Homes Bought On Contract
In a sad form of dramatic irony, most people who were sold homes on contract were unaware of the fact that on-contract purchases were not secure, and didn't know the complexities of mortgages and mortgage insurance. Even more ironically (and tragically), knowledge did not necessarily fix this issue— often African Americans will still unable to access legitimate forms of homeownership.
African Americans Not Being "Respectable" Enough
Coates positions the argument that African Americans need to be respected as fundamentally (situationally) ironic because of the real reason that African Americans have these problems that will supposedly be fixed by respect is that the United States has always fundamentally disrespected them.
Slavery and Democracy/Freedom in the United States
In another example of situational irony, Coates points out the irony of America basing its entire existence on freedom when the thing that made the country economically capable of being independent was slavery. America fought for liberty by keeping an entire group of people enslaved.
