The part in my paper I’ll be focusing on is: “The possibility of learning about how reparations would be paid has been presented to the government for over 25 years. Yet they refuse to see why and how black people should be repaid.”
I’m trying to portray this idea but I am having a really hard time drafting the paragraph. So here is what I am trying to get at:
Talking about how white people blindly follow the history being presented to us in an already white-washed, white targeted system. Of course nobody wants to be uncomfortable, but the history of the U.S. is extremely uncomfortable and must be taught to get the real feeling of fear into these peoples minds. Making white people try to grasp the severity of the misinformation being taught to us and how it is creating this blind racism where we think America is the greatest country yet it is so flawed in all of the underlying systems. The “naysayer” point of view here would be saying things like “not all white people think this way” or “we weren’t even alive when racism was a thing and I thought that that issue was in the past so get over yourself.” Of course, not all white people think they’re racist, yet we all have racist tendencies/stereotypes/biases because of the systems we were brought up on.
Intro: The modern or present day U.S. we see is rooted in racism which is severely under-taught and or mistaught to spare white people the guilt of the past.
Claim: If white people were able to grasp the severity of the issue of racism in our country alone, then the idea of studying reparations may not be seen as such a big ask.
Intro to Quote: For an example of how this could be accomplished, L/H introduce a specific way of teaching that is thought highly of in the educational community called the Socratic method.
Quote: “the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.” (L/H, para. 7).
Exp: This way of learning could significantly improve our understanding of our own country and how it is run if the historical facts are not white-washed to please or spare white people’s feelings.
Transition: But of course, there are people (white people) out there that will argue that “not all white people are racist” or “racism was a past problem, we have overcome it.” But is these statements are true, why has there been very little progress for the black community (and other minorities). Coates gives us an example of how racism is still in effect in the U.S.
Quote: “The income gap between black and white households is roughly the same today as it was in 1970.” (Coates, part 2, para. 4).
Connection: Something as necessary as income should not have had a gap between races in the first place. Yet, even in 2014 when Coates wrote his article, the income gap between black and white people has stayed the same over almost 5 decades or 50 years. This is not an issue of “black people just need to work harder” because they are at a disadvantage from the second they are born. Racism that has lasted over hundreds of years is still present today and yet some people believe it no longer exists. The Civil Rights Movement did not end racism in just a snap of a finger. White people have to dig deep into the systems we have been benefiting from since we were born. We have to dive into why these corrupt systems were created and how we can repair them to include the same benefits for any person of any color.
