Race As A System Of White Supremacy

The demand of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake resulted in an increase of the slave trade. Unlike indentured servants, Africans was not protected by English law, and was accustomed to intensive labor as well as resistant to many diseases. And because the Native Americans were more familiar with the land which in turn made running away easier, it was hard to keep Indians as slaves. Authorities wanted to improve the status of white servants thus taking away the perception that Virginia was a death trap. In the 1660s, Virginia and Maryland laws referred explicitly to slavery. As Tobacco cultivation continued to increase so did the condition of black and white servants divided. The laws became more stricter and freedom for blacks became nonexistent,

While the first two sections of the book provide the historical context of the settling of the Virginia colony, the last two demonstrate Morgan’s theory of how racism was developed to ensure a sustainable workforce. The rise of the labor theory demonstrates how slavery itself became a necessary business venture in Virginia while at the same time justified the Revolutionary concepts of liberty and equality for all white men. The belief that only the men, or white Englishmen

Matthew Frye Jacobson’s Whiteness of a Different Color offers innovative insight into the concept of “race” and the evolution of “whiteness” throughout American history. Jacobson focuses his analysis on the instability of racial identification over time and how race has been created and perceived throughout different stages of history. He states in his introduction that “one of the tasks before the historian is to discover which racial categories are useful to whom at a given moment, and why” (p.9) and while he is successful in some respects, his analysis is somewhat incomplete in providing a full scope of the power relations that created, altered and maintained racial identities in the United States. While Jacobson offers a detailed

The article “The Great White Way” by Debra J. Dickerson attempts to show her readers that “Race is an arbitrary system for establishing hierarchy and privilege” (68) in America. In her article, Dickerson questions how “whiteness” leads America in our culture and society and how all the other races are defined in America. She also explains how history has divided whites from non-whites in America. The intended audience that Dickerson’s essay gravitated towards are political or liberal Americans. In her article “The Great White Way”. Debra J. Dickerson powerfully argues that race is an overall way to establish social classes and who and what get special privileges because of their certain race or skin color. Dickerson argues that “Race is

In her 2012 TEDx Talk, “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion”, Peggy McIntosh discusses how race is a privilege system and how white people are given an advantage without even realizing it. In her lecture McIntosh says, “These privilege systems, which locate us above and below the hypothetical line of social justice, were invented and we were born into them. And we all know both sides and that is the reason for compassion, about the sadness of having been born into systems that gave us such… such different ‘politics of location’”. Here, it seems that McIntosh’s main goal is to inform people that we are born into a privilege system because of our skin color and the only way that we can prevent a social hierarchy we must be able to recognize that we are all different. I think that the human population should be able to identify that people are different and have compassion for the differences in society our world today could have little to no race issues. After listening to McIntosh’s arguments, I support the ideas she makes throughout her works and I find that privilege systems are still prominent in today’s society.

As a result, another term must be used to refer to the power and domination that white people have over minorities; therefore, in this paper I will use the term "white supremacy" as opposed to "racism." In the Constitution, in slavery, and even in our cities today, white supremacy has been prevalent throughout our history. White supremacy and black inferiority are the two main problems that our cites face today; once white supremacy and black inferiority are ended in our country, then the majority of the problems in our cities will cease to exist.

Slavery was practiced throughout the thirteen colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. African slaves helped with the lucrative business of crops such as tobacco and cotton to help make the new nation an economic powerhouse. For some time, all blacks were not slaves or servants, some blacks were free men in the new world. Authors Thomas Breen and Stephen Innes of “Myne Owne Ground” used interactions between free blacks and the rest of society along Virginia’s eastern shore during the early seventeenth century. They were able to show that skin color wasn’t the most influential aspect in the treatment of blacks during this period. Blacks were able to accomplish great things and gain wealth equal to the average wealthy white man,

Slavery’s rise as the dominant force of labor in the Virginia colonies allowed for racism to spread and therefore justified the use of Africans for slave labor. Racism came as a direct result of slavery and allowed the divide between the Africans and Europeans to intensify. The profit that came from slavery encouraged many powerful landowners to switch to slavery, and eventually leave indentured servitude behind. In the colonies, slavery became vital to the new colonial society for economic reasons, and brought on a birth of racism that distinguished Africans and Europeans.

In 1612 John Rolfe a Jamestown planter began to experiment with tobacco that the local Indians had been growing for years (Brinkley 37). He produced high quality tobacco crops and sold them to buyers in England. The problem with farming tobacco was that it required a lot of land and the tobacco would exhaust the soil after only a few years so these farmers would need more land and there wasn’t enough land for them. These farmers originally used white indentured servants on their farms to grow tobacco until 1619 when the Dutch brought over the first 20 African Americans (Brinkley 38). The future of these first African Americans in the English colonies remained unknown. It is thought that the colonist didn’t consider them slaves and thought they were the same as the European indentured servants who were being used. They would be held for a number of years and then freed like the European indentured servants that were currently being used. For the time however planters continued to prefer the use of European indentured servants and the use of black labor

One of the main themes of the readings that we have discussed recently is race and how different people view what race means in relation to power. It is a concept that has been examined from every angle imaginable. Defining race and how it relates to people’s lives is an important part of our culture today. It is not something that anyone can pretend doesn’t exist in our lives. Race and power are closely associated within society. The readings that I will be discussing describe race from different perspectives. Beyond Black and White : Transforming African American Politics by Manning Marable discusses racial categories from a learned perspective. The second reading will be a selection from The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness called “The

treatment was different for servants and slaves. Being black meant being treated differently then others. a 1639 virginia law allowed for everyone except negroes to have arms and ammunition. This meant that an indentured servant who was sold and forced to do labor had this right whereas slaves did not. Indentured servants suffered because of all the diseases the ship contained and because the horrible quality of food and water. Servants had a tiny toom that was 6 feet in length and two feet wide. besides food rationing servants had

In Charles Mills The Racial Contract, his main argument is declaring the global white supremacy as the core of today’s political system. Mills opens with mentioning how other political philosophers in history have neglected to discuss race because of their own racial privileges. However, this is ironic given the significant of race and what social and political constraints race has put on certain groups of people. At the same time, race provides superiority for whites in the political and social spheres. Mills explains, “A Racial Contract might be more revealing of the real character of the world we are living in, and the corresponding historical deficiencies of its normative theories and practices…” (7). The Racial Contract is grounded on three claims, which are the existential claim where white supremacy exists, the conceptual claim where white supremacy exists in the political system, and the methodological claim where the contract supports a theoretical framework. Then, Mills outlines his argument with ten theses although this paper will only touch on the first seven theses. Although Mills omits some of the origins of race thereby weakening his historical actuality theses. Still, Mills is able to counter with examples of race that demonstrates its presence in society and a critique on social contract theorists who underestimate race’s impact on society. Overall Mills argument is sound in formulating race as a central aspect in the political system, but lacks in

Although race does not exist in the world in an objective way, it still is relevant in today’s society. It is obvious that race is real in society and it affects the way we view others as well as ourselves. Race is a social construct that is produced by the superior race and their power to regulate. “The category of ‘white’ was subject to challenges brought about by the influx of diverse groups who were not of the same Anglo-Saxonstock as the founding immigrants” (Omi and Winant 24). Frankly, ‘white’ was the norm, the others were considered an outcast.

I took the time today to read the article titled “What is Race” by Victor M. Fernandez, RN, BSN and found myself agreeably intrigued and in admiration of his thoughts regarding race. Victor touched on an extremely insightful and significant topic; one that most people have sturdy opinions about. Race – what is it? What does this mean to you? What does it mean to our upcoming careers in the nursing field? I trust that how we characterize and assess our awareness of race is due exclusively to how we were raised. I do not mean merely what we were taught from our family or culture about race, but to a certain extent how we have lived it, and how it has lived around us. “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide

The concept of race as it is known today began innocently, as a useful point of comparison between peoples based on physical appearance. Over time, the idea of color was corrupted by various ruling classes, who discovered that this brand of disenfranchisement was useful to create and maintain an exploitable lower class. What was once a descriptor was twisted into a tool of oppression, insidiously folded into society through language, mythology, and the normalization of race-based enslavement.