Task 1:

HR 40 is a bill that would fund the studying of the efficacy of reparations for African-American citizens. Both Democrats and Republicans of Congress have rejected the bill, leaving it with no legislative support. Coates writes that this “suggests our concerns are rooted not in the impracticality of reparations but in something more existential.” He is noting that even though this is a bill that is simply to study the idea of reparations, the fact that we deny it as a country is representative of where we really are in terms of racism in America. Personally, I do not think reparations are the way towards equality in this nation, but through studying it we can find the best way towards this goal. Maybe this study will prove me wrong.

Task 2:

The reason we don’t want to study reparations is because we don’t know what the results will be. This paradox is a result of the catastrophization from those who would potentially suffer from the institution of reparations. Lukianoff and Haidt write that, “Burns defines catastrophizing as a kind of magnification that turns ‘commonplace negative events into nightmarish monsters.’ Leahy, Holland, and McGinn define it as believing ‘that what has happened or will happen’ is ‘so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to stand it.’” From the perspective of the majority, there is fear that reparations are a form of retribution and attack on whites. Personally, as a descendant of an immigrant from Ireland who came to America in the 1850’s and suffered great oppression in Boston upon arrival, why should I pay for the damages done by slave owners, racists, and unjust legistlature that I did not write? By avoiding the conversation of reparations, those who think they oppose it don’t actually know what they’re opposing, but in their head it is catastrophized to the worst possible option.

Task 3: 

The refusal to study reparations is an example of how this nation has been using a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. Through multiple studies with elementary students, Carol Dweck remarks that when failing on a problem too hard for them, students with a growth mindset “… engage deeply. They process the error. They learn from it and they correct it” (1:58). On the other hand, students who possess a fixed mindset, under the same circumstances, mentally shut down: “They run from the error. They don’t engage with it” (1:58). Those who oppose the HR 40 bill are in a dire position because they believe that reparations will fail without knowing how to institute them in the first place. This is like trying to solve a calculus problem with an introductory understanding of algebra. Much of the white population seems to be caught on the defensive and when one feels like they are being attacked it is hard to be able to change that mindset. Studying reparations could find a successful format that is completely different from what opposers have in their heads, but it also could show that there is no way to institute reparations.  We must tackle this problem one step at a time and until we know the best way to solve this problem, we shouldn’t exclaim that it is not to be solved.