Williamson: While I admire your courage, I simply cannot agree with your stance — because there is no real need for reparations.

Coates: How can you say that? America’s history is littered with cases where African Americans were completely humiliated to feed the greed of more “superior” human beings!

Williamson: I can agree to a certain extent. We have suffered and we need to continue fighting for our rights—

Coates: Exactly! Many are unaware of the past our people have faced. Too many a time, we are brushed off to the side to deal with later, or grouped with others to solve altogether. But that is not the answer, we deserve a direct line to our government and the ability to stand up to our rights.

Williamson: But reparations? Either way, we have seen how programs made by our government backfired on all of us, such as the school-reform programs in Washington. We need to be more specific in how we fight for our rights.

Coates: Reparations is not as important as the idea of reparations. There are times where we cannot always fight, so must find support in our government. If the nation we have worked so hard to establish and grow other the past centuries does not make any effort to accommodate to our needs as human beings, what are we to everyone else!

Williamson: You neglect to see how they have fought for us in the past! During the Reagan boom, census figures report how aggregate growth in the black median household was almost twice that of white households. If there were one set of policies that could solve all of our problems, don’t you think they would have been imposed by now?

Coates: They would only fight for us when we are most desperate! We have to continuously work twice as hard just to get into stable footing, just look to Clyde Ross. His landlords knew that he could barely afford rent, but they did nothing but laugh at his demise. They wanted him to feel inferior to them. He was on their leash, and they could destroy his life in any second they pleased.

Williamson: You are right, that is a issue we must call attention to, but we cannot respond to a attack with the same attack. First, we need to help families in need become more stable, then we can instill security in areas like housing by continuing overseeing the processes many private firms lead.

Coates: There are still so many factors you are neglecting. What of the African Americans that are born poor without any guidance or motivation to carve their own route? We must nurture the growth of the youth born into a cruel world because of the unfortunate lives their relatives live.

Williamson: Just as many blacks are born into difficult circumstances, so are people of all other races. In some cases, some African Americans may be better off than some Caucasians! There are some things we simply cannot change, but we cannot simply complain and expect our hopes to be carried out.

Williamson: You’re right! We must learn to compromise. Thank you for your insight!