One reason Congress doesn’t want to study reparations is out of fear that they don’t know what the conclusion will be; that it won’t be the answer they are looking for. This cycle of avoidance is a result of the catastrophization of those who would potentially suffer from the institution of reparations, especially the white population. David Burns defines catastrophizing “as a kind of magnification that turns ‘commonplace negative events into nightmarish monsters’” (qtd in Lukianoff and Haidt para. 25). From the perspective of Congress, I believe there is a fear that reparations are a form of retribution and attack on whites. Coates writes, “Perhaps no number can fully capture the multi-century plunder of black people in America. Perhaps the number is so large that it can’t be imagined, let alone calculated and dispensed.” (pg. 33). Personally, I do see the perspective Congress holds. As a descendant of an immigrant from Ireland who came to America in the 1850s and suffered great oppression in Boston upon arrival, why should I pay for the damages done by slave owners, racists, and unjust legislature that I did not write? And why should I put funding into a study that will prove me otherwise? Coates eloquently responds that “an America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future” (pg. 33). I have to agree with him. If paying money seriously affects the racism in this country, I would be willing to do so. It is through avoiding the conversation of reparations that those who think they oppose it don’t actually know what they’re opposing, and in their head, it is catastrophized to the worst possible option. Congress needs to get over their fears and face this problem with the facts, and they can only receive the facts if they pass HR 40.

In this paragraph, I used my own family history to raise the question: why should I fund a study that will conclude that I owe money even though I have no connection to racism in America? I conclude that that isn’t the point, and there is no way to tell what the result will be until we find the best result.