I looked up the word Visual Identity, but I couldn’t find a clear definition of what it really meant. So, I began to ask myself what it means. Visual identity is what we perceive others or ourselves to be. It is almost the same as our judgment or our opinion. Perfect example, I went to the store the other day, and I saw a white man, he was dirty, his hair was not combed, and his clothes were dirty. Looking at him I thought he was homeless, but to my surprise he wasn’t he had just gotten off of work. It’s situations like this that make me wonder is it visual identity that we use as African Americans to access a person’s identity or is it the lack thereof?
In the period following the Reconstruction era, the issue of African American
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Whites believed that Blacks had no right to have be able to read, write, attend school or work. To White Americans giving African Americans a chance anything seemed diabolical to them, and they would do anything to try and stop African Americans from being Equal.
White Americans in the Reconstruction era viewed African Americans by their skin color and they judged them on how they looked. They also disapproved of African Americans trying to achieve literacy. The opportunities that White Americans had were different than those of African Americans. White Americans viewed African Americans as inferior to them. In result, African Americans were not permitted to Civil rights, education, and work. Being viewed by what they looked like held African Americans in bondage.
By the 20th Century African Americans began to break the chains of racial stereotypes. With African Americans starting to work they began to establish a new identity. This new identity that they had established was that they were capable of working just as well as White Americans. However, White Americans still disagreed with African Americans being able to work. These rights that were now available to African Americans brought about a more different and physical racial tension between White Americans and African Americans.
As African Americans were permitted Civil
African-American people have been treated unequally compared to people of European descent. For example, african-americans could not use certain public things like water fountains; when it comes to restaurants, black people had to go to the back to eat. Another thing, black people had to attend different schools than white people furthermore, the schooling was not as good as the others. The way african-americans were treated was not justified in any way at all. To explain, the african-americans probably felt horrible about the mistreatments they experienced. When they had to go to the backs of restaurants it was very inconvenient and they were basically being shamed and ridiculed all day no matter where they went. Some of them weren’t even
Following this African-Americans were always treated as unequal to the white male. They were segregated and found it utterly impossible to gain any ground in society. How could they? African Americans rarely got the opportunity to get an education or have a good job.
The 1930’s started off with a huge economic crash which left the U.S. startled and in the Great Depression. The stock market had just crashed on October 24, 1929, also known as the Wall Street Crash. The “Jazz Age” had just ended and new musicians and artists were slowly rising up to their fame. African American’s were being discriminated against in the south. Many African Americans were farmers who had to suffer from the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl. As a result of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl many African Americans had to go through the struggles of losing their jobs and having to move north in search for a new life. Many Americans had this problem as well, but the racism that was used against Africans, added to the severeness of the situation. African Americans weren’t able to get jobs, homes, or opportunities as easily as African Americans. Many African Americans were in terrible condition and most of it was because of the way that African Americans were treated. After President Roosevelt was elected a new hope had arisen through the country and Africans Americans were given another chance.
In the same way, the issue of racism was more opposed to people and was more openly abused in the past compare to present. African Americans were mistreated, and were slaved for a long time, and they did not have any rights until the 18th century. In 1865 and 1866 Southern states passed a laws called "black codes" which was meant to limit the rights of black and segregate them from whites; however, during the 1865 African American believed that the process of reconstruction would bring equality. The main object of reconstruction was to help African Americans become equal citizens, but reconstruction failed to help them, because the Southerners were not willing to accept the laws that were placed to give rights to the African Americans.
Whites have always considered themselves superior to blacks, no matter if they were slave owners or not. Blacks were considered lower than humans, making them a main target of oppression of whites. So even when a small group of blacks were given their freedom, they weren’t truly liberated from the chains of slavery and oppression. Blacks were freed in the early 1800s, giving a limited amount of blacks the freedom they deserved. These blacks were usually rural, uneducated, and unskilled domestic servants who had to work hard to survive in the society that shunned them. Free blacks were still given restrictions and laws because of their status in society. In the early 1830s, a law in Virginia was made to prohibit all blacks from getting their education. They even took it to the level where free blacks who went out of state to educate themselves were not able to come back and return to their own state. The worst restriction was that blacks could not testify in court. When a slave owner claimed that a free black was their slave, they could not defend themselves, and would have to conform back to their slavery. Despite the terrible treatment given to blacks, some rose above the oppression and became successful, therefore achieving their goals and potentials of being a free black man, leaving a huge impact on society in the 1800s.
They thought that if they were to treat the Blacks as equals then this would encourage interracial relationships. They used violence to keep the Blacks in place and at the bottom of the racial chain. This caused several Jim Crow Laws to be set forth such as a black man could not shake hands with a white man because it meant that they were socially equal. A black man could not also extend a hand or other body part towards a White woman for the fear of being accused of raping her. Blacks and Whites were forbidden from eating together and if they did the
Whites wanted to put fear in the hearts of the blacks so the first thing they thought to do was take physical action. This resulted in lynching, which is the killing of someone by hanging, for an offense with or without the fair justice of a legal trial. They began to do this as a punishment because of the demanding need of social control over the southern states after the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Racial terrorism was at its peak and the whites didn’t want any blacks to have power or justice now or later so then came the publishing of the Jim Crow Laws. These were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern States of the US between 1874 and 1975. Jim Crow Laws were made to further the whites in their superiority and suppress blacks to become nothing. For example, the law of imprisonment stated that, "The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments
With the end of Reconstruction in 1877 white supremacy was still extremely common. White individuals saw themselves as superior to African Americans and people of the lower class. The White politicians had stopped caring about protecting the rights of African Americans. They passed laws which are known as the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws separated whites and African Americans in schools, trains, and even water fountains. The Jim Crow Laws allowed white supremacist to discriminate African Americans by just saying that they were separated but still being treated equally. This was not true, the conditions in which the African Americans were being placed in were not at the same quality as the whites. Since the amendments that gave African Americans rights were still enacted White Supremacists often tried to prevent African Americans from exercising their rights. Whites were also more credible than
Progression of African Americans throughout the 18th and 19th centuries was a struggle. The relationships between blacks and whites were, frustrating and intense, primarily because the concept of reigning in superior positions over African Americans lives in respect to finances, social activities, cultural values or political affiliations has not changed significantly. African Americans fought for equal opportunity and their
The white people believed that they had power and authority, so in this case, the black people were treated unfairly.
From birth whites were born with inalienable rights. They were born with the freedom of self determination and the ability to try and move up their social ladder. During slavery African Americans did not have the same rights as whites. They could not vote, own property,
Many aspects of African-American’s life were segregated from that of the rest of the population. African-Americans could not use the same water fountains or purchase items from the same markets as the “whites”. Certain shops would have a sign in front of them that would inform anyon that may chose to shop there if there race was allowed to be there. Most shops that allowed African-Americans would force them to use the back entrance etc.
African Americans were kept out of the loop of American society. The constant struggles for whatever advantages they could gain. African Americans were the main source of labor; back then black children are forced to work rather than go to school and be educated reading was even forbidden. African Americans have for the most part lost whatever Socially, politically, economically situation they had as a result of Reconstruction very brutally and systematically. African Americans did not attempt to assert themselves in any way, whether it was voting, whether it was trying to buy land, the white South resorted to terrorism. And that terrorism which was a legacy that never stopped from the time of the Civil War all the way up through this
During the nineteenth century, minority groups such as African Americans, Chinese, Mexicans, and Native Americans faced new struggles through means of oppression. Each of these minority groups handled this oppression differently because they each had very different experiences. Whether they came willingly, unwillingly, or were being pushed out of their own land, they were all treated as inferior by whites. To fight the oppression they were facing, they all created communities, fostered a sense of strength and independence, and used that to fight back.
However despite all this adversary and restriction the African American community still managed to facilitate much needed social change and reform which stimulated great cultural change as white Americans were forced to discredit their beliefs of supremacy and dominance over all other races.