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How Did Slavery Still Impact People Of The African Diaspora?

Decent Essays

Throughout American history, the exploitation of Africans and members of the diaspora continues as a controversial topic among cultural critics. Discussions on whether the sentiments of slavery still impact people of the African diaspora is intricate. Furthermore, the marginalization of people of the African Diaspora continues to complexify the issue. Social concepts in modern America such as education, nationhood, fact making, discrimination, racism, systematic oppression, etc. all relate back to history, specifically slavery. Ultimately, European’s dehumanization, exploitation, and demoralization of African slaves during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continues to negatively impact Black Americans and people of the African Diaspora today. After Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Hispaniola (Dominican Republic), many explorers across Europe entered the New World in hopes of finding valuable resources such as gold and sugar. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sugar was a popular commodity in Europe, and the Americas had an ample supply. In efforts to produce more sugar Europeans enslaved Africans to collect and cultivate these sugar canes. While the discovery of the New World was beneficial to Europeans, it proved hazardous to indigenous people and later the African people transported there. Early on, before Africans had even reached the New World, Europeans began to mentally and strategically break them. Gomez notes that “Europeans entered

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