Anti-Black Discrimination

Introduction African Americans relentlessly fought for racial equality in the 1960’s, going to drastic measures to gain equal rights. Many people risked as much as their lives for equality; for others to recognize their hardships. Although the 1960’s stayed the same as seen through the wealth gap, the 60’s saw sweeping change as seen through events such as the Freedom Riders of 1961, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Therefore, these events prove that conflict cannot be solved without time and fortitude.

In his commencement address at Howard University one year after signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson raised a question regarding the growing inequality between white and black Americans after World War II despite the country’s prosperity. Ira Katznelson’s When Affirmative Action Was White posits that the vast programs such as the New Deal and G.I. Bill of Rights of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, seen as progressive, were inherently racist. Katznelson discusses these programs and how they affected black Americans in their various political, economic, and social spheres. He examines these problematic and discriminatory areas under four scopes: welfare, the workplace, military service, and education.

The lack of opportunity provided to African Americans and other minority demographics to enjoy the plunder of the post-war economy, including better education and housing, exposes the shortcoming of what we now remember as one of the most prosperous times in American history. Because of the prevalence of systematic racism towards African Americans, through the lack of equal treatment and opportunity, many African Americans could not enjoy a similar quality of life to white

In the article “Somewhere between Jim Crow & Post-racialism” the author Lawrence Bobo reflects on the racial justice struggle from the mid 1960’s in the South. Post-racialism in America was hoped to collapse after the election of the first African-American President Barack Obama of the United States in 2008. Post-racialism is defined to signal signs of racial change of a hopeful trajectory for events and social trends (Bobo, 2006, p.93). Three key questions discussed were racial boundaries, the degree of racial economic inequality, and what is known about changes in racial attitudes from the 1960’s in the United States to 2017.

The election of Barack Obama as the president of the United States surprised Americans as much as it did the world. The first African American and non-white to be in the White House, Barack Obama symbolized a major historical event, another step-forward toward racial equality in the history of America. Civil rights activists, experts in the racial conflict of the U.S., and many liberal citizens believed that Obama’s election means the realization of the ideas of black civil rights leaders, the completion of the Civil Rights Movement, the beginning of a post-racial society, and the downfall of

Michelle Alexander depicts the grim reality for many young African American men in today’s society in her book the New Jim Crow. The harsh reality for many of them is that they will never be able to fully participate in mainstream society and receive the benefits and basic rights that are taken for granted by the rest of the nation. Her findings show that existence of the Jim Crow laws have yet to fully disappear from society like many believe they have, when it fact, the restrictions of the Jim Crow era have merely been reinvented in the form of the United States’ federal justice system. Today, the United States

Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive. The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis- a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.

The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States has generated a lot of discussions and debate on the current racial affairs in the United States. Many assume that Obama's presidency ushers a new era post-racial America. So, I decided to read a few recent articles on the topic. The first was by Time Wise where he reflects on "denial and reality" in response to the question "what is post-racial?" (Wise, 2012). Wise's article is depressing because not only because he leaves no doubt, by bringing up strong qualitative and quantitative arguments, that the whole idea of post-racial America is a chimera, but because he makes it hard to believe post-racial America can be achieved at all.

There is no doubt that the United States has gone through serious transformation in as far as racial relations is concerned. So far, the country has seen a reduction in racial prejudices and discrimination , yet such changes have never be a one-off event, rather, it has been a process that has seen so many fighting so hard for this course. Talking of racism and racial discrimination, African-Americans would always be taken as the greatest victims to such discrimination. Whereas African-Americans have played victim to racial discrimination over the years, there has been a great level of transformation within the American society over the years to see to it that institutionalized racial discrimination amongst blacks is kept at the bare minimal

The position of Black Americans from 1945-1955 changed a lot throughout these years, and mainly for the better, particularly in social and economical areas. Although there were occasional setbacks in some areas, such as politically, overall their position was vastly improved. In this essay I’ll be discussing the different areas in which Black Americans improved their position in and some areas in which they continued to struggle in.

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s

By far the most important piece of civil rights legislation ever passed in the history of the United States was the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which finally ended the system of dual public schools in the Southern states and abolished Jim Crow segregation is hospitals, transportation and public facilities. Only the 1965 Voting Rights Act was of equal importance, and no legislation since that time has had as much of an effect on politics, economics and society in America. It benefitted not only blacks but women, the handicapped, Hispanics, Native Americans and members of other minority groups, who have managed to hold onto most of their gains in spite of the conservative backlash of the last thirty years. Unlike the First Reconstruction of 1867-77, the Second was never completely repealed by the reactionary and racist forces in the U.S., although they have certainly tried. Although violence against civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan continued, especially in Alabama and Mississippi, this type of federal intervention soon undermined the institutions and organizations in the South that had kept blacks as second-class citizens since the end of the First Reconstruction in 1877. Therefore the civil rights revolution was very successful as far as it went, but by no means a complete revolution, especially in social and economic life. Martin Luther King recognized fully this at the time, and even Barack Obama is well aware that structural and institutional racism is

In addition to the black codes various discriminatory practices were stablished to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to be equal in elections. Blacks attempting to vote were told by election officials that they had gotten the date, time or voting place wrong.(Citation(Example: Muniz, 56)) also many white officials conducted insufficient literacy test, designed to target the illiterate African Americans(examples of the places that did it and Citation). Some states made citizens pay a poll tax before they voted (Citation). The voting taxes kept poor citizen especially the low income African American families from voting. In addition many whites use threat of violence to keep blacks from the voting polls. Despite the resistance

Over the course of American history, it is no question that other races have been disadvantaged because of their heritage and minority status. Slavery and discrimination have led to severe drawbacks for African American society, to give an example, which is unfair and unfortunate to those that have worked so hard and lose just because of their race. Luckily though, racism is coming to a much tighter close as time goes on, and people of color are much less discriminated than they once were. Privilege exists within every American due to the great freedom the country offers. Cultures are not structured to hate or isolate another culture; things like this happen because the people within those cultures have different viewpoints, which may cause

Despite this claim about the direction of race relations in this country, there seems to be a disconnection. Obama’s campaign tended to focus on symbolic capital of “hope” that Obama’s presidency constitutes for the Black community, this article reveals the thinking of the African American population that I believe is substantial to my research. This article also offers the idea of post racial thinking in America before and after the 2012 presidential