Reparations
While the article is mostly about housing, Coates' argument concerns the validity of reparations as a whole. The idea of reparations, while not new, is something that the US has resisted for a long time, yet the fact is that the harms done to the African American community cannot be waved away with a simple apology. Right now, America's way of dealing with slavery is by acknowledging guilt, but the acknowledgment by itself doesn't fix the centuries of harm done by the institution. Coates does not advocate for a particular form of reparations; instead he argues that America should seriously consider the problem, and understand that the problem with slavery and racism is far greater than the country has previously admitted.
Racism
Racism is a big theme in "The Case for Reparations." Coates describes how deeply racism is integrated into American society through the lens of housing, but all of the stories he tells show how widespread racism is throughout American life. From Clyde Ross's childhood at the beginning of the essay, to the Wells Fargo employees that deliberately targeted Black communities, referring to them as mud people, the article explores how, far from being a surface-level problem, much of American history is built upon the legacies of racism.
Systemic Oppression
One of the key elements to understanding Coates' arguments is that the problems he describes are systemic, meaning that they can be present in multiple facets of society and that it is a problem faced by the vast majority of a group. For example, his criticism of the Barack Obama's views about affirmative action—he said that his children shouldn't benefit from it—is rooted in the reality that the vast majority of Black people in America have been negatively affected by American history to the point where the Obamas' accomplishments are extremely rare. Coates is arguing that the racial oppression of Black people in the country is systemic and touches nearly every single African American. It's not just a few unlucky people; everyone is affected by the legacies of slavery.
Housing
Housing is the main way that Coates demonstrates how racism and slavery have affected the African-American community. The fundamental facets of the housing industry are built on policies that excluded African Americans. Redlining, although technically no longer a policy actively practiced by the FHA, created neighborhoods that are deeply segregated to this day, decades after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, which made segregation unconstitutional. Coates' point is that even something as fundamental to American life as where we live has not only been affected by racism but used as a tool to further it.
Narratives About the Black Community
Coates also addresses how many people think that the problems with the Black community are caused by African Americans themselves. Two particularly pervasive myths are that African Americans simply need to do better economically and that the African American community needs fathers. For the first, Coates points out that the middle class was the socioeconomic bracket targeted by contract sellers and subprime loans, showing that often African American's financial success is the very thing that makes them targets, as well as the fact that often, racism causes predominantly Black neighborhoods to depreciate in value. As to the second, Coates observes that tragically, having a father did not save Billy Jr. or Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis or any of the millions of Black people with fathers who nevertheless have been taken advantage of by a cruel system.
