Coates: Good afternoon, Mr. Williamson. I appreciate you taking the time to meet me today, and I hope we can have a productive discussion about some of your comments in response to my work. Part of being an intelligent writer involves understanding the critics and opposition of your work, and I think that we can both benefit from a frank dialogue.

Williamson: Likewise, I’d be open to a productive dialogue through which we can better understand each other’s ideas. I think a good starting point would be the issue of paying for the reparations you propose. In order to accommodate the reparations described, there would need to be some rebalancing/reallocating which could deter other social groups.

Coates: Great, I think to that point I would like to reiterate that I am not here to argue that African-Americans should receive material compensation for past historical events. I recognize that demanding monetary compensation would require someone to pay for actions that may not necessarily be related to them. Instead, my work exists more so to bring attention to the conversation and present the problem as a whole.

Williamson: I see. And yet, the idea of reparations is troubling because it would lead to a greater issue of morality – you would potentially have more groups come forward and demand reparations; something similar to opening Pandora’s box. To argue for this kind of increased attention without presenting a viable solution seems troubling to me.

Coates: In my opinion, all groups who have suffered social or systemic injustices should not be afraid to ask for forward-looking compensation. I think it serves to better the understanding of the injustices that occurred in the past, and goes a long way in ensuring the complete removal of these injustices in our country today. In essence, by asking for reparations, I seek to drive the conversation for the improvement of the state of African Americans as a whole.

Williamson: But for a productive conversation, there must be some viable solution to correct the issue going forward. Presenting problems rather than solutions is not conducive to correcting the problem, which is what you ultimately seek.

Coates: It is my hope that by stirring responses such as yours, that we will open the door to dialogues such as these – to improve the understanding of the issues that African-Americans face to this day. By gathering momentum for the cause, and having more and more of these dialogues, I believe that we will eventually be able to come to a mutual understanding and viable solution going forward.