re: #186 Citizen K

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Man. I miss TNC on Twitter. I hate that this issue, which he laid out the clearest argument for, is what chased him off almost all platforms.

Coates was pragmatic enough that his case for reparations had NOTHING TO DO with slavery.

It was about redlining and other forms of housing discrimination, about massive resistance to school desegregation (like when the State of Virginia closed all their public schools for 5 years rather than desegregate; and then “somehow” funneled a bunch of public money to “private” whites-only schools and black Virginians of that generation got no education).

The way post-WWII GI Bill benefits elevated an entire generation of white people, and were denied to black people.

He stuck to matters recent enough that living witnesses, living victims and living beneficiaries are plentiful. Also, well-documented federal policy.