The Racism Of African Americans

The Condemnation of Blackness by Kahlil Gibran Muhammad outlines the struggles and tribulations that African Americans had to face after the American Civil War. The book gives specific accounts as to why African Americans were deemed “The New Problem” and how that changed, highlighting discrimination of African Americans as the real problem. Muhammad also focuses of on the work done by social scientist, criminologist, libertarians, activist of both black and white races and how their work affected the African American people and their place in society as a whole. Muhammad also explains how the labeling of blacks as criminals has had an influence on our society today.

African Americans have suffered from racism in so many horrific ways! They have been used in ways unexplainable to the mind. Whether it was through sexual abuse or dating all the way back to slavery times. However, in today’s society African Americans are still being affected by racism not only in a physical, emotional, and mental manner but, also in their way of living. How would you feel if you were judged by the color of your skin to the point where you can’t even make a living?

Being born in Columbia, SC and moving to a small town called Lancaster, I identity as being African American, although many perceive me to me biracial. Many people would ask if I were mixed or adopted because I looked distinctly different than my mother. My mother is a very chocolate lady while my father looks almost Caucasian with his very sandy brown hair. As many African Americans are stereotyped as not having a father figure in their life, my father was indeed in my life but he did not play a key part. My mother on the other hand is not your typical “black” mother.

African Americans have always been degraded ever since slavery. We are looked upon as the scum of the earth. In today’s society, racism is shown towards African Americans the U.S. strongly. Especially when it comes to prison. African Americans are in prison darn near six times the rate of whites. African Americans and Hispanics make up 58% of prisoners in prison. This data was taken back in 2008 but statistics show that there are more African American men in college than in prison. This chart shows the number of African American in college outweighs the number of African Americans in prison. These results also show that the negative thing society says about African Americans is becoming less and less true each day.

Although African Americans were making progress with civilization, the ignorance of Europeans sparked the beginning of various studies. These studies focused on African Americans and there was an emphasis placed on categorizing people according to race. Going back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europeans weren't fond of African Americans–most Europeans considered African Americans to be repulsive and inferior. Religious writings were used as evidence to support the inferiority of African Americans; dark skin and slavery were a proclamation from God; Africans were deemed to be the ancestors of a cursed biblical figure; and the Babylonian Talmud held that blackness and slavery were direct punishments for disobeying God. After attempts

In today 's society, it seems like history is repeating itself when it comes to police brutality against African Americans. I can’t breathe advertisement was created to increase the awareness of excessive force, which can cause death. After the Eric Gardner case, the “I can’t breathe” slogan was created and was even printed on t-shirts. People had mixed reactions towards the campaign and opinions were heard. Wal-Mart had to take down their ad simply because the black man said, “I can’t breathe”, which caused people to be overly sensitive about the subject. This caused controversy, stating that the ad shouldn’t been more aware of the sensitive topic.

In Clint Smith’s “How to raise a black son in America” and Vernā Myers “How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them” they discuss very bravely and boldly the problems African Americans face in our society.

Racism against African American peoples has been present in America, even before its founding, and it continues on to present day. To put it simply, racism is the belief that the race of a person determines their personality and what they are capable of. It is also the belief that because of these differences, certain races are better than others. The presence of racism can be seen in many different ways in present day America, through police violence, the existence of the Ku Klux Klan, the existence of white privilege, and the Black Lives Matter movement. All of these topics will be covered in this paper.

As black people, we all have at least one characteristic of our experience that is relatable to another black persons. Whether it be a saying our parents used growing up like “You better stop crying before I give you something to cry about” or a dish that is made in close to all of our households. Although I believe that there are relatable characteristics of our black experiences, I can truly say that we are all exactly similar in one aspect, being black.

I learned that most people of African descent won’t usually categorize themselves as African or African American but will rather characterize themselves as another nationality based on the area they are born or the nationality that they are most comfortable being assimilated to. For example in the movie there was a black man who closely related himself to being hispanic on the basis that he also speaks spanish. Another example, a White man who was born and who lived in Africa for a short time, then moved to the United States considers himself to be an African american, which makes sense considering he was born on the continent of Africa, and most closely relates to the area in which he was born.

Racism is an unpleasant defect left on the American people, a painful reminder of the gaping wound inflicted by the horror and inhumanity of the African slave trade that began in the 1500s. Although, there has been a great deal of proceed made in the century and half since slavery was officially disguised by the united states government in the form of Abraham Lincoln’s independence Proclamation in 1860, it has by no means disappeared. It still rears its distasteful head even today in myriads forms, including the snowball effect it has had upon many sides of the lives of black people even today. Although we now have many nationally visible black citizens and have even gone so far as to put a black president in the white house, we

Racism against African Americans is something that needs to change. People of all races especially blacks are dying, cops are shooting black people with no remorse in broad daylight and they are acting like they are above the law. Officers are also being recorded while these shootings have been happening and they still continue. These kind of acts are tearing the African American communities apart and they are being affected in a very negative way. We the people are not acting out the way our forefathers vision of what we know as the American dream. This is not the way we are supposed to live but most people have learned a specific way of life, which may or may not be the ‘civilized’ way, and does not care for change or trying to change themselves.

In the United States, there has been a steady increase immigration over the past few decades. With this pattern, black immigrants have also steadily entered in to the United States, though not at as fast a rate as Asian and Latino migrants. With this immigration, a growing number of the black population is foreign born, especially in regions in the Northeast of the United States, immigrating from the Caribbean, African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and Cape Verde to name a few, and regions of Latin America. Although both native and foreign born black peoples fall within the African diaspora, they are vastly different. Despite the differences, black people are generally lumped together both officially in the U.S. census and population statistics, and unofficially through socialized categorizations. Delving even deeper into both native and foreign black populations leads to more distinctions regarding class, gender, region, education, sexuality, and age. However,

The dichotomy that exists among blacks in America is a gaping hole – too many have left their fate to politicians and other media personalities to bridge the gap in their personal lives, and have gotten nothing in return for investing that trust. Which brings me to this point:

The origin of the word “nigger” driven from the word “Negroid” which is trade. It was used by slave owners and, later, segregationist. It is highly offensive for a white man to use the word “nigger” to describe or insult an African American. It also has become widely used within the black community in a diversity of ways, both endearing and insulting. According to the article, “All about that troublesome word...” by Kennedy, Randall, stated, “In Detroit in 2007, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ceremonially buried the word "nigger." However, the word "nigger" remains very much alive in today’s society. In the same article the author also mentioned, President Barack Obama interview on June 2015, the president said, “Racism remains a major problem whether or not "nigger" is used in public.” Therefore, people should stop using cruel racial words and should create a positive environment for the coming generation.