‘The Case for Reparations’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Essay

Black slavery in the U.S. was made illegal in the mid-1800s. However, the effects have lasted more than a few lifetimes. Lynching, segregation, and discrimination have all diminished greatly since the Civil War, yet the trek for equality seems to be an uphill battle for black Americans. Between the Civil War and the present day, black Americans have been at a severe disadvantage. Whether it be social, economic, or political, black Americans have experienced large obstacles because of slavery. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay ‘The Case for Reparations’, he addresses this problem. Coates believes that reparations should be made to black Americans. His essay consists of many appeals to convince the reader of the need for reparations, and he offers solutions as well. But the solutions he gives may not be enough to instigate a revolution. While he does prove a reason for action through logos, ethos, and pathos, he does not present the right solutions for the article to initiate a change.

Logos is the most prominent appeal in Coates’ essay. He notes that the effects of slavery have continued far after the Civil War in the form of economic, political, and social disadvantages with statistical evidence to back it up. In one section, he states intense differences between the neighborhood of North Lawndale in Chicago compared to the surrounding neighborhoods and the country as a whole: “The neighborhood is 92 percent black. Its homicide rate is 45 per 100,000 triple the rate of the city as a whole. The infant mortality rate is 14 per 1,000 more than twice the national average. Forty-three percent of all households are on food stamps nearly three times the rate of the city at large” (5). North Lawndale, a recurring theme throughout the paper, is Coates’ prime example of black Americans’ long-lived separation from the surrounding communities. The stats from North Lawndale convince readers of the acute differences in black Americans’ lives compared to other races in the U.S. Coates points out many times through the essay that many modern-day American beliefs about racial equality are false. He says: “The lives of black Americans are better than they were half a century ago. The humiliation of Whites Only signs are gone. Rates of black poverty have decreased. Black teen pregnancy rates are at record lows - and the gap between black and white teen pregnancy rates has shrunk significantly. But such progress rests on a shaky foundation, and fault lines are everywhere. The income gap between black and white households is roughly the same today as it was in 1970. Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at New York University, studied children born from 1955 through 1970 and found that 4 percent of whites and 62 percent of blacks across America had been raised in poor neighborhoods. A generation later, the same study showed, virtually nothing had changed” (5-6).

The ethos in this passage is well-founded. Readers will find the passage easy to read with a clear line of reasoning. His audience will find a small counterargument here as well when he states that the lives of black Americans were better than they were half a century ago, including examples of social changes, only to point out that the poverty of black Americans compared to white Americans has witnessed minimal changes. The reasoning behind this attempt is to show readers that while they may think that racial inequality is over, it is not. This appeal, while not a statistic, is still good reasoning. It draws Coates’ audience to the paper’s claims through logical analysis rather than fact. The author’s usage of ethos easily authenticates his logos claims. Almost all of his statistics are backed up by credible sources. He states, “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” (6). When he presents this, his wording is very clear, but what makes the passage effective is that it came from a research center. Even further, the Pew Research Center is one of the most well-known research centers in the U.S. for social issues, making it a highly credible source for Coates’ topic. In Chapter I, he quotes a newspaper from the era of ‘contract housing’: “‘If anybody who is well established in this business in Chicago doesn’t earn $100,000 a year’, a contract seller told The Saturday Evening Post in 1962, ‘he is loafing’” (4). The first observance of ethos in this passage is The Saturday Evening Post, and the second is the quote from the contract seller. First off, The Saturday Evening Post was a well-known and favored paper at the time of contract housing, so the newspaper is a first-hand, credible source. Next, The Saturday Evening Post’s choice of speaker validates the quote even more if anyone knew the system of contract housing well, it would be a contract seller themselves. Even though ethos appeals don’t provide the statistics themselves, they are an essential part of Coates’ essay because they validate each logical claim.

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The pathos in Coates’ writing is what pulls the whole essay together. Pathos may arguably be the most effective appeal in the paper because it establishes a personal connection with the reader and black Americans affected by inequality. The neighborhood of North Lawndale mentioned earlier houses a man named Clyde Ross. He was interviewed by Coates and his life of struggles is documented many times throughout the essay. In one section, he speaks about how his move from Mississippi to Illinois turned for the worse when he and his family became stuck in a contract housing situation: “‘We were ashamed. We did not want anyone to know that we were that ignorant’”, Ross told me… ‘I’d come out of Mississippi where there was one mess and come up here and got in another mess. So how dumb am I? I didn’t want anyone to know how dumb I was’”. “When I found myself caught up in it, I said ‘How? I just left this mess. I just left no laws. And no regard. And then I come here and get cheated wide open’. I would probably want to do some harm to some people, you know if I had been violent like some of us. I thought, ‘Man, I got caught up in this stuff. I can’t even take care of my kids. I didn’t have enough for my kids. You could fall through the cracks easy fighting these white people. And no law” (4). The pathos here is so powerful because it puts the reader into the struggle of Clyde Ross of having hope for a better life and then encountering the same problems as before. Another part of this passage targets parents well. A parent’s primary job is to provide for their children, and Coates’ usage of this quote targets that fear. The strongest pathos in the essay comes from a hypothetical. He says: “Don’t just picture Clyde Ross working three jobs so he could hold on to his home. Think of his North Lawndale neighbors - their children, their nephews, and nieces - and consider how watching this affects them. Imagine yourself as a young black child watching your elders play by all the rules only to have their possessions tossed out in the street and to have their most sacred possession - their home - taken from them” (17). Coates throws in some intense pathos with this notion. He first shows that the pain does not only extend to contract buyers but also to their families and communities. When he tells readers to picture themselves as a young child affected by this, the emotions become even stronger and really hit home. Childhood is a very impressionable time in any person’s life, and when readers picture themselves in this way, it leaves them even more vulnerable to emotional appeals. The strong pathos in both these passages gives a personal connection to the paper and makes it even more impactful on readers.

Coates does an excellent job of making his readers believe in his endeavors, but his biggest faults in the essay are the solutions he delivers. He uses great pathos, ethos, and logos to assert the necessity of black American reparations, only to present solutions that fall short. One big issue is Coates’ non-material solutions. In chapter 9 he states: “What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices - more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal. Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs on the Fourth of July while denying the facts of our heritage. Reparations would mean the end of yelling ‘patriotism’ while waving a Confederate flag. Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history” (19). Coates’ passage evokes emotion but may leave readers feeling confused. The ‘national reckoning’ that is shown as reparations is not a material object that society can offer black Americans. Coates’ essay is so heavy on logos that offering solutions not based on logic is a huge contrast. The paragraph starts off with something all readers would agree with (reparations should not be treated as hush money or bribes), but then it transitions into the need for every American to ‘reconcile their self-image’. While readers may not disagree with the impact this will have on equality, they will also understand that it is not a plausible form of reparations because it is not material. The pathos in this passage is good and may be necessary, but it should be placed with a logical solution.

There is no doubt that Coates’ essay is well written. His sentences flow and his appeals impact readers greatly. The pathos, ethos, and logos throughout the article prove his passion for the cause, which extends to the audience. However, those impressive appeals need to be backed up with an impressive conclusion, which Coates does not deliver. The article is written for a very important cause: equality. What’s at stake here is the potential lifestyle improvement of black Americans, and it’s nothing to be fooled with. Coates takes this subject very seriously, but his essay is not successful in making readers commit to taking action. While the paper does not directly inhibit the movement for equality, it also does not progress it any further. Unfortunately, the paper will likely be forgotten, and the topic with it.

Work Cited

1. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. ‘The Case for Reparations’. The Atlantic. June 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2016