If America is a land in which anyone can rise above the status they are born into through hard work, why does black poverty persist? When White America considers the circumstances of Black America, it is apt to disregard black suffering as a consequence of individualized shortcomings rather than acknowledge the system’s responsibility.
White democracy was made possible by the economic gains America reaped from the sale and labor of black persons. Behind each white man that signed the Constitution were the countless slaves that made their personal and national successes possible. The abduction, enslavement, torture, separation, and dehumanization endured by slaves is reason enough for restitution.
America’s history of racism does not end with slavery. The South experienced a Second Slavery of indentured servitude, segregation, discrimination, and violence. The North was no safe haven for black people either, for racism persisted in every facet of society. In the 1900s, blacks were left out of the booming mortgage and landowning market. This oppression was accomplished in legal and extralegal manners. After slavery was abolished the black population was predominantly illiterate. Through deceiving contracts and forced signatures, ex-slaves were cheated out of their land and belongings. Legal measures put in place to promote fair play in the mortgage business only served to fuel racial discrimination. In 1934 the Federal Housing Administration rated black neighborhoods with a “D” grade that made their “red-lined” properties ineligible for FHA-backed loans. Black individuals looking to buy, own, or sell land were prevented to do so by legal means that refused them loans and mortgages.
The FHA action prevented lucrative investment in black communities that ensured those communities would stay impoverished. By deeming property owned by black people less valuable, they decreased the quality of education, health, and safety services in those areas. In a New York University study of children born from 1955 to 1970, 4% of white children and 62% of black children were raised in impoverished communities. Despite the American dream’s claims, it is nearly impossible to rise from the social class one was born into. The income gap between white and black households has stayed relatively the same since the 1970s.
John Conyers Jr., an ex-congressional representative, created the HR-4 Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. The bill proposes forming a committee that would consider what reparations could be made, what form they could take, and how the government could distribute them. Despite the modest proposal, the bill has never made it to the House floor.
America is frightened by the idea of reparations because America is not yet willing to acknowledge the reality of its heritage. We can not treat American history as an a la carte, championing the founding fathers while overlooking the systematic racism we inherited from them. Instead of turning a blind eye to the racism that persists in our present-day legal, economic, and social matters, we must take full accountability for the actions of our ancestors. America is standing today on all the black bodies that fell for its creation. There is nothing we can do to change the evil of America’s past, but by starting the conversation of reparations with HR-4 we may atone for our sins and begin building a fairer future.