Coates: Mr. Williamson, I understand that we do not see eye to eye on the idea that there should be reparations for the legacy that slavery has on our nation.

Williamson: That is correct. Although your piece has served society, you did not sketch out that there was in fact a case for reparations.

Coates: I am curious as to how you do not see how clear the reasons are for reparations. Race in America is the root of the issue and for the inability for African Americans to rise and achieve.

Williamson: You say that race is ultimate reason for the socioeconomic hurdle but that alone can not be a moving and persuasive enough argument to expect such amends to be made for past doings.

Coates: I am not asking for a lump sum of money to be paid to those families who have had family members go through the harshness of slavery or those who faced discrimination in trying to excel the well being and status of their families. To ask for a monetary compensation is unthinkable and undoable considering all the hundreds of years that this treatment had occurred.

Williamson: Regardless of what type of reparation it is that you are in search of, your remedy would go against the justice system that has been established as well as not drastically or even make a minute change in the socioeconomic differences that set apart African American life from White life.

Coates: You do not seem to acknowledge that the most important aspect of this ongoing battle is to ask what does society owe African Americans after all that has been done to them.

Williamson: The only thing that I have to say I agree with is the ‘ongoing battle’ and no legislation of the past has completely obliterated the systematic and political and economic repression.

Coates: The ongoing issue stems from the white supremacy and oppression of African Americans which we can see from the nation’s history and has played an immense role in creating the nation as it is today.

Williamson: It is not just race, Mr. Coates. The blacks are less likely to take risks when it comes to their money. Whites invest in the stock market and make efforts to expand their wealth. Whereas blacks of who earn the same income, do not have the urge to do so.

Coates: The reluctance of blacks to do such things with their money, can be traced back to the policies and actions within living memory. The only way that blacks even had the slightest chance to make it in America, was to accept the fact that they had to be robbed by the whites through the home owning process.

Williamson: Why dwell on the disadvantages of race and continue to live our life built around the idea that we should organize society based on race? If race was the issue of the past, why continue to make race the issue of the present? We see that exclusion of a race has created many disadvantages. The way to move forward is not to give a certain race exceptions but rather to be equally treated under the law. You are wrong to say that the law is not the way to go.

Coates: You speak if being equally treated under the law. Has this been the case? Clyde Ross, a WW2 vet with a family. He went in search of a mortgage so that he could fulfill the “American Dream” of being a homeowner. Was he successful in doing so? No. Simply because he was black. And where was the FHA to subsidize his mortgage? Oh yes of course, they were not subsidizing mortgages for black people in black neighborhoods.

Williamson: How does this past reflect on the future? We should leave these matters behind. Focusing on the future and the opportunities that liberty and prosperity open for future generations.

Coates: Reparations are not for those who have passed. Slavery plays a role on the policies that the government creates up until today. They may be subtle but they exist. The results are present. Some of those people who suffered through such discrimination are alive today. It’s as if society is fearful of the word reparations. We need to spark such conversations that consider and evaluate possible reparations. It needs to be put on the table and that alone is a start for reparations.