The Pursuit Of A Goal By A Minority Oppressed By The Majority

In certainty, the model of racial equality has not always been performed, nor has it been fully accomplished in the world. This is because the acceptance in racial equality has been said to “counter” deeply rooted beliefs in racial inequality and political, legal, and customary practices of racial discrimination and oppression. Therefore, racial equality is stated in antiracist philosophy and in antiracist political mobilization.

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did

Theres is no secret that the blatant civil rights violations imposed on blacks in America through racial segregation laws served as an injustice to all American citizens in the mid-1900s. At the heart of the segregation battle was the obvious mistreatment, both physical and emotional, bestowed onto African Americans by their white counterparts, especially in the South. After decades of harsh mistreatment, African American leaders sought out to challenge, and ultimately change, the laws and legislation drafted by their government centuries before those men and women existed. Though peaceful protests were a common method of action blacks chose to partake in, many of these individuals were met commonly with acts of violence from angry southerners

The United States of America is comprised of citizens who have rights given to them that are explicitly written in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. All of these people exhibit diversity. Some came by choice, others by slavery. They have different religious and political beliefs, different sexual orientations, and different nationalities. Each man or woman has these freedoms given to them by the Constitution. However, public sentiment does not always follow the freedoms outlined in the Constitution. Racial conflict is an example of sentiment reflected in society that has existed for decades upon decades and has always been in the undertones of American society. Racial conflict is the most important and prominent recurring theme in the latter half of American history encompassing negative and positive trends shaping America into the society it embodies today.

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” This quote stated by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, presents us with the idea that in order for people to gain the freedom they desire, they must demand and fight for what they believe in. For as long as the civilization has been around, certain minorities get purposely separated from a larger, more powerful group of people, also known as the majority. When this happens, the minority gets discriminated, segregated, treated unfairly, bossed around, and controlled by the majority who is against them. The minorities then start to realize how this is wrong, unfair, unjust and immoral.

While driving down the road, I see a sign, “Black Lives Matter”, and I ponder on the question to myself, “what equality is there in humanity”. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”( Congress, 1776). I ask myself, at the time the Declaration of Independence was being written, did they forget to disclose the statement,” except for Black people.” The vast majority of social media sources, in 2016 have displayed the slogan, “Black Lives Matter”. I asked myself, have Black lives ever mattered in the United States of America, and what can citizens do to provide inclusion of membership for everyone. The history of the United States has shown racial disparities for over 200 years, and while the emancipation of slaves and the Civil Rights movement has shown some progression towards unity; the divide is apparent in everyday life.

In today’s day and age, the United States of America is seen of as the land where every human being is treated fairly. However, it was not always like this and America was considered to be one of the most racist countries in the world up until the 1980’s. From 1885 to 1968, when the Jim Crow laws were in place, black people were segregated from whites and were treated like second class citizens. However, black people fought for equality all throughout the Jim Crow era and finally succeeded after the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Blacks in the American South sought to improve their lives by supporting and helping white people that had helped them before, by joining the American military, and by protesting against segregation and their rights.

Society has been significantly revolutionized since the beginnings of the United States. The very history of the country has been cursed with racism and the harsh oppression of minorities. In fact, America’s power and economy were founded on a Marxist theory of a two-class system. On the top of that system were the slave owners, and at the very bottom were the slaves themselves (Balkaran, 1999). Slavery and segregation used to be huge components in the lives of Americans. During those times, “Americans” were white, landowning men; obviously that principle has been altered a great deal. People of color, women, and the poor actually have been given suffrage by amendments in the Constitution. Although the United States’ culture and society

The United States of America is known as a country of independence, liberty, and rights; within the lines of our national anthem the Stars Spangled Banner, it is clear to see how the phrases "the land of the free and home of the brave", symbolize the ideals that have been centralized into the American Society for hundreds of years. Despite being recognized as a world power; for its military structure and the "believed" system of possibilities in terms of self advancement, the United States of America houses a very dark and inhumane secret; a sociological failure that perhaps is called that way, given the as a nation, we neglect, fail to address, and persecute those that because of their inherited skin color, look different than the accepted sociological norm of whiteness. It is shameful, to me at least, that the term "American" is a representation of the world 's largest incarceration rate; it’s even more shameful, how we prosecute, isolate, and declare what President Nixon once believed was the proper measure to take on poor communities; the war on drugs. For hundreds of years, we as a country have idealized with what Mustafa Emirbayer & Matthew Desmond have identified in their book Racial Domination, Racial Progress the Sociology of Race in America, as a mistake; mistake that has cost thousands of minorities their reputations and has impacted not only their tranquility, but their overall success rate in the promised land of opportunities.

“No one is born hating another person because the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela. In today’s society, minorities deal with racial issues such as racial profiling, racial bullying in institutions, and because of these racial attitudes, groups and movements have formed due to these acts. To this day, society is still burdened with many people who do not fully grasp the concept of equality; because of this, outdated racial attitudes are still an ongoing issue in modern society.

In this paper I will be discussing the Constitution and Civil Rights. Both are vital to our nation’s strong beliefs that we, as Americans, deserve equal rights and a strong government. In the United States, we all want to have a nation that we can trust and will give us our unalienable rights, no matter the skin tone or gender. So why, in 2016, do women and people of color still fight for equal treatment?

Two years before the long and hard fought senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, President John F. Kennedy declared, “Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves, but in this century, our Negro citizens have emancipated themselves”1. With this simple statement President John F. Kennedy addressed one of the oldest and most current issues of our nation, the blatant line between the Caucasian population and the other minorities that reside in the United States of America. The racial divide in America has existed long before the beginning of America’s struggle for independence and persists today as demonstrated recent events such as the building of the wall on the United States/Mexico border. Though it hasn’t always provided the anguished minorities with chains, shackles, and whips there has been a copious amount of major periods of time in which there was a great division and sense of hostility throughout the nation. One of the most significant times is the Civil Rights Movement and the Senate Debate on Civil Rights Act of 1964 took place during this time and is the defining topic of this paper.

Our nation struggles with many things, including internal strife as well as external physical brawls. America is known for its ever increasing debt and housing many struggling Americans. However, there is one thing we persistently fail to change: racial injustice. Try as we might, age old sentiments have ingrained themselves into the minds of many, preventing the change we require. It is a war we have fought for many centuries, hoping to see a change that has yet to occur. As time has gone on, some ideas have never left despite the progress towards moral justice.

In Malcom X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and SDS’s “Port Huron Statement,” they all have a similar goal and that’s to argue about the unfair rights given to minorities. As a citizen in America, principles of equality must be given to everyone according to the American Creed. “The American Creed” is an American Universalism, which the United States as the government for the people must establish these principles of freedom, equality and justice. “The American Creed,” strongly reflects the three historical and intellectual contexts in defining American justice. These three intellectuals justify that if the American Creed is to support all people in American society, then it should also represent the people of color.

The fight for the abolition of slavery was a big battle but the one for racial segregation was a bitter one. “Race should not be a source of power or advantage or disadvantage for anyone in a free society” (Steele, page509). It is quite difficult to understand that America a nation of freedom, liberty and opportunities could have allowed some people to be oppressed. Even in the court of law the injustice persisted. “Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).