Sandhya Senthilkumar; period 3 online

In the column titled “Tulsa and the Many Sins of Racism”, Krugman tells a
short, but detailed information about Tulsa, and the history of blacks in that city
along with the story of racism in America. He starts of by mentioning about how
trump scheduled a rally on June 19th, which was also the date marked to celebrate
the end of slavery. Tulsa was also the place were the 1921 race massacre took
place. Saying that he did not know the significance of that day, trump was
disrespecting the African- Americans. Krugman continues by telling how the
blacks lived their life after they were freed from slavery. They started off with
nothing, but they later started to become a complete member of the society. But it
didn’t last long. The south white supremacists suppressed the black middle class
and made them face terror. At that time, Tulsa prospered due to the oil boom and it
became a city of opportunity. Due to this, a large amount of African Americans
migrated to Tulsa that it came to be known as the black wall street. But this was
also the place were an estimated of hundred blacks were killed. Violent repression
made them to migrate to this place and this happened 5 year before the Tulsa
massacre. Even if they still faced discrimination in the north, it was far better than
staying in the south. But this didn’t last long too. There was a loss in economic
opportunity which later led to despair. The racism was to the point that there was
opposition to government programs that might help the African Americans. In
conclusion, Krugman says that slavery was America’s original sin and that its
legacy continued on due to the addition of more sins. These sins continue even to
this day. But he still believes that America might change with the starting point of
the plunge in polls of Trump – “We are still stained by our original sin, but we
may, at long last, be on the road to redemption.”
In the column titled “OK, we’ve finally agreed that Black lives matter. Now
what?” columnist Sandy banks uses a lot of emotions and stress in her words. This
seems to contain a lot more emotion when compared to the column written by
Krugman. Banks summarizes on what had happened to the blacks and that what
people are doing right now is still not enough to overcome this atrocity. They were
just innocent human beings just like everyone. But they were beaten and killed by
the police. This was happening for decades. But at last, a huge crowd came to
protest against this injustice. The death of George Floyd generated a huge outrage
and started a revolutionary movement. This movement was a very surprising one
for banks. It made her happy, but at the same time she felt unconvinced. She thinks
that just gestures aren’t enough for the long suffering they had suffered, for she
was the daughter of black parents herself. She says that she was happy to have
gotten ‘new comrades’ and the passion they were oozing, but this was still a
beginning for her. “To arm ourselves for change, we have to acknowledge the
enduring reach of America’s original sin. Our nation has been steeped in
racism and white privilege for the last 400 years. That’s a durable affliction, as
disturbing and destructive as any pandemic.” She tells about various ways a
person could contribute to the movement: Educating oneself in the ways that
institutions have been complicit in supporting pillars of structural racism,
disabusing children of the whitewashed American history that they had learnt and
that schools need to revolutionize in teaching children about slavery.
Discrimination in employment, housing and education was permitted and
endorsed for a century after the Civil War ended, and not just only in the
South. Black children did not go to integrated school without protection form
national guards. Trade unions prohibited blacks from joining and many more
injustice of the blacks are described. In conclusion, she says that there is a racial
hierarchy that makes people monitor and set boundaries for the people who are
below them. This hierarchy needs to be destroyed and in order for that to happen,
just gestures won’t be enough. The columnist expresses great emotion, as she
herself had experienced these things.
In the column titled “Trump’s Racist, Statist Suburban Dream,” Krugman
mainly talks about racial discrimination of blacks in buying properties. He also
mentions about the statist racism in the form of F.H.A loans for whites only. The
fear, hatred, and economic inequality in housing and neighborhood population was
created and maintained by the US Federal Government. Trump’s suburban lifestyle
dream was created by government policies. The great suburban housing that
followed WWII was made possible by huge federal subsidies through programs
that protected lenders from risk by insuring qualifying home mortgages. Some of
those main programs were the Federal Housing Administration and the Veteran’s
administration. By 1950 the F.H.A. and the V.A. were insuring half of all
mortgages nationwide. But these subsidies weren’t for all people. They were only
available to the white people, but not just any white people. They were white
people who lived in all-white communities. There were not available to the
communities whose children share classrooms with other children who represent
‘incompatible racial element.’ After the WWII, there were opportunities for the
middle class to solidify their position. But the Blacks were denied here too. During
the 50’s and 60’s, while many Americans got the chance to build up their wealth,
Blacks were shut out of the rising market. The financial barriers to ownership were
frightening for the blacks. “Trump’s Suburban Lifestyle Dream is basically a
walled village that the government built for whites, whose gates were slammed
shut when others tried to enter.” Krugman concludes by saying that free markets
and individual choices were not the factors that made America a segregated
society. It was rather caused by racism as a statist policy, involving political power
which denies free choice. Black lives matter movement revealed to the entire
country that it was still a long way from being a society where everyone is treated
the same, regardless of their color. Just like his previous column, Krugman
revealed a lot of details in a short and simple column. He was on point on every
sentence.
Both Paul Krugman and Sandy Banks did justice to their columns. The two
columnists were totally different in their writing style and in their emotions that
they displayed. But at the end, they brought out their opinion very clearly and
stated it with a lot of examples from real life. All the three columns that I chose
were regarding racial discrimination of African Americans and the Black lives
matter movement. Both Krugman and Banks considered slavery and racism as
America’s sin. They both mentioned about the key discriminations that black
people had faced: housing, jobs, etc. They also provided real life events that had
occurred to support those statements. The merits of the arguments presented are
endless. But to state a few, different opinions about the same matter were
discovered. People have different thoughts and different opinions even on the same
matter. Columns are a great way to discover those opinions. A variety of real-life
examples regarding the black lives matter movement were given. There are a lot
more atrocities that had happened similar to the death of George Floyd that people
are unaware of. Half of the information given here was unknown to me. I got to
know a lot more about it through these arguments. These types of arguments
prevent people from having a one-sided opinion and allows them to have a broader
view and look at things in different angles.