Read the following to excerpts from this week's readings and share in yur own words what you think each author is saying. Are these two excerpts making similar points? If so, how? If not, why?

I want to get a sense of your understanding of these two excerpts and what we've been discussing in class in your answer. Your answer should be 2-3 paragrphs long and written as complete sentences in each paragraph. Do not respond to the questions above with bullet points.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The Case for Reparations"

"To ignore the fact that one of the oldest republics in the world was erected on a foundation of white supremacy, to pretend that the problems of a dual society are the same as the problems of unregulated capitalism, is to cover the sin of national plunder with the sin of national lying. The lie ignores the fact that reducing American poverty and ending white supremacy are not the same. The lie ignores the fact that closing the "achievement gap" will do nothing to close the "injury gap," in which black college graduates still suffer higher unemployment rates than white college graduates, and black job applicants without criminal records enjoy roughly the same chance of getting hired as white applicants with criminal records."

Isabel Wilkerson, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent"

"But in the same way that individuals cannot move forward, become whole and healthy, unless they examine the domestic violence they witnesses as children or the alcoholism that runs in their family, the country cannot become whole until it confronts what was not a chapter in its history, but the basis of its economic and social order. For a quarter millennium slavery was the country."