Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, has been caught in the act of classic racism. His personal assistant/girlfriend recorded him in his own home during a fight they were having. Sterling made the remark that she cannot bring a black person to one of his basketball games, even though she herself is African-Mexican American. Racism still exists today and will continue to exist if people like Mr. Sterling do not get the message that it is erroneous to think of another man or woman as a lesser human being because of the color of their skin. Donald says that, “People feel certain things. Hispanics feel certain things towards blacks. Blacks feel certain things towards other groups. It’s been that way historically, and it will always be that …show more content…
On her death bed, Aunt Jimmy was not into voodoo nor superstitions that most African-Americans held tightly to their culture, instead the only advice she paid any attention to was when Miss Alice was reading to her out of the Bible from the chapter of First Corinthians. Older black women like Aunt Jimmy had suffered most of their lives, but now in this old age, they were free to live the rest of their lives without misery and to show affection towards others instead of hate:
Everybody in the world was in a position to give them orders… The only people they need not take orders from were black children and each other. But they took all of that and re-created it in their own image. They ran the houses of white people, and knew it. They beat their children with one hand and stole for them with the other. The hands that felled trees also cut umbilical cords; the hands that wrung the necks of chickens and butchered hogs also nudged African violets into bloom; the arms that loaded sheaves, bales, and sacks rocked babies into sleep… And the difference was all the difference there was. Then they were old… They had given over the lives of their own children and tendered their grandchildren. With relief they wrapped their heads in rags, and their breasts in flannel; eased their feet into felt. They were through with lust and lactation, beyond tears and terror. They alone could walk the roads of Mississippi, the lanes of Georgia, the fields
“These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave black men. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (20).
He wants his readers to imagine the pain and humiliation of the ill treatment that African Americans endure on a daily basis. King writes of vicious mobs lynching people’s mothers and fathers, policemen killing people’s brothers and sisters, a man and his wife not receiving the proper respect they deserve because of their skin color, and the notion that African Americans feel insignificant within their communities; this is why these peaceful demonstrators of whom the clergymen attack “find it difficult to wait” (King, 20). However, King believes that soon, injustice will be exposed, like “a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up” (King, 30). This vivid description helps arouse an emotional response, driving shame into the hearts of his white readers.
The film reminds us that “slavery and its aftermath involved the emasculation-physical as well as psychological - of black men, the drive for black power was usually taken to mean a call for black male power, despite the needs of (and often with the complicity of) black women. That continues to result in the devaluing of black female contributions to the liberation struggle and in the subordination of black women in general.”4
All their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine…. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny…. Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in my own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.
“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.
“Vicious mobs lynch” and “drown your sisters and brothers” shows the fear that individuals live through each day. Equally, the “hate-filled policemen” support these unjust actions, meaning African-Americans lack any support and protection. Citing “twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty” reveals the hardships they must endure due to this discrimination. Similarly, King reminisces:
“The soul was the body that fed the tobacco, and the spirit was the blood that watered the cotton, and these created the first fruits of the American garden” (Coates 104). In Between the World and Me,” and within this quote alone, Ta-Nehisi Coates argued not only the importance of black identity, but also how and why black identity was so deceivingly shaped in response to the dark history behind it. Through Coates’ recollections and fair warnings to his son, the relationship between black identity and “The Dream” becomes clearer. In spite of the “white supremacist” trademark that comes stamped upon “The Dream,” Coates provides impermeable evidence as to why black identity is not only more invested in history than white identity, but more importantly why it is the investment to be made in “The American Dream.”
They had no clue on what they did to deserve such violence. “We wish to do right, obey the laws and live in peace and quietude but when we are assaulted at the midnight hour, our lives threatened and the laws fail to protect or assist us we can defend ourselves, let the consequences be what they may”, said a general from Calhoun. Black men, women and children thought they had been set free, they had laws to prove it, yet the white man ruled all, they were in control and weren’t backing down for the African American race. As time went on and the daydream of the frightening war played through the blacks’ heads, there were white men trying to get the African Americans a spot below the white Americans.
African American men struggled throughout their lifetime with being looked down on and shunned by American. Whether it was getting a job or simply walking down the street, blacks were constantly abused and degraded just for the color of their skin.” Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity, I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man” (184). This quote left an imagery of slavery in the story. The control the white men had over the blindfolded black men illustrated the power whites had during slavery. Because of the predicament, the boys had no choice but to obey the white individuals because of the sense of fear they installed in them. In the fighters’ mind, they were slaves to the whites no matter how far the nation has progressed from
So in America, segregation could not be unnoticed due to the unavoidable display of items that must be used for different races. There were different water fountains, different schools, different restaurants, et cetera. Although, while it was promised by the Supreme Court to be equal, commonly white establishments were ‘gifted’ with privilege and more wealth than colored ones. But if African Americans wanted to enter the clearly better place, they couldn’t because the sign glared at them, reading, “white.” This should evoke a feeling of guilt from the clergymen, as they told King to wait for equal rights, when clearly African Americans are discontented with facing unjust laws that don’t allow them to receive the entitlement for equal establishments with white
In the chapter,” Prisoners of Hope” Cornel West argues that black America is a despite state of inequality and corruption that’s jeopardizing the quality of life for the blacks. He focuses on the escalation of wealth inequality and class polarization to emphasize his argument with solid evidence. West gives a brief description of America as a mother whose care is eroding and being replaced by injustice all in the means of financial satisfactory for the elite. He begins by examining the struggles of the middle class through their fear of further underemployment and unemployment. West gives historical context for the need to speak up for equality through inspiring stories of Martin Luther king Jr. and Rosa Parks. On page 296, West says “We’ve forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it” trying to advocate the message that we should be helping each other make the world better, helping our race stand as one and advance as one. However, the oppression of black by white supremacists is slowing the process of advancement, rather its placing Blacks in an absurd situation, one where their anger is manifesting as physical violence. His strong call for action in the name of justice is emphasized in the tone and her use of important people who have made a contribution toward equality for blacks c, such as Malcolm X and Mohamed Ali.
Now, it is time to look at the racism. The word nigger is widely used by Whites in this book. It dehumanizes the African-Americans which it is used against. Even the children of the South used it in reference to the value of Black life. “It was a common saying, even among little white boys, that it was worth a half-cent to kill a "nigger," and a half-cent to bury one”. This quote displays the savagery of the slaveholding society. The kids are not just saying it is worth a cent to kill and bury a slave, but their exact word is nigger. This indicates that the hatred towards African-Americans is about more than just their status as slaves. Slaves were regularly referred to not by their name, but as niggers. Fredrick’s mistress’ husband became enraged when she taught Fredrick the alphabet, “he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world”. Nigger is widely used to rob the people enslaved of their humanity. They are treated as mere playthings, pawns or slaves of their masters. The law was also incredibly racist, “some cried, "Kill the damned nigger! Kill him! kill him! He struck a white person." I found my only chance for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting away without an additional blow, and barely so; for to strike a white man is death by Lynch law”. The White man to
The author’s purpose of this literature is to inform the reader exactly how black communities were getting treated so that the same mistakes don’t get made with America. “The term civil rights limits our understanding, since it refers specifically to rights guaranteed by the Constitution or protected through legislation. It fails to encompass the cultural, social, and economic goals of the struggle,” (Spero). Therefore the author wants to inform that it was not just the change in rights but the dreams that African Americans had and the way of their living that was affected by the racist government. “Participation by the black adults started out strong but waned because many feared losing their jobs, to keep the campaign alive. King and other black leaders asked teens and younger children to step in,” (Zissou). This shows that when references black communities it was not just the adults but also the women and children, because they needed to work as a group to get more of a step to start seeing changes in their communities. “If a man doesn’t not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has
There is a question floating around in the NBA (aka the National Basketball Association) community right now. Should Donald Sterling be banned for his racist comments? Yes, I think he should. What he said was not excusable even though he comes from a generation where saying those things is okay. He attempted to get his girlfriend to take pictures off Instagram because “she was publicizing the fact she was walking with a black man.” In his interview on CNN he said the following. “ That’s the one problem I have. Jews when they get successful they will help their people and some African-Americans-- maybe I’ll get in trouble again… they don’t want to help anybody.”
No matter how we see ourselves, there will always be somebody who says we’re not good enough to be on the same level on them, when in reality, we are no different than them. Back in the mid 1900’s, African Americans had moved out of slavery and into segregation, their life taking a bittersweet turn into something that would change history forever. The Jim Crow Laws were made not named after a person, but using the slang word for black man “Jim” and the symbolism of the black crow. These laws were set to protect mainly the whites and it clearly highlighted where the African Americans stood in the social tower of America. Most Africans Americans had to live through the massive transition of slavery to segregation, but those born into it didn’t