The problem in the communities of the black and colored people in America is there need to feel equal to their dominator. What happens with the black and colored people is they succumb to lower levels than they are worth and capable of to appease the problem. For example during the separate but equal era black business were booming, Black Wall Street was thriving, and black children were just as smart if not smarter than their other counter parts. Not by choice but because they had to be in order to compete the same is true today but less so. Their education was not monitored and didn’t have to be white washed because it was ran by the people that looked and lived like them. During desegregation the life of American African people changed forever, in some ways for better and other ways for the worse.
Integration was the turning point in the wrong direction for black people in my opinion. This was the start of internalized colonization done by European Americans. The American Africans have become “assimilated” and very docile or “overconformity” as Ruth Caven would say, to European culture. In doing this some black leaders will go out of their way not to step on the toes of European Americans because they feel a closeness and familiarity. This feeling of closeness hinders the ability to call them on the carpet for slavery, segregation, and all the other crimes up to date. In beating around the bush the problem cannot be addressed in any way shape or form. Not talking about
African-Americans have always been labeled as a minority and will be for many, many decades to come. People of African descent have always been ranked lower than the white race in regards to finance, literacy, and success. The period of the American enslavement of Africans lasted for approximately two hundred and fifty years. During this time, they were denied payment for their brutal labor and forbidden from learning to read or write, leaving them severely illiterate. The ramifications of inhibition expanded while their “master” only progressed at the expense of the slaves’ labor. Caucasians built their fortune and educated their children as African-Americans were pushed farther away from that goal every single day. Once slaves were freed in 1865, there was a better life expected, blacks had “rights” now. They had been “taken care of” for all their lives, and now they are in the economic and educational attempting to make a living. Another brutal oppression came forth. “But their social position deteriorated when post Civil War Reconstruction ended and the Southern states began to pass “Jim Crow” laws, which required the segregation of blacks from whites in schools, public transportation, restaurants, and other public places” (Pollard 5). A new man made obstacle was placed on the course to success for African Americans. It was difficult to equivalently compete through the
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United Stated, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid 1960s. Jim Crow was more than just a series of severe anti-Black laws, it became a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. What Jim Crow
During the Civil Rights Era, many black power movements strived to prevent the New Jim Crow from happening. The black man was being oppressed during segregation and treated like animals. The white supremacy, only visualize African Americans as slaves, people who should not be a part of the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X drove men and women to fight for his or her rights. However, that was not enough to stop the white supremacy from oppressing African Americans. The Civil Rights movement did put an end to public segregation. It did not put not put an end to the laws being made by the government, which is dominated by the white race. In the book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander discussed how the Civil Rights and black power movements helped African Americans gain their equal rights, but did not help to gain political power. Mass Incarceration is where the African Americans’ lives end because of the social structure created by the government. Blacks are mostly in the lower class because after the Great Depression, Roosevelt only created laws for whites. This allowed the white community to build and move out the cities into better neighborhoods. Leaving the black community behind. The government placed businesses and built big buildings to keep all the blacks in one place. Base on how the black community was viewed as a race and social status, gives this race a higher chance of being behind bars.
History, especially in regards to issues of race, is a repetitive thing. There are recurring events just with different faces, places, and circumstances consuming the individuals of the communities we live. Once where the black communities started to form their own progressive movements and make a name for themselves in America they are now regressing back to a time where justice for the black community only seems to be something we dream, hope, and fight for. Reading “The Fire this Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race” by Jesmyn Ward made me open my eyes to a different reality one that I think I tried to believe did not exist to appease the fantasy that one day we would all be seen as truly equals. In reality, we are not equals. We live in a world that constantly tries to demean people of
Segregation took a huge toll on African Americans emotionally and ecumenically. Schools where segregated, and black schools where known for being hugely underfunded. So they started off with a bad education, which makes getting jobs harder. This was true even in colleges, which were also segregated. Not only that but because of racism an employer would always hire a white person over a black person. Black people where also generally paid less. Even if a black person got money they where not allowed to live in the same neighborhoods as white people or even go to the same shops. So there was never the possibility of moving up the social later. “He has been a beggar economically, a beggar politically a beggar socially a beggar even when it comes to trying to get some education” (Malcom
Racial disparities and inequality dates all the way back to slavery: when whites abused, raped, tortured and killed black people. “Slavery transformed America into an economic power; the exploitation of black people made the south the richest and most politically powerful region in the country” (ABS). Black people did not have any rights, instead they were forced
That has changed radically today with the emergence of the first black President ever in the United States. African American’s have also, for a majority of the existence of the United States, not been treated as equal citizens to everyone else, particularly to the “white” population. Slavery and segregation have dominated our existence and we have been treated more like property than we have been treated like equals. Our social existence in America was not something that even truly existed until the mid-1960’s. Culturally we always have been faced with hatred from others, particularly the White population, which has caused us to band together as a race and live together in communities of our “own kind”. Our historical segregation meant that no one had ever given us a chance to share our culture with the world. No one ever got a chance to know us. We had to live together, in communities of African American’s that did not have any other mixing of cultures. This has led to widespread ghetto areas that are economically depressed and do not receive any government funding to help better the community.
In summation, the black community went through a lot over the past couple of decades. And as time progressed, the worse it has become. There have been more struggles with many blacks like incarceration rates, poverty levels and denied rights. We as humans would not have a clue to know if society will ever change for the blacks. The progression that we see in our black community is it a lie? Only time can tell us this. Maybe time will regress for the blacks into the slavery
Equality was once a repulsive concept within America, today it seems to be a foregone conclusion. Indeed, we have made so many strides in the way that we view race that it seems a gross misstep every time that it needs to be addressed. Even our President, an African American who overcame tremendous odds to rise to the highest office does not have the answers to our issues with race, rather he calls on us all to “ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.” For most, these questions point to sources outside of themselves, but perhaps there a bit of introspection is the answer. Systematic segregation can
Understanding that the function behind America’s structure and systems isn’t meant for people to be treated equal is helpful. Yes, America holds many racist values/traditions, which is why many, increasing, “find it incongruous to ask black people to adopt and support most of those values. We also reject the assumption that the basic institutions of this society must be preserved. The goal of black people must not be to assimilate into middle-class America, for that class—as a whole—is without a viable conscience in regards humanity. The values of the middle class permit the perpetuation of the ravages of the black community. The values of that class are based on material aggrandizement, not the expansion of humanity” (Ture, 40). Ture contends that such a class system doesn't "lead to the creation of an open society" (40). As a solution, the existing structures are of no use, and the new structures have to “replace those forms or to make them responsive. There is nothing sacred or inevitable about old institutions; the focus must be on people, not forms" (Ture,
In early black History Africans Americans were looked at as an asset or a slave for the benefit of the white folks. This sense of ownership was detrimental in the day to African Americans pride and also their identity. According to History.com “Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone, depriving the African continent of some of its healthiest and ablest men and women”. After slavery was abolished the sense of racial inferiority of the white folks was maintained and preserved by teaching this to everyone thereafter through the media we watch. This strategy of colonialism was sought after to control the thoughts of blacks and whites. Segregation enabled the African American’s to uphold oppositional standpoints and views to counter the effects of racism. In order to try and level out the superiority integrations was enacted. The Brown Vs. Board of education case decision in 1954 made integration possible.
Being a black person within society has never been an easy thing to do. Society has constantly been stereotypical of black people, although blacks have molded history and are very vital to society for the things that have happen throughout history have been big contributions toward modern-day life. African Americans in the 1890’s encountered stereotypes most of which still exist in today’s society. African Americans have come a long way and earned many rights but still live with the destitutions that they had in the 1890’s. Many black people have internalized the negative stereotypes of their race. therefore, internalizing the hatred of their blackness to the fact they began to self-oppress. Due to this internalized racism, many Black result
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
Today many people believe that we have obtained racial equality. However there are multiple reasons and statistics that contradict those arguments . For decades African Americans has been deprived of basic rights, “If America had racial equality in education and jobs, African Americans would have two million more high school degrees…(Raines)”. There are many drastic racial gaps from education to owning property. Throughout America’s history blacks have been limited, when it comes to education, property, and other things. If people truly believe that after four hundred years of enslavement and limited rights, can be fixed within one generation they are wrong. The African American community has faced
Throughout America’s past, racial inequality has been a reoccurring theme in our society. Ever since the Europeans invaded America the white man has been superior compared to all ethnicities. No more than two hundred years ago, African Americans were slaves and only counted as three fifths of a person. Within the past hundred years African Americans have managed to obtain more equality in some situations, but in other cases racial inequality has become worse than it was when segregation took place. The gaps between the quality of education of white and black students receive appears to be growing instead of shrinking. The lack of quality education blacks receive has contributed to significant health differences between