Thioro Ndoye

Analyze This
The legal term for reparation is the replenishment of a loss to a victim of a crime
or an injustice. In The case of reparation Coates makes a clear argument that African
Americans should get some sort of reparation. Throughout his story Coates uses
Imagery, videos, maps, and many other tactics that support his argument. The two most
effective techniques that he used were imagery and quotes.
Imagery was successful for Coates because the pictures that he included in
between the texts spoke volume and made his point abundantly clear. As you were
reading the long argument one might start to lose focus or even get bored, but by
incorporating the images it felt like a breath of fresh air. One of the first pictures that
Coates included was a picture of Clyde Ross. Clyde Ross is a guy who grew up in the
times when our country was facing real injustice. Clyde had a horrible childhood and
every bad thing that could happen to a person happened to him. When Clyde first tried
to get a mortgage on his house he was denied, because at that time mortgages were
not available to people of color. In hindsight Clyde made the American Dream which is
to own your own home a reality because he did not give up and fought for his rights.
Coates decided to include a picture of Clyde because in the imagine Clyde looks like
someone you would sympathize with. In the image he is putting he has his head down,
and in this moment you feel a connection to him. Looking at this image of Ross you not
only sympathize with him but you also admire him. Admiration not because of what he
did but because of how he did it. He did it in a peaceful manner which was something
that can be challenging in these kind of situations and essentially changed history by

doing so. Pathos is a writing technique that authors use when they want to evoke pity or
sadness in the reader. This was all an example of pathos and the reason Coates
included this is because the image speaks for itself. This tool was very effect in this
article and Coates uses it multiple times throughout his writing.
He also incorporated an image of two little boys. In the image the boys were
sharecroppers which is a term for a farmer who gives a part of each crop as rent. The
boys in the picture looked like they were about 5 years old. Although sharecropping was
a very common thing to do at that day in age the fact that these young kids had to do it
is very heart clenching. In the image the children look like they are not well bathed and
are sad. This image was very effective because I made a personally connection and
related these boys to my younger brothers.
Another powerful image that Coates incorporated in this writing was the
photograph of a 16 year old boy being lynched. In the photograph we see a young
victims feet being dangled in front of a white crowd. The crowd is full of unaffected faces
that are posing next to the dead body. In the time of this picture lynching was a very
common thing in the south and to them it was almost a routine. The definition of
lynching is when a mob of people illegally hang someone and leave them to die. This
image was very gruesome and raw it accentuates the point that Coates Is making.
Coates decided to include this piece because if one was reading this and still isn't
understanding how much of a problem racism was back then, this imagine really drives
the point. In my opinion one of the most effective things in the article was this picture. A
16 year old boy being lynched was a postcard and that enough is evidence of the
injustice our nation has faced.

The way that Coates incorporates his usage of quotes is very effective. He sets
up his quotes in a manner that clutches the reader's attention and makes them wonder
about what it means. All of his paragraphs start off with a powerful quote that makes
someone do a double take. The font he uses is big and the text is bold and pops out at
you.
Coates uses quotes throughout his argument in an orderly fashion. The quotes
that he uses range from regular people to experts. The quotes that he uses from regular
people are so relatable that you feel as if though you aren't just reading facts but rather
are having glimpse of another person's experiences. One of the quotes that really stood
out to me was Black Families making $100,000 typically live in the kinds of
neighborhoods inhabited by white families making $30,000. These words hit you like a
ton of bricks all at once. The mere thought of this is repulsive and drives the point that
Coates is making throughout his argument. I try to wrap my head around these words
and numbers but I fully cannot grasp the concept of such injustice in our own country.
An unsegregated America might see poverty spread across the country, with no
particular bias towards skin color. In the paragraph following this very simple but
powerful quote we get a broader understanding of what this quote means. This quote
goes to show that although many might think that African Americans get a lot of
privileges the hard reality is that they don't. Privilege is a term that is a term that is used
for someone that had special rights or immunities and that is one thing that African
Americans don't have. Quotes is a method used when something cannot be worded any
better and Coates takes advantage of this throughout his story.
Although Coates used a lot of effective techniques throughout his story one tool
that was ineffective were the pictures of the old documents. The old documents were

ineffective because although they were facts they just did not evoke any emotion. In the
article there is already enough evidence that supported his claim and incorporating the
old documents just took up space and were useless. I think that he should have replaced
the old documents with other pictures from the civil rights movement and such.
In retrospect of this article Coates uses a lot of effective tools to prove his point
and he does it in a successful manner. By incorporating Images, videos, quotes and
many other techniques Coates makes his argument loud and clear. He doesn't talk about
the logistics of reparation his argument focuses more about reparation for our history.
The main point of this article highlights that African Americans were being separated

from capital accretion and were essentially the little capital they could acquire
taken away from them. The article turns the issue of race in America into a
pressing discussion about wealth, work, and how we can overcome these issues as
a nation rather than an unresolvable grudge and guilt.