are excluded by what it means to be American and
The tribe Cane River Creoles of Color embraced their black ancestry only because it was a small percentage (186). The blacks that were included were those that were free and owned slaves. This meant that blacks were not free to be black and think on their own, rather they were led to follow the European mindset. Whites benefited in this because black identity was forsaken and minimized. Analogously, Real estate investors and white home owners profited in contract buying because it limited the ability of blacks to maintain a healthy family and home. Laws came from a government that was afraid of increasing heterogeneity in a white supremacist society. Blacks were racialized since this was their sole option at shelter. Coates narrates the strict system where a single delayed payment cost the person to “immediately forfeit [the] $1,000 down payment, all [the] monthly payments, and the property itself.” In the meanwhile, whites acquired more money by exploiting blacks’