i feel like the usual characters in this thread are deliberately ignoring what Ta-Nehisi Coates is trying to shed light on with his article. if he were merely talking about cutting checks to black people who may have had slave ancestors, the article would not be nearly so long, and it would have ended with "this is why all black people deserve a check from the government". he is strictly talking about ending the ongoing discrimination and redlining practices that have marginalized black people since the post-Reconstruction days. giving blacks the actual equal opportunity they were promised by the 14th, 15th and 24th Amendments, rather than pretending that black people are only stuck in ghettos because they aren't capable enough to escape poverty.