Why does Coates devote so much time to the story of CLyde Ross? In what ways do Ross's experiences reflect the experience of black Americans more generally?

Clyde Ross's childhood in the Jim Crow South is unfortunately not very unique. Living in Mississippi at the time, Black families were constantly subject to all different forms of legal and social harassment and subjugation. Though Coates does not say so explicitly, it's extremely likely that the back taxes claimed by the government were a false charge by the government. Important to understanding this is to understand that this action was not a one-off: the government was deeply, deeply corrupt as well as invested in preventing Black people from advancing. Ross's father's lack of literacy itself is a symptom of a society that purposefully made it harder for certain people to succeed because of their race. Ross tries to escape this injustice by moving to the North, only to find that Northern racism simply takes a different shape.

Contract selling was a manifestation of this other form of racism. While lynching, for instance, was extremely rare in the North, policies like contract selling, which intentionally targeted Black people, were pervasive. Because the FHA made it almost impossible for Black people to get mortgages, countless Black families were forced to rely on speculators, and the majority of people who bought homes on contract had to take on additional debt and still lost the homes the majority of the time. This dynamic was made possible by the public and the private sector working together. As seen in the illustrations in Coates' article, redlining still has profound effects on the demographics of Chicago in the present day.