Fact of Blackness Essay

Upon graduating high school, I thought I knew everything there was to Black History. We were captured from Africa, forced into slavery for hundreds of years all around the world, became free with repercussions such as discrimination and segregation, and now today we are “officially free”. The Black history I knew, was scattered and filled with holes, which caused me to question my sense of worth. Why were African-Americans the most oppressed people in the world?

In the United States quest to expand west they tried to find a solution to their Native American problem. The US government tried to make them more white. This is because the government forced the Blackfeet to depend on the government, the Dawes Severalty Act, and boarding schools.

Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement that started within the African-American communities. This movement is organized by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. Ever since the black people have stepped on American soil, they have continued to be victims of racism and violence. From slavery to lynching to segregation, the black people have suffered alot in this country. In the past few years, there are so many of them that have been targeted by the law enforcement authorities across the country. This movement’s goal is to raise awareness of racism and violence against African-Americans. They wants African-American to live with dignity and respect like other Americans do.

It is easier for a white person to fit in any community because majority of the communities are dominated by their race. For example, if a white person moves in a new house, they are pretty sure greater parts of their neighbors are same race as them. When I moved in the United States many years back, I felt left out and it was difficult for me to fit in because I was a minority. I was mocked by mostly white students about the way I dressed and teased about being different from them. White students don’t encounter these problems when they transfer from one school to another because they figured majority of the students they’ll be surrounded by will be same skin color as them. Another difficulty I had was shopping at a supermarket was finding my cultural food. It won’t be difficult for a white person to fit in a community and find similar food to their culture. A person doesn’t realize these privileges until they image themselves in color individuals’ shoes.

Throughout history, African Americans have encountered an overwhelming amount of obstacles for justice and equality. You can see instances of these obstacles especially during the 1800’s where there were various forms of segregation and racism such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorism, Jim- Crow laws, voting restrictions. These negative forces asserted by societal racism were present both pre and post slavery. Although blacks were often seen as being a core foundation for the creation of society and what it is today, they never were given credit for their work although forced. This was due to the various laws and social morals that were sustained for over 100 years throughout the United States. However, what the world didn’t

The final film by Marlon Riggs, Black is…Black Ain't, is concerned with the state of the African American community. This film essentially asks the question, what does it mean to be black? The director and producer, Marlon Riggs, guides viewers along an “an up-front examination of racism, sexism, and homophobia within the black community itself. Bringing together personal stories, interviews, music, history, and performance, Black Is...Black Ain’t asks African Americans: What is black, black enough, or too black?”1

The air was thick with moisture as I made my way down the stairs of the small propeller plane. A young girl, no older than myself, with rich brown curls stood at my side when I reached the bottom, and even though we didn’t know each other, we knew we were headed to the same place. The Piney Woods School, located in Piney Woods, Mississippi. It is a large remote, all-black boarding school, surrounded by lush greenery that stretched for miles, and accompanied by one long highway cutting straight past the entrance. I vibrated with anticipation and curiosity as we made our way towards this new experience. An experience that would not only educate me, but also change my views on what it means to be ME and what it feels like to be Black, in a Black community.

When I survey the landscape in black America, it does not take long for me to recognize the massive impression of a vehement struggle of a collective group of people to simply keep their head above water. The problem in the black community is that it is where every ill of this nation is felt first. It is the place in which much of the economic devastation is felt and absorbed in order to relieve some of the pressure off of this nation’s more affluent citizens.

Arthur Black is a very opinionated man. In his essays about Canada, he has many short pieces about the differences between Canadians and Americans. He states how there is never anything bad said about Canada, and that Canada could even be considered a “wallflower”. In his essay Canadian Passion Not Flagging, Black talks about how the Americans wave their flag and Canadians do not. Americans have their flag everywhere; hanging inside malls, and even at the gas stations. In his essay Canada: Too Polite to Live, it says how the American Declaration of Independence demands life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Canadians have settled for peace, order, and good government. Another difference between Americans and Canadians according to

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

1 . What issues most concerned black political leaders during Reconstruction? Reconstruction brought important social changes to former slaves. Families that had been separated before and during the Civil War were reunited, and slave marriages were formalized through legally recognized ceremonies. Families also took advantage of the schools established by the Freedmen's Bureau and the expansion of public education, albeit segregated, under the Reconstruction legislatures. New opportunities for higher education also became available with the founding soon after the Civil War of black colleges, such as Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Fisk University in Nashville,

“The Book of Negroes is a master piece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.” I completely agree with The Globe and Mail’s interpretation of this story. One could almost see the desolate conditions of the slave boats and feel the pain of every person brought into slavery. Lawrence Hill created a compelling story that depicts the hard ships, emotional turmoil and bravery when he wrote The Book of Negroes.

The abolition of slavery in the United States presented southern African Americans with many new opportunities, including the option of relocation in search of better living conditions. The mass movement of black people from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North, known as the Black Migration, came in the 1890s when black men and women left the south to settle in cities such as Philadelphia and New York, fleeing from the rise of Jim Crowe Laws and searching for work. This migration of blacks from the South has been an important factor in the formation of the Harlem Renaissance. The period referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, was a flourishing period of artistic and literary creation in African-American culture and

In 17th Century England, the idea of different races and cultures was new, and therefore, a novelty; anything that differed from the norm was highly valued and sought after. Noble people and professional actors took advantage of this and put on The Masque of Blackness, a production in which many of its actors appeared in blackface. The masques were elaborate performances, made to praise the monarch, with larger-than-life costumes and staging that combined songs, dances, and acting into a presentation that depicted gods and goddesses, and pastoral settings. Although the play is meant to be for entertainment, it begins to cross lines when the performance becomes a spectacle of racism and exoticism. In Benjamin Jonson’s The Masque of

The hot summer sun shone through the window of the car and it pierced Michael's eyes. Sweat dripped down his dark forehead and he brushed it away. He looked across at Mrs White. She had a beautiful sky blue hat with yellow flowers that shone in the sun. Her long cream dress moved in the breeze blowing through the car window.