Question #1: On page 104, Coates quotes senator John C. Calhoun who points out that the division of our society is not based upon class or wealth, but race, and white people, whether poor or rich, are all treated with a shared sense of respect and equality. In America during the mid-1800’s, this separation in society stemmed from those who ‘believed themselves to be white’ having power over others, and as stated by Coates, “… the right to break the black body as the meaning of their sacred equality. And that right has always given them meaning, has always meant that there was someone down in the valley because a mountain is not a mountain if there is nothing below” (Coates, pg. 104-105). This is why white people in America, whether rich or poor, are considered to be a part of society’s upper-class because regardless of financial status, there is this power that was established back in the mid-1800’s which we still see negatively affecting society today.

 Question #2: On pages 108-111 Coates discusses redlining, which is when individuals of a certain neighborhood or community are denied a certain service, such as a housing loan, based on their race. And although redlining was made illegal years ago, that does not mean it doesn’t still occur in different ways today and members of these communities still face the effects of it such as with reverse redlining. On page 111 Coates says, “The plunder of black life was drilled into this country in its infancy and reinforced across its history, so that plunder has become an heirloom, an intelligence, a sentience, a default setting to which, likely to the end of our days, we must invariably return.” Due to things such as redlining, and now reverse redlining, this divide based on race continues to perpetuate in our society today. I also think that redlining really shows that laws alone do not prevent discrimination from taking place in America. After learning more about redlining this also brings up the question for me: why was I not taught about it sooner? I think that this is a topic that isn’t fully covered for a lot of people in earlier education when it really should be because it is still affecting people today.