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Mustakim Choudhury

Mrs. Williams

ELA Grade 10 Honors

5/28/19

Benefits of Reparations
What if you had to give money every time you apologized? Depending on what you’re

apologizing for, it will equal the price you pay. Luckily, apologizing with words is acceptable

and ideal in most scenarios. However, the Holocaust has caused so much grief and suffering that

West Germany has paid $35 Billion to victims of the Nazis. The Holocaust nearly eliminated a

race of people and I don’t think $35 billion is even enough to pay for the damages. Reparation

can be seen as a modern solution for another past mistake, slavery. Slavery shaped the United

States dramatically by abusing African Americans and using them as a tool for building the

economic foundation of America. Reparations should be given to the descendants of slaves

because it can significantly increase the wealth of people and it can create more prosperous

communities; moreover, reparations can give African Americans a chance for them to be

independent.

Reparations can build African American neighborhoods to become America’s most

desirable communities to live in. Reparations can positively impact communities in many ways.

It can erase crime-ridden communities to become safer. The money can be used positively in a

way that forces people to refrain from illegal activity as a source of income. The overall

standard of a community can increase with the investment of money. Melanye Price from The

New York Times wrote an article titled “Reparations Can and Should Be Done in a Powerful
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Way,” in which she writes,”Many schools in African-American communities fail to meet basic

academic standards because their schools lack the technology and physical facilities necessary to

prepare students for success”(Price). The answer to this problem is obviously the lack of funding.

With reparations, education can be significantly improved by building more technologically

advanced schools and with the hiring of teachers who actually want to teach. While communities

start to clean up and become safer, kids can grow up in an environment where their minds aren’t

altered by the streets; moreover, the rate of kids ending up in jail will decrease. Money seems to

be a major influential factor in families which can lead to divorces. A father unable to provide

for his family might just leave. However, with reparations, families can be in a better financial

position and ultimately provide a suitable environment to raise their kids. Reparations can open

windows of opportunity for people to change their lives completely. The end result can be

completely renovated communities.

Reparations given to the descendants of slaves could mean African Americans slowly

closing the wealth gap between them and white people. The added money to a person’s life can

eliminate debt and make sure that people are always in a position where the money is constantly

flowing in their income. Although some black people did become successful by working hard on

their own, their definition of success was smaller than white people; moreover, they were always

pressured into losing their newly gained fortune. Joe Pettit, a writer from the Baltimore Sun

wrote in his article titled, “The Case for Reparations is Clear,” that,” when black people are not

defeated by the lawlessness, the legal system is used to exploit and undermine successful black

Americans”(Pettit). How wealth is earned and what it means to black people are now clear.

Black Americans now need a boost in the form of reparations to stand their ground and compete

in the economy they built. Many black Americans can benefit from reparations by getting out of
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sticky situations like a court battle or even to help them get out the streets and earn an honest

living. The money can be used wisely to expand their income and to get a better standard of

living. If there is a sudden flow of money going towards descendants of slaves, you can see an

immediate rise in the wealth of people and it will eventually rival white wealth.

Reparations could assist black Americans in becoming more independent as a group by

becoming less dependent on the government. You’ll hear stories of people barely getting by with

the aid of the government. Without programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, or the Affordable

Care Act there would be a lot more people homeless and malnourished. In some places, the only

meal some kids get is the food which their schools give out. Reparation can take people

permanently off government programs and give them a chance to have control over their

financial status. This can happen by reparations allowing the person to become more financially

stable. They can use the money as a window of opportunities to find a source of income that is

stable enough to provide for a family comfortably. Although people can become independent,

reparations can put them in an even worse position. This can happen with the current negative

habits of people taking an even better grip on them. One example of this is given in Ta- Nehisi

Coates’ article titled “The Case For Reparations” he writes, Too many people making too many

babies they don’t want to take care of” (Ta-Nehisi Coates 60). This explains the number of

families with no father because of their lack of maturity. Immaturity being mixed with

reparations leads to irresponsible decisions. People need to move passed this immaturity and be

there for their family; moreover, a mature father can create a more stabilized family structure by

utilizing reparations. Families will know when they’re ready to take care of a kid as soon as their

mentally and financially prepared. This decreases the chance of a family being split apart as well.
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With a good family structure comes independence because you were always prepared and

responsible to not rely on getting by with the help of the government.

Reparation isn’t something that should be seen as an extra opportunity to better yourself,

it is something that can change the statistics of a whole race of people. Reparations can create

booming communities, financially stable people, and independent people from the assistance of

government programs. Once crime-ridden communities can now become Americas safest

neighborhoods. The overall environment of communities can become more suitable for kids by

utilizing reparation to increase the quality of education. Reparation can also allow black

Americans to finally close the wealth gap between them and white people. Their newly gained

money can be used productively in increasing their income. People can become more

independent and less reliant on government programs such as Medicaid. This gives them a

chance to be the major supporter of their family and create their own lifestyle they actually want

to live.