Essay On African American Minorities

Imagine a world in which all men weren 't created equal. A world where skin color, ethnic origin, gender, and sexuality was what defined a person rather than character. “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood”(King). Through the decades of the 1940s-1960s, America built the foundation for civil rights, a movement in which minorities fought for equality. Groups that previously had been discriminated against began to defend themselves with greater strength and success. The civil rights movement inspired African Americans, Native Americans, women, queers, and Latinos to fight for equality. Although each social group faced their own unique challenges during the civil rights movement, each group shared a common connection through their struggles for equality.

Artwork has been an imperative part of Black culture, and many artist share their inspirations coming from African origins. From the beginning of slave societies to present day, African America artwork has contributed to large parts of United States artistic collection. Beginning in the early 1600 to 1800 “black art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa.” The significance of the

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

The Rise of African- Americans From 1865 To 2012, Their Struggles To Become Free Americans

American minorities have had it pretty rough thought the history of America. However World War II opened up many doors of opportunity to American minorities that no event before has ever done. Women, Latinos, and African Americans were all subject to lower standards of life until World War II came into play. Women were expected to take up work and have long hours on the job. Many Latinos were brought up from Mexico to America to create a prosperous labor force, and for many African Americans, the war offered an opportunity to get out of the cycle of rural poverty by joining the military in large numbers.

While the Civil Rights Movement is considered a success, there is still racism in the United States today, in which blacks are still viewed as overly aggressive and overtly dangerous compared to whites. The racism we are familiar with today is called “institutional racism” and is not only shown in workplaces, but in schools and courtrooms. Institutional racism is defined as a pattern of social institutions who give negative treatment to a group of people based on race. To elaborate on institutional racism, starting with pre-school, black children make up only 18 percent of the pre-school population, but make up almost half of out of school suspensions. In K-12 black children are three times as likely to be suspended than white children. Now moving to the court system, black children make up nearly 60 percent of children in prison and are more likely to be sentenced as adults than white children. These statistics show that black’s, even black children, are more likely to be viewed as dangerous and subject to worse sentences.

African American Studies is a very complex subject. To confuse African American studies with black history is a common occurrence. African American studies is much deeper and more profound than just Black history alone. There are many unanswered and unasked questions among the Black American culture which causes confusion and misunderstanding in modern day society. In unit one there were many themes, concepts, and significant issues in the discipline of Africana studies. Both W.E.B Du Bois and Vivian V. Gordan touched on many concerns.

“I'm not going to get killed trying to force myself on people who don't want me. Integration is wrong.White people don’t want it, the Muslims don't want it.”- Muhammad Ali. A lot of African-American during the civil rights movement had endured a lot to go through to be where they are at in sports. African-Americans had a very tough time trying to get their rights, it was very hard for them to earn respect from the people that lived in the south. Since they knew they weren't going to be respected, some players even decided to not sign autographs or anything. Which is uncommon now a days, because most athletes care a lot about their fans and try to do a lot for them. According to John Hareas of NBA.com, Bill Russell didn't sign any autographs

Women and minority groups in particular fields have been disadvantaged since there has been a discrimination against them few years ago. Especially in the work fields, an issue regarding inequality in public contracting, specifically in bidding, becomes a current debate among workers. Since San Francisco allowed the city authorities to treat its bidding process differently though the San Francisco’s Public Contracting, cities that intended to eliminate such inequality might have failed. This policy stated that the bid process proposed by women and minorities could be lowered 10 percent, compared to the normal bid that usually proposed by the majority and men.This policy was no longer valid after a Proposition 209 or the California Civil Rights Initiative has been signed in 1996. The state government was to not to involved issues that differentiate ethnicity, race, and gender in public contracting, employment, as well as education.

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

On August 9, 2015, a Ferguson Police officer shot and killed unarmed young man, Michael Brown. This set off a chain of events that catapulted the #BlackLivesMatter Movement into national media attention. Since the unnecessary death of Michael Brown,

Despite numerous misconceptions, African Americans who have attended HBCUs have thrived tremendously. In fact, African American students that attend an HBCU are more likely to go on to graduate from a professional school than African American graduates from other institutional types. Brandon Busteed, an executive director who organized a survey about the matter under Gallup-Purdue University stated, “There are still noticeable challenges around completion rates and loan default rates, and this data doesn’t change that…but this data does add a whole new dimension to the conversation about the value of HBCUs. Black students are having very meaningful experiences at HBCUs, compared to black graduates from everywhere else.” (Busteed) Here we can assume what Busteed analyzed from the survey was that despite the fact that HBCUs seem to have challenges, for instance one that wasn’t mention regarding how PWIs receive a substation amount of funding as compared to HBCUs. In the face of all this the black students that do attend HBCUs are still confident and graduate quite successful. Moreover, approximately 33% of African American students receiving their PhDs

Many roles have changed in the last two hundred years, including soldiers, women, ethnicity, and race. In the 1800’s, many of the American people thought of blacks as three fifths of a person, perhaps they were not worthy to use the same bathroom, eat in the same restaurant, work in the same factory, or read from the same libraries as a white person. The role of an African American has changed drastically, blacks are allowed, in the United States, to learn in the same schools, work in the same jobs, etcetera. But wait, the roles of African American have changed even more than that, if you are African American you have a higher chance than a white person of entering into a college, and as an African American, you have the same rights as whites to manage a company, or even become the president of the United States of America.

Most history books today do not contain the complete and true history of African Americans. If they must include African American history, most of the significant events and people are briefly explained or not included. African Americans have reached a time where they attain the power to act and make decisions at their own accord. African Americans possessed strength to survive generations of suffering from slavery, going against the odds of the social structure by constructing their own institutions despite limited rights they endured, and contributing to the making of America that helped open doors to their freedom. However, African Americans are still fighting for equality today because racism is engraved in the foundation of the country. Although, African Americans have acquired many freedoms such as being able to vote, being able to eat in the same restaurant as a Caucasian person, as well as attain the same careers and same salaries as a Caucasian person. From the previous examples, one can claim that African Americans have come a long way but, still have a long way to go. The centuries of undergoing brutality to set African Americans back has resulted in many African Americans to suffer from mental illness. To summarize, history books lead on the misconception that the history of African Americans started from slavery. However, that is not the case, due to the fact that African Americans held great status

Minorities have provided labor which has helped to build our economy and made America the economic engine of the world. They have and continue to help lay the railroads and build our cities, pioneer new industries and also help to fuel our information age from google to many other technological advancements. For instance, today many Mexicans provide seasonal labor vital to the growth of the agriculture industry in California and many other areas