Ta-Nehisi Coates: Why Precisely Is Bernie Sanders Against Reparations?

[tishaLA]

176. Mr Coates doesn't focus an inordinate amount of his attention on slavery itself

in his previous, widely-praised article on the subject, "The Case for Reparations," Mr Coates discusses slavery somewhat, but he is much more interested in government policy since slavery and believes that it provides a sufficient case. And he isn't talking ancient history here--not reconstruction--but largely policy in the US post-WW2, including things like the GI Bill that effectively kept black soldiers from the same benefits vis-a-vis housing as their white counterparts. He also looks at predatory lending, the carceral system, red lining, etc.

And a lot of that is strategic: he wants to avoid the kind of sophistry that would lead people to say "oh, but three hundred years ago, something happened in my family." The fact is, as Mr Coates points out, the systematic oppression that created slavery is with us to this very day; it is not part of our past. And because capital is the mother's milk of white supremacy, the way to counter it is through capital itself.